Hello! In this article we will talk about promotions to attract customers.

Today you will learn:

• How to conduct promotions for;
• What types of shares exist and how to come up with a share;
• How to calculate stock performance.

What are “shares” and why are they needed?

During the height of the economic crisis in the country, the issue of attracting new customers faces almost every enterprise. The situation is aggravated by the high level in almost all areas of business.

In such harsh conditions, entrepreneurs are forced to resort to the most stringent measures to attract customers. One of these measures is sales promotion.

Sales promotion – a promotion tool aimed at short-term increase in demand with the help of various promotions that stimulate purchases.

Promotions will allow you to achieve the following goals:

• Short-term increase in sales volumes;
• Capture market share for a long time;
• Attracting new consumers:
• Poaching consumers from competitors;
• Stimulating large volumes of purchases;
• Retaining loyal consumers.

Advantages:

• Drawing attention to the company, brand and product;
• Providing information about the product and company to potential consumers;
• Significant increase in sales during the promotion period;
• Quick consumer response to stimulating effects;
• Sales focus.

Flaws:

• The short-term impact, as a rule, increases sales only for the duration of the promotion;
• Often have a negative impact on the image of the organization. If a high-level company begins to sell goods at a discount of more than 70%, it loses wealthy buyers and attracts those who are ready to purchase products only at discounts;
• Significantly reduces company profits. A discount of even 5% has a painful impact on the company’s profits, which we will talk about a little later.

If these shortcomings don’t scare you, then let’s move on.

Promotion strategy development process

Any activity to attract visitors must begin with developing a strategy. Stocks are no exception.

The process of developing a sales promotion strategy includes the following stages:

• Formation of sales promotion goals;
• Identifying suitable stocks, which we will talk about a little later;
• Development of an incentive program: designation of the timing of the promotion, determination of the amount of the incentive (budget), determination of the conditions for participation in the promotion, methods of promotion and distribution of the incentive package, development of a mechanism for responding to the promotion, preliminary testing;
• Practical implementation of the incentive program through the use of various promotions;
• Evaluation of results.

Types of promotions to attract customers

At the moment, there are a very large number of different stock options.

The choice of one or another means of sales promotion depends on the following factors:

• Specifics of activity.
• Product type. For example, let's say you sell wedding dresses. It would be strange to give a second when buying one;
• Store format and location. For example, we own a stall selling pies at the station. There are three more similar stalls next to us. To attract consumers, we decided to hold a promotion. As a gift to a random lucky winner, we are providing a coupon for one free pie per day for a month. However, 90% of our consumers are passing through this place and they will not be interested in this promotion, and it will not help us resolve the issue with competitors;
• Activities of competitors in this area;
• Financial capabilities of the company;
• Purposes of the action.

Determine each of these parameters for yourself. Have you determined? Then let's move on to the types of shares.

Discounts

Discounts are the most popular and easiest way. Buyers are happy to buy goods with red price tags. The more you lower the price, the more purchases you will get. But be careful. Every percentage of the price hurts the margin of your products.

During the month of discounts, sales volume increased by 20% and amounted to 148 pies or 2,664 rubles. The pie margin for the promotion period was: 18-17.3 = 0.7 rubles.

Let's calculate the profit received during the month of the promotion: 0.7 * 148 = 103.6 rubles. Thus, thanks to discounts, we lost 209.4 rubles in profit with an increase in purchases by 20%.

Make it a rule to carry out such calculations before introducing a discount system.

Human psychology is designed in such a way that he practically does not notice a price reduction of less than 15%. Therefore, a discount of 5 or 10% will not lead to a significant increase in demand.

Discount forms:

• Seasonal sales;
• Discounts for large volume purchases;
• Discounts in honor of a special occasion (customer’s birthday, store opening date, etc.);
• Discounts for purchasing a certain category of products.
• Discount on defective goods;
• Discount on “product of the day”;
• Discount when purchasing in;
• “Bring a friend” discount.

Please note that the introduction of any discount must be tied to a specific occasion. If you simply lower your prices, the consumer will think about the quality of your product. It is discounts that tend to negatively affect the image of an organization if they are applied ineptly.

Gifts for purchase

This is also a very popular type of promotion. You can give away both your own products and those of your partners for purchase. In the first case, you will again have to calculate the change in sales volumes and profits so as not to go into the negative. But the second option is very tempting.

Find a partner company that needs to promote its product or brand and offer cooperation.

Example. Since the idea of ​​discounts at our pies stall failed, we decided to give gifts for purchases. To do this, we agreed with the store opposite that we would attract our customers to their outlet by issuing them a coupon to receive free tea from them. The store agrees, since the likelihood that a visitor will buy some product from them by going for free tea is very high.

Types of “gift with purchase” promotion:

• The second lowest priced product is free;
• Bonus from partners;
• Lottery;
• Discount card for purchase.

Loyalty cards

Almost everyone has several cards from their favorite stores in their wallet. They allow the buyer to benefit from shopping in this store.

The following forms of discount cards are distinguished:

• Discount cards– provide the client with a fixed discount. It does not change during the use of this card. Aimed at retaining visitors and linking them to the outlet;
• Savings cards– often the amount of benefit depends on the total quantity of goods purchased in monetary terms. The more you bought during the entire period of using the card, the greater your discount. Aimed at increasing the number of purchases and retaining customers;
• Club card– provided to special customers, for example, for a large purchase volume. It carries certain privileges, including: the opportunity to participate in promotions, permanent discounts, gifts.

You can’t just give out cards; time their donation to coincide with some event or set conditions.

Here are some options for you:

• Store birthday;
• Large purchase volume;
• Issuance of discount cards to first visitors;
• Issuance of cards for participation in the competition;
• Selling cards.

Competitions and giveaways

This type of stock is actively gaining momentum. Hold a prize draw, come up with a competition, the winners of which will receive your products as a gift. This will allow you to increase company awareness and consumer loyalty.

There are two types of competitions:

• Related companies. In this case, the buyer must purchase a certain quantity of goods to receive a surprise. For example, buy 10 bottles of soda to collect the caps from them and get a prize. Aimed at increasing demand and attracting attention to the company;
• Unrelated to product. The consumer performs a task without having to purchase the company's product. For example, a consumer must write a story about their day at school in order to receive a free school supply kit.

Tasting

As a rule, it is carried out in large supermarkets. Moreover, this type of promotion is aimed not so much at increasing the sales volume of the product being tasted, but at increasing the sales volume of the supermarket as a whole. According to statistics, consumers who have tried a product buy 25% more than they planned in that store.

We will talk about calculating the effectiveness of this type of promotion a little later.

How to come up with a promotion to attract customers

To come up with a promotion to attract customers, you need to go through the following steps:

• Define your advertising campaign goals. What do you want to achieve? Increasing sales, increasing customer loyalty, attracting new customers or retaining existing ones. Write down all your goals;
• Determine the participants of the marketing campaign. Who exactly do you want to influence, who will influence it, who will control its implementation. Discounts can scare away wealthy clients from your company and attract consumers in the middle and low price segment. A club card may have the opposite effect. Promoters, salespeople, and customer service managers can influence consumers. The entire process will be controlled by a director or administrator. All personnel involved in carrying out the action must be trained: familiarized with the conditions, given instructions.
• Determine the motives of each participant. The consumer is interested in additional benefits, the seller is interested in premiums or bonuses for good results, the administrator is interested in fulfilling the plan, increasing sales volume. Correctly identifying the motives of each participant will allow you to effectively manage the process.
• Work to identify your customers' needs. What exactly might interest them?
• Think about when your promotion will be most relevant. For example, ice cream in winter will not cause such a stir among consumers as gingerbread cookies and hot chocolate.
• Decide on the type of promotion. It directly depends on the one for which you are holding the promotion. It is also important to determine the value of the gift. Remember that a large number of small bonuses attract consumers more than a few expensive gifts.
• Make the terms of participation in the promotion clear and short, otherwise the client will suspect deception or simply will not study your proposal. There shouldn't be too many conditions.
• Communicate with your consumer, answer his questions, play with him. This way you will gain precious trust.

Analysis of the effectiveness of the campaign

We have already discussed how to evaluate the effectiveness of discounts; evaluation of the effectiveness of the implementation of loyalty cards, gifts and competitions is carried out in the same way.

Remember that an increase in sales does not at all guarantee an increase in profits, because you lose on a discount or gift. In this case, when calculating efficiency, the gift should be considered as a discount (the cost of the gift = the amount of the discount).

Example. For the purchase of 5 pies at a time, we give chewing gum. The promotion will last one week. The price of chewing gum is 2 rubles. Let's assume that only those who initially wanted to buy them will buy the fifth pie, and we have 10 out of 50 people a week. Thus, thanks to the promotion, sales volume will increase by 200 rubles or 10 pies. Our margin before the promotion was 2.7 rubles. The sales volume before the promotion was 90 pies. We calculate the profit for the week before the promotion 90 * 2.7 = 2 43 rubles.

Let's calculate how much additional profit we will receive from the promotion: 2.7 * 10 = 27 rubles. And we will lose: 2*10 = 20 rubles. Thus, the promotion will allow us to increase profits by only 7 rubles.

Now let's learn how to calculate the effectiveness of tastings.

Let's say we are conducting a tasting of our pies. The promotion will run for 2 days, 3 hours a day. The price of our product is 20 rubles. The cost is 17.3 rubles.

We plan to reach an audience of 20 people. The number of pies required is 20 pieces. In addition, we need a tray costing 200 rubles and a package of napkins costing 30 rubles.

Thus, the cost of carrying out the campaign will be 576 rubles.

Let's calculate using the formula: Break-even point = total costs/margin = 576/2.7 = 213 pies. We will have to sell this number of pies based on the results of the tasting.

According to the rule of information dissemination, everyone who tastes the pie will tell three of their friends about the product, and each of these three will tell three more.

Thus, the maximum number of buyers who will come to the stall based on the results of the tasting will be 180 people. We don’t know how many pies they will buy, but according to pessimistic calculations (everyone will buy only one pie), this number of buyers is not enough. The project is risky.

Examples of the best stocks

Promotion at the airport.

A couple of years ago, an American airline held a raffle for travel packages. The conditions were as follows: a person waiting for a flight was asked to press a button, after which the computer randomly determined the country to which the lucky person would go. In this case, all travel expenses were paid by the airline.

Free lunch.

One of the Chinese sites ran an interesting promotion. For a month, every hour for 1.5 seconds a button appeared on the resource page, by clicking on which the lucky person received a free lunch. By the way, the number of site visitors increased 4 times this month.

An example from Russia.

The Moscow Geocafe holds a promotion every day. Its conditions are as follows: at 18:00 Moscow time, a drawing for a free dinner was held between cafe visitors. The winner was determined randomly. Second and third places were also determined and received a bottle of wine and a 50% discount on their order, respectively.

Promotion in the store.

In one of the Vilnius denim stores, the following promotion was held: all customers who came without pants were given free jeans of their choice. As a result, on the day of the promotion, a line of freebie lovers lined up in the store. However, be careful with such promotions, otherwise you may face legal consequences.

discount reward incentive sale

By its commercial nature, a discount can be one of two types:

• 1) planned discount;
• 2) tactical discount.

Planned discounts are formed from the total amount of overhead costs and are usually so disguised that they are sometimes called “disguised”. It is this kind of discount that can be attributed to the organization of companies that sell these products. Thus, the manufacturing company actually saves its dealers’ money on advertising their trade names, which by economic nature is equivalent to providing them with an additional discount.

Other types of discounts can be classified as tactical. They are united by an economic source - profit, as well as a common task - creating additional incentives for the buyer to make a purchase.

The use of tactical discounts leads to a reduction in the actual purchase price of a product and, accordingly, to an increase in the buyer's premium.

Let's look at the main types of discounts.

Types of discounts

Discount for cash payment- price reduction for buyers who promptly pay bills in cash. The buyer who pays within 10 days receives a three percent reduction from the payment amount. This discount can also be applied partially, for example, only for a percentage of the entire amount received within 30 days.

With a larger supply volume or more expensive equipment, this type of discount can greatly activate the local counterparty, who is interested in selling faster and receiving their considerable income.

Such discounts are widely used to improve the liquidity of the supplier/seller, the rhythm of its cash receipts and reduce costs in connection with the collection of receivables.

Discount for the volume of purchased goods- proportionate reduction in price for buyers purchasing large quantities of similar goods. Typically, the discount is set as a percentage of the total cost or unit price of a specified volume of supply, for example, a 10% discount for orders over 1000 pieces. Discounts may be offered on a non-cumulative basis (per order placed) or on a cumulative basis (per number of items ordered over a given period).

Quantity discounts should be offered to all customers, but in this case the supplier/seller must ensure that the amount of discounts does not exceed its cost savings due to increased volumes of goods sold. These savings can be achieved by reducing the costs of selling (trade processing), warehousing, maintaining inventory and transporting goods.

General (simple) discount is provided at list or reference price and is usually 20 - 30%, and in some cases up to 40%. Such discounts are widely practiced when concluding transactions on machinery and equipment, in particular on standard types of equipment.

Discounts from reference price are also used in the supply of industrial raw materials and average 2 - 5%.

TO simple discount One can refer to the discount provided when purchasing goods in cash - “cash discount”. It is given to sellers in cases where the reference price includes short-term credit and the buyer agrees to pay in cash. This discount is usually 2 - 3% of the reference price or corresponds to the loan interest rate on the financial market.

Discount for turnover, bonus discount (bonus), is provided to regular customers on the basis of a special power of attorney. In this case, the contract establishes a scale of discounts, depending on the turnover achieved during a certain period (usually one year), as well as the procedure for paying amounts based on these discounts. For some types of equipment, bonus discounts reach 15-30% of turnover, and for raw materials and agricultural goods they are usually calculated at several percent.

Functional discount. Manufacturers offer functional discounts (also known as retailer discounts) to those participants in the distribution process who perform certain functions in the sale of goods, their storage and record keeping. Manufacturers may offer different functional discounts to different sales channels because they provide different types of services to them, but by law, manufacturers must offer the same functional discounts to all members of a given channel.

Progressive discount- a discount for quantity or serialization is provided to the buyer subject to the purchase of a predetermined and increasing quantity of goods. Serial orders are of interest to manufacturers, since the production of the same type of product reduces production costs.

Dealer discount provided by manufacturers to their permanent representatives or sales intermediaries, including foreign ones. These discounts are common on cars, tractors and some standard equipment. Dealer discounts on cars vary depending on the make of the car and average 15 - 20% of the retail price.

Special discounts (extra discount) are provided to privileged buyers in whose orders sellers are particularly interested. The category of special discounts also includes discounts for trial lots and orders (discount for a trial lot), intended to interest the buyer, and discounts for the regularity or stability of orders (discount for a regular purchases), with the help of which manufacturers seek to retain a regular clientele.

Export rebates provided by sellers when selling goods to foreign buyers in addition to the discounts that apply to buyers on the domestic market. Their goal is to increase the competitiveness of a particular product in the foreign market.

Discount for off-season purchases- a measure of reduction in the standard selling price, which is guaranteed to the buyer if he purchases goods of seasonal demand outside the period of the year for which they are intended. The purpose of using discounts for off-season purchases is to encourage buyers to purchase these goods before the start of the next season, at the very beginning of it, or even out of season. This ensures faster asset turnover and allows manufacturers of seasonal goods to reduce seasonal fluctuations in the utilization of their production facilities.

With a well-established system of seasonal discounts, manufacturers have the opportunity to organize and complete the production of goods for the next season long before it begins and promptly begin preparations for the manufacture of products for the next season. The amount of seasonal discounts is usually quite small and is determined by:

• 1) on the part of the buyer - the amount of costs for storing the goods purchased in advance before the start of the sales season (including fees for loans attracted for this purpose);
• 2) on the part of the manufacturer - the amount of costs and losses that he would have to incur if the manufactured goods were stored until the start of the season in his own warehouses, and production was either stopped due to the deadening of working capital in finished product inventories, or was maintained through additionally attracted loans to replenish working capital.

Consequently, the amount of discounts should provide the buyer with savings greater than the increase in his costs of storing goods until the seasonal increase in demand. On the other hand, the manufacturer can provide such discounts - for an amount no greater than the amount of its losses due to the slowdown in capital turnover as a result of storing goods in its own warehouses before the start of the season and not receiving sales revenue.

Discount for expediting payment. The main objective of discounts for accelerating payment is to reduce the repayment period of receivables and accelerate the turnover of the company's working capital. Therefore, this commercial tool can be attributed to a greater extent to the sphere of management than pricing itself. But since such discounts are set in relation to prices, price specialists, together with financiers and accountants, traditionally determine them.

A discount for accelerating payment is a measure of reducing the standard selling price, which is guaranteed to the buyer if he makes payment for the purchased batch of goods before the deadline established by the contract.

The payment acceleration discount scheme includes three elements:

• 1) the actual quantitative amount of the discount;
• 2) the period during which the buyer has the opportunity to take advantage of such a discount;
• 3) the period during which payment of the entire debt amount for the delivered consignment of goods must be made, if the buyer does not exercise the right to receive a discount for accelerated payment.

Accordingly, in contracts for the supply of goods such a discount can be written in the following form: “2/10, net 30” (or in the English version - “2/10, n/30”). And this will mean that the buyer is obliged to make full payment for the goods delivered to him within 30 calendar days from the date of receipt. But if he makes the payment within the first 10 days of this period, he has the right to automatically reduce the payment amount by 2%, i.e., take advantage of a discount for accelerating payment.

The rate for accelerating payment is usually determined by two factors:

• 1) the level of such rates traditionally established in a given market;
• 2) the level of bank interest rates for loans to replenish working capital.

The connection between the discount for accelerating payment and the price of credit resources is quite logical. If a manufacturer cannot achieve acceleration of repayment of accounts receivable, then it has to replenish its working capital mainly through credit. Accelerating payment for shipped goods reduces the need to raise funds and provides savings by reducing the amount of interest payments.

However, usually the level of discount for accelerating payment is significantly higher than the price of credit resources. Let's say the above "2/10, net 30" rate, which is fairly typical of global trading practice, is actually equivalent to an effective annual interest rate of 36%. And this is significantly higher than the cost of a loan in most developed countries of the world, where the annual inflation rate does not exceed 10% (for example, in 1996, loan rates in European countries were about 7-8%).

Discounts to encourage new product sales. Such discounts can be considered as an addition to planned discounts that help promote a new product to the market. As a rule, such discounts in the form of financing a national advertising campaign indicating the names of the trading companies selling the product are not enough. For example, they can actually buy the mentioned product in their city (district). Therefore, dealers and end sellers have to conduct their own advertising campaigns using local media outlets (whose advertising rates are usually lower than those in the national press or national television). This gives them the opportunity to indicate the addresses of their stores in such advertising, which actually provides an increase in sales.

Discount to encourage sales- a measure of reducing the standard selling price, which is guaranteed to resellers if they take for sale new goods, the promotion of which to the market requires increased costs for advertising and the services of sales agents.

Discounts for complex purchases of goods. Many firms that sell lines of complementary products use a special type of discount to encourage customers to purchase several products from that line, i.e., bundled purchasing.

A discount for the complex purchase of goods is a measure of reducing the standard selling price, which is guaranteed to the buyer if he purchases this product along with other complementary goods of this company.

The logic of such a discount is that the price of each product in the set is lower than with an isolated purchase, even from the same company.

Often, such a set of goods covered by a discount for complexity also includes goods that are not produced by a given company. For example, companies that sell copiers allow customers to purchase them along with more paper, which ends up being cheaper than purchasing them separately. Similarly, computer companies now include a large set of software in their delivery package to customers, both already recorded on a hard drive and located on a CD-ROM (if the computer has a device for reading such discs).

Discounts for “faithful” or prestigious buyers. A special type of discounts found in commercial practice are discounts for “faithful” or prestigious buyers. Such discounts, as their name suggests, are provided to customers who:

• 1) regularly make purchases from this company over a long period of time;
• 2) belong to the “prestigious” category, which allows them to use the fact of their purchase of this product for its advertising.

These discounts are provided on a purely individual basis and can be issued, for example, in the form of personal buyer cards. Many European food supermarkets have now begun to issue such cards.

As for discounts for “prestigious” buyers, they are most often not advertised and remain a secret of bargaining between the seller and such buyer. The reason for such secrecy is the fact that this type of discount is the most blatant manifestation of price discrimination, which is generally inherent in the discount mechanism.

Meanwhile, the legislation of many countries categorically prohibits price discrimination. This forces firms to disguise the discounts they use and to come up with economic reasons why such discounts should not be considered price discrimination.

Discounts for quality. Unfortunately, quite often manufacturers do not show sufficient flexibility in meeting the requirements and offers of the market in terms of packaging, packaging, labeling, technical and operational characteristics of individual units, parts, etc. This negatively affects both sales volume and price.

Once established, a low price is difficult to change, especially in the minds of end consumers. Appropriate Marketing Technique

consists of providing a discount for completing the work to adapt the product to market requirements. In practice, this is a fairly common case of industrial cooperation. It is important to understand that by providing such a discount, the supplier achieves only a temporary result (lower export price - net), but secures positions for its real increase after solving its production problems.

Discounts for returning previously purchased goods from this company(in the amount of 25 - 30% of the list price) are provided to the buyer when he returns an outdated model product previously purchased from this company. Such discounts apply to the sale of automobiles, electrical equipment, rolling stock, standard industrial equipment, etc.

Discounts on the sale of used equipment. In different countries there are opportunities to profitably purchase used machines, mechanisms and other equipment. If, in addition, the maintenance is well organized, then such a purchase is a reasonable alternative to buying new equipment. You can work with new equipment for a long time, while operating costs are low. Prices for used equipment are sometimes up to 50% or more of the original price of the product.

Service discounts. A significant part of industrial products requires maintenance during operation. Unfortunately, many manufacturers underestimate the importance of this factor in the struggle for markets. A service discount is preferred to creating and maintaining an effective service network, which requires significant investment and effort. This approach to solving the problem would be acceptable if it were possible to monitor the implementation of additional functions by the recipient and a way to assess the effectiveness of such a discount. Often, the provision of a service discount reflects, rather, the manufacturer’s neglect of its own economic interests.

Club discounts. There are many national and international discount clubs around the world that provide their members with “club price discounts” on services and goods. Members of such clubs can be individuals and legal entities, and there is associated membership. The latter is essentially a sophisticated version of a serious hidden agent sales network based on international discount programs.

National and international clubs issue and sell licenses to service enterprises and shops, which undertake to provide price discounts to club members, such discounts are especially common for transportation, car rental, hotel and restaurant services, and insurance. For club members, there are entire chains of stores selling industrial and other everyday goods at discounts.

Special clubs are aimed at wealthy clients, generating an elite society, where they provide significant discounts on luxury goods and non-traditional services, for example, VIP services.

The main incentive for an enterprise to participate in the discount (club) program is a significant increase in annual turnover due to an increase in sales volume, but with a slight decrease in the profitability of a single transaction.

Club members pay entrance and annual fees, receive a plastic personalized club card, as well as a regional directory of enterprises and stores that offer discounts on goods and services.

The directories provide the names and addresses of sellers providing such discounts, the size of these discounts and conditions (for example, the purchase of two or more types of goods and services), and the type of payment. Upon presentation of the card, a club member receives a price discount from 10 to 50 percent or more upon purchase.

Discounts taking into account intercultural communications. In practical activities, marketing faces a very important circumstance, which should be attributed to the so-called cultural differences, which is also the subject of marketing research. In Arab, some Balkan countries and some Transcaucasian republics, during trade negotiations it is considered a matter of honor to achieve a large discount on the offer price. And although this circumstance is associated with a complex of Eastern mentality, many importers will not sign an agreement that does not contain a provision on discounts generally exceeding 20 - 30% of the proposed price. Since this fact is known in the marketing and trading environment, some companies consider it necessary to first artificially inflate prices by the expected percentage, and then present it with a discount specified in the contract.

This practice of negotiating price and the peculiar Eastern approach to discounting do not correspond to the philosophy and concepts of market activity of American companies. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission has long been in force, restricting sellers from arbitrary price increases unless they result in real additional benefits for consumers. However, this does not prevent American companies from taking into account the different approaches and pricing policies of the companies with which they trade, and the specifics of the markets they are targeting.

And stimulating demand, therefore, let's consider. The main purpose of providing discounts- is to attract the attention of a large number of buyers and make these customers permanent. If there is a service sector or a network of retail enterprises, the struggle for customer loyalty becomes an integral part of the organization’s marketing strategy. In addition, pricing stimulates sales of new or slow-selling products, and also allows you to optimally distribute the flow of customers throughout the day.

Discount on a product or purchase?

“If, then...” discount and unconditional discount

The purchase amount on the check exceeded a certain amount of money. This type of discount allows you to stimulate the customer’s desire to “add some product to the cart” up to a certain amount.

Discounts based on day of the week or time of day. With this type of discount, you can properly distribute the flow of customers in the store. For example: in large cities, “sleeping” areas are most active for shopping from 17:00 to 21:00 in the evening. Therefore, by providing a relatively small discount from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., we will be able to move some consumers from rush hour to another time interval. As a result, we will achieve uniform use of production capacity, and will also attract new customers who previously did not want to enter the store due to rush hour and huge queues.

Discount on payment type (for example, a discount is provided when paying with webmoney).

There is such a type of discount as for the quantity of goods. In practice, this can be observed in the example of the “3 for the price of 2” offer.

Discount on set. In this case, a discount is provided if the entire purchase amount includes a specific type of product.

Discounts are no longer relevant!

Main types of discounts “with a human face”

Main types of discounts as means of payment

Discounts at the discretion of the client

Automation

Discussed above main types of discounts and the procedure for their application, are available to any consumer in various stores, and you have the right to use them.

Here is another question on which I see confusion both in the heads and in the price lists of companies.
How will this mess smooth out? I will give a non-fictional dialogue. I think it’s very recognizable, isn’t it?

Dialogue between Selsa and Nach. sales department:

Sereg, TransTech is asking for a discount... an additional one.
- So what? How much does he have?
- minus 7%
- Wow! how does he take it and how does he pay?
- He takes it normally, there’s a price for 200 thousand here.
- on credit?
- Well, yes, that’s how he takes it. We’ll give it, he says, he’ll take more of a discount.
- but he pays, how does he pay?
- well, yesterday I paid 100
- how much do you owe?
- 400, but he says he will pay in a week.
- oh... well, give him another 2%... no, give him 1%

In an effort to show professionalism, and realizing the pointlessness of the dialogue, many of us will immediately rush to comment: it is not clear what 1% is, for what, what does it mean to “take more”? And we will be right with you, of course. Let's figure out what we need to “give” for and how much to “give.”

Classification of discounts

The discount can be one of three types:

• marketing discount;
• sales discounts;
• logistics discounts.

Marketing discounts include direct discounts unrelated with current and well-functioning sales logistics: goods in exchange for money. These discounts affect development prospects, stimulate partner relationships (CRM), and structure the sales channel.

Sales discounts include discounts directly related to current transactions, to ensure a given profitability of sales and the current planned inventory turnover for concluded (concluded) transactions.

Logistics discounts include discounts for optimizing cash and commodity flows that affect the current financial performance of the company.

Marketing discounts

Hidden promotional discount

Functional discount (discount for distribution)

The manufacturer provides various functional discounts to players in the trading channel who provide it with different types of services (logistics, services for developing a sales network, building a dealer network). Functional discount in the marketer's dictionary

Dealer discount

Provided by the manufacturer to its permanent representatives or sales intermediaries (for example: an affiliate program for servicing customers in a chain of stores: promotions, use of promotional rooms, merchandising, etc. is stimulated by a dealer discount).

Discounts taking into account intercultural communications

In practical activities, marketing faces a very important circumstance, which should be attributed to the so-called cultural differences, which is also the subject of marketing research.
In Central Asian, Arab, some Balkan countries and individual Transcaucasian republics, during trade negotiations it is considered a matter of honor to achieve a large discount on the offer price. And although this circumstance is associated with a complex of Eastern mentality, many importers will not sign an agreement that does not contain a provision on discounts generally exceeding 20 - 30% of the offered price. Since this fact is known in the marketing and trading environment, some companies consider it necessary to first artificially inflate prices by the expected percentage, and then present it with a discount specified in the contract.

Service discounts

A significant part of industrial products requires maintenance during operation. A service discount is preferred to creating and maintaining an effective service network, which requires significant investment and effort. This approach to solving the problem would be acceptable if it were possible to monitor the implementation of additional functions by the recipient and a way to assess the effectiveness of such a discount.

• on the part of the buyer - the amount of costs for storing goods purchased in advance before the start of the sales season (including fees for loans attracted for this purpose);
• on the part of the manufacturer - the amount of costs and losses that he would have to incur if the manufactured goods were stored until the start of the season in his own warehouses, and production was either stopped due to the deadening of working capital in finished product inventories, or was supported by additionally attracted loans to replenish working capital.

Consequently, the amount of discounts should provide the buyer with savings greater than the increase in his costs of storing goods until the seasonal increase in demand. On the other hand, the manufacturer can provide such discounts - for an amount no greater than the amount of its losses due to the slowdown in capital turnover as a result of storing goods in its own warehouses before the start of the season and not receiving sales revenue.
The logic of discounts for off-season purchases requires their differentiation in time: the earlier the product is purchased before the start of the season, the larger the discount should be.

Discounts to encourage new product sales.

Such discounts can be considered as an addition to planned discounts that help promote a new product to the market. As a rule, such discounts in the form of financing a national advertising campaign indicating the names of the trading companies selling the product are not enough. For example, such advertising does not really give buyers information about where they can actually buy the mentioned product in their city (district).

Therefore, dealers and end sellers have to conduct their own advertising campaigns using local media outlets (whose advertising rates are usually lower than those in the national press or national television). This gives them the opportunity to indicate the addresses of their stores in such advertising, which actually provides an increase in sales.

Sales discounts

Discount for turnover, bonus discount (bonus)

The discount is provided to regular customers on the basis of a special power of attorney. In this case, the contract establishes a scale of discounts, depending on the turnover achieved during a certain period (usually one year), as well as the procedure for paying amounts based on these discounts.

This discount system is designed in the form of columns price list. This is the price list. I call (well, I like it that way) the price columns - price protocols: 1st protocol, 2nd protocol. Why is this so? Coordination and recording of prices is the legal basis for transactions, recorded in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. If you come across “price protocols” somewhere in other articles, that’s from this.

Logistics discounts

Other types of discounts can be classified as tactical logistics.
They are united by an economic source - profit(!), as well as the general task of creating additional incentives for the buyer to make a purchase. The use of logistics discounts leads to a reduction in the actual purchase price of goods and, accordingly, to an increase in the buyer's premium. This premium represents the difference between the economic value of the product for the buyer and the price at which he was able to buy this product.
The main types of discounts include:

Discount for the volume of purchased goods

Proportional price reduction for buyers purchasing large quantities one type goods. Typically, the discount is set as a percentage of the total cost or unit price of a specified volume of supply, for example, a 10% discount for orders over 1000 pieces. Discounts may be offered on a non-cumulative basis (per order placed) or on a cumulative basis (per number of items ordered over a given period).
Quantity discounts should be offered to all customers, but the supplier/seller must ensure that the amount of discounts does not exceed its cost savings due to the increased volume of goods sold. These savings can be achieved by reducing the costs of selling (trade processing), warehousing, maintaining inventory and transporting goods. Discounts of this kind can also serve as an incentive for the consumer to make purchases from one seller (recurring purchases).

Discount for cash payment

If you need it, price reduction for buyers who promptly pay bills in cash. A buyer who pays within 10 days receives, for example, a two or three percent reduction from the payment amount. This discount can also be applied partially, for example, only for a percentage of the entire amount received within 30 days. With a larger supply volume or more expensive equipment, this type of discount can greatly activate the local counterparty, who is interested in selling faster and receiving their considerable income.
Such discounts are widely used to improve the liquidity of the supplier/seller, the rhythm of its cash receipts and reduce costs in connection with the collection of receivables.

Discount for refusal of receivables (for reducing the terms of receivables)

A discount can also stimulate a reduction in the terms of trade credit provided by the supplier to the client.

Progressive discount

A discount for quantity or serialization is provided to the buyer subject to the purchase of a predetermined and increasing quantity of goods. Serial orders are of interest to manufacturers, since the production of the same type of product reduces production costs. The discount is given in fact, or in advance, under an agreement fixing such a progression. Sels often gives such a discount without a contract, by verbal agreement. In any case, such agreements need to be recorded, at least within the company in the CRM system.

Export rebates

Provided by sellers when selling goods to foreign buyers in addition to the discounts that apply to buyers of the domestic market. Their goal is to increase the competitiveness of goods in the foreign market.

Discount for expediting payment.

The main objective of discounts for accelerating payment is to reduce the repayment period of receivables and accelerate the turnover of the company's working capital. Therefore, this commercial tool can be attributed to a greater extent to the sphere of management than pricing itself. But since such discounts are set in relation to prices, price specialists, together with financiers and accountants, traditionally determine them.

Discount for expediting payment – a measure of reduction in the standard selling price, which is guaranteed to the buyer if he makes payment for the purchased batch of goods before the deadline established by the contract.
The payment acceleration discount scheme includes three elements:

• the actual quantitative amount of the discount;
• the period during which the buyer has the opportunity to take advantage of such a discount;
• the period during which payment of the entire debt amount for the delivered shipment of goods must be made, if the buyer does not exercise the right to receive a discount for accelerated payment.

The rate for accelerating payment is usually determined by two factors:

• the level of such rates traditionally established in this market;
• the level of bank interest rates for loans to replenish working capital.

The connection between the discount for accelerating payment and the price of credit resources is quite logical. If a manufacturer cannot achieve acceleration of repayment of accounts receivable, then it has to replenish its working capital mainly through credit. Accelerating payment for shipped goods reduces the need to raise funds and provides savings by reducing the amount of interest payments.

However, usually the level of discount for accelerating payment is significantly higher than the price of credit resources.

This excess of the discount level over the price of loans is justified by the large positive effect that accelerated payment has on the financial condition of the selling company. This effect occurs due to the fact that early payments:

• accelerate the receipt of funds into the seller’s account and improve the structure of his balance sheet, which is essential for him to obtain loans, and also affects investors’ assessment of the company’s position (including the price of its shares on stock exchanges);
• reduce credit risks associated with accounts receivable and increase the reliability of financial planning;
• reduce the company's costs for organizing collection. accounts receivable.

Discount for off-season purchases

With a well-established system of seasonal discounts, manufacturers have the opportunity to organize and complete the production of goods for the next season long before it begins and promptly begin preparations for the manufacture of products for the next season.
The amount of seasonal discounts is usually quite small and is determined by:

Discounts for complex purchases of goods.

Many firms that sell lines of complementary products use a special type of discount to encourage customers to purchase several products from that line, i.e., bundled purchasing.
Discount for complex purchase of goods – a measure of the reduction in the standard selling price that is guaranteed to the buyer if he purchases a given product along with other complementary products from that company.
The logic of such a discount is that the price of each product in the set is lower than with an isolated purchase, even from the same company.

Discounts for returning previously purchased goods from this company (trade-in)

Discounts are provided to the buyer when he returns an outdated model product previously purchased from this company. Such discounts apply to the sale of automobiles, electrical equipment, rolling stock, standard industrial equipment, etc.

Discounts on the sale of used (defective) equipment.

In different countries there are opportunities to profitably purchase used machines, mechanisms and other equipment. If, in addition, the maintenance is well organized, such a purchase is a reasonable alternative to buying new equipment. You can work with new equipment for a long time, while operating costs are low.

Tests

Offsets refer to other types of discounts from the list price. For example, a goods exchange offset is a reduction in the price of a new product subject to the return of the old one. Trade-in credit is most often used for the sale of cars and some durable goods. Sales promotion credits refer to payments or price discounts to reward dealers for participating in advertising and sales promotion programs.

Who is responsible for discounts?

More precisely, this section should be called: “Who gives discounts?” However, everything is clear to an inquisitive salesman:

• The marketing department, guided by the marketing policy, is responsible for marketing discounts;
• The sales department is responsible for sales discounts, guided by the standards of profitability of sales and inventory turnover.
• for logistics - parity department of commodity logistics, purchasing department, financial department, acting in accordance with the financial policy of the company.

Hello friends!

Do you know what an “offer” is? The offer is the heart of any selling text.

If he doesn’t have an offer, consider that you have doomed your efforts to death. Because without an offer there is no point in sending anything.

Speaking in a “more Russian” and accessible language, an offer is the proposal itself. Not an expression of interest and readiness, but a specific business proposal.

Not a standard dithyramb with basic conditions, but the “backbone” of your interest in cooperation.

An offer is an answer to the question: “What would interest this client?”

In search of an answer, you are already starting to move away from the stereotyped banality and look for ways.

The oldest type of “offer” (and still works great) is a discount.

Yes, yes, everyone knows the discount.

But very often it is applied everywhere and in a row without an absolute understanding of the meaning and rationality.

Even though a discount is an “offer,” it should still make sense, and even better, be unique.

In this article I will show you what discounts are and how they are used in sales.

All of you guys are smart, so I won’t chew on what has already been swallowed for a long time, and will limit myself to a clear structural annotation for each point.

I’ll say right away - this is not an encyclopedic classification, but a folk one - a field classification.

1. Discount for a period - such a discount is established for a certain period. The term limit is an incentive for buyers - they understand that after a certain time the preferential conditions will end. I once took advantage of this discount when purchasing kitchen furniture. 30% is 30%. Especially when in monetary terms such a discount is equal to the cost of a good gas stove.

2. One day discount - Even if this is a discount for a period, I still want to highlight it separately. A one-day discount is generally an excellent sales stimulator. "Only today..."

3. Discount on one item - the meaning is clear: the preferential price applies only to a specific product. Very often such a discount is accompanied by a term limit. That is, we have a combined discount. Supermarkets often resort to this technique - every week they sell some new product at a discount.

4. Advance discount- this discount applies to pre-ordering a new product. There is a release date, and there is an offer to order the product in advance on preferential terms, without waiting for the release itself. You probably remember when the Peter Publishing House online store accepted pre-orders for my book “Copywriting of Mass Destruction” at a more interesting price.

5. Discount upon reaching a certain amount- a classic retail technique. Do you want a discount? Then buy goods for a certain minimum amount.

6.Wholesale discount- this is already from the opera of distribution. There is a supplier or manufacturer, and there are distributors or large consumers. The discount applies to large order volumes. A whole scale is often used here. Whoever orders more goods receives a more pleasant discount.

7. Cumulative discount- combined type, includes several elements. The meaning is simple and clear: if you accumulate purchases for a specific amount, you get a new discount, and so on on a scale.

8.Cash discount- I’ve often seen it abroad, although I see it here from time to time, for example: in small stores that sell mobile phones (market format). Abroad, where non-cash payments (plastic cards) reign, you can buy goods at a discount if you pay for them in cash. On the contrary, we can add some percentage to the price (equivalent to the percentage for withdrawing cash from a bank account or card).

9. Personal discount- the most famous format: discount coupon or discount flyer. They may send them to you by mail, ask you to cut them out in a newspaper, or even just hand them to you on the street.

10. Holiday discount- have you often received an SMS on your phone from some restaurant inviting you to their birthday party with a tempting discount? This is a holiday discount.

11. Discounts when purchasing online- if you live in Ukraine, go to the Citrus Discount store, look at the prices, and then visit the Citrus Discount online store. You will see that the prices in the online store can be more pleasant. I think there is no need to explain the reason for this move.

12. Melting discount- the principle of operation of such a discount can be explained as follows: not a fixed discount is applied, but a whole jackal of discounts, the size of which decreases as the deadline approaches. 20%, 10%, 5%...

13. Situational discount- when I was buying a winter jacket in a store, I asked the seller for a discount. He answered me: “Okay, but only if you buy it right now.”. A very fair move.

14. Discounts for specific groups- noticed in pharmacies "discounts for pensioners", and in cinemas "discounts for students"?

15. Affiliate discount- “trick” is often used in online sales. You attract a partner who will recommend you or distribute your products, and in return you offer him to become a buyer on preferential terms.

16. Collective (group) discount- boom of 2011. Although I also saw her in London in 2001 when buying tickets to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. Gather a group of buyers and get a discount.

17. Cross discount- you offer the client to purchase one (or several) products at a base price, and an additional product at a discount.

18. Discount for fast payment- occurs periodically in b2b sales: the faster you pay off the debt, the bigger the discount you get.

19. First purchase discount- often used by foreign online stores, which send each new registered user a discount on their first purchase in a welcome letter.

20. Discount subscription- relevant for services. The most striking example: fitness clubs and swimming pools. A one-time visit is the same price, but you can buy a subscription and visit establishments on more pleasant terms.

21. Additional (bonus) discount- noticed in Chicco children's goods stores. You have a discount card, but the store still offers an additional discount to it. Here, however, there are restrictions on product groups.

22. Off-season discount- used when selling seasonal goods, for example: outerwear. Have you noticed that fur coats are cheaper in summer? Often, this system sells unsold goods during the season.

23. Club discount- discount club system: you purchase a club card and can enjoy discounts at various establishments that are included in the club program.

24. Trade-In discount- you return the old version of the product to the seller and buy a new one at a good discount. An example is car dealerships.

25. Confidential discount- there is no need to decipher here, we all live, as it were, in the same country. There is a contract price on paper, and there is... let's say... another price.

Well, the last discount (for a positive final line) sounds like this - "discount for beautiful eyes".

Let us know in the comments what other discounts you would add here.