Upon discovering a shop on the avenue of a beach town, I knew within moments that I’d buy something. The vivid colors of merchandise, the music, the scent in the high-ceilinged room, even the floor coverings — it all presented an overwhelmingly attractive shopping experience. I gave no thought to coupons before buying.

This is excellence in retailing! I was smiling as I left, and so was the retailer.

But something happened since that first purchase. This retailer has trained me to never pay full price again. He’s taught me to delay my decision to buy, and wait for the discount…

What changed? Upon returning home from my vacation, I now can only shop the retailer’s ecommerce web site, mostly following links from email offers.

If you want more full price buyers for your ecommerce store, you can learn to communicate in ways that hold the customer’s attention without shouting ‘sale’…

What a discount death spiral looks like

When I first met my favorite beach town retailer, I wanted to be part of it, to take a piece of it with me. But now the specialness has faded as offer after offer arrives, suggesting I overpaid from the start, and reminding me to just wait for the discounts to come along:

Here’s every email they’ve sent me during a sample period of time:

For that retailer, savvy in so many ways, to send me a series of emails like that — what a negative shift in my perception of his brand! Does it make you cringe a little like I do?

Here’s why: he’s training me to devalue his uniqueness and quality. He’s inviting me to put price — or the prospect of my saving at his expense — above all else. That’s a niche retailer’s mistake.

What’s risked here is the retailer’s viability as a profitable business. Discounts lead to greater discounts, until one day there’s an inventory clearance sale, and finally, a liquidation sale where “everything must go!”

Or… keep reading if you want to learn about real life niche retailers who are selling at full margins from their online storefronts and making the web their biggest, most profitable sales channel — without discounting.

Coupon codes = retailer disappointment

If you’ve ever sought to boost online sales and reached for a coupon code, you may know the cringe feelings it can bring. It’s a curious mix of hope and disappointment: hope that it’ll spur sales, and disappointment in any event. Why?

• Disappointment at the loss of profit margin due to the coupon code
• Disappointment at how a coupon for X% off loses its potency to hold attention
• Disappointment that the tactic feels desperate given your awesome products

Have you noticed how discounts need ratchet up to hold your customers’ attention? Even if you meet a short-term sales goal through coupon code hype, it’s defeating as a long-term strategy. Ready for an alternative?

Imagine what your store and marketing might feel like instead:

• To communicate in a way that affirms the value of the product
• To not feel rushed in conceiving offers at the last minute
• To rest in a full-price buyer strategy that’s worked for niche retailers online.

Meet a “Hot 100″ retailer who never discounts

Patrick Pitman

Escaping the discount death spiral is something ecommerce merchants can do — if you have something engaging to consistently say instead of “sale!”

Let me introduce myself. I’m Patrick Pitman, and figuring out what to say instead of “sale” is what I’ve been doing for the last decade with Red Oxx Manufacturing.

Named one of the “Hot 100 Retailers of 2012″ by Internet Retailer magazine, Red Oxx is a niche company that started out with a simple walk-in store in the middle of nowhere. So how did Red Oxx build an international ecommerce sales channel that’s drawn the attention of the premier ecommerce magazine and conference organizer in the industry AND demanded the building of a new factory (opens June 2012) — all without discounting?

Since 2001 when co-owner Jim Markel asked me my help, we’ve made blunders:

• Burned $30,000 on a fancy 1.0 website design from an ad agency
• Sweated out a PCI security investigation under VISA’s stern glare
• Fielded phone calls until we learned the power of excellent photography

And many more costly lessons. But in all those years, the vision of defending the customer’s perception of value remained clear. No discounts. I can count the number of coupon codes on one hand, while looking back at quarter after quarter of continued growth.

Red Oxx’s vision for building a brand and cultivating the perception of value among customers set high expectations. Jim Markel challenged me to execute ecommerce game plans, riding continued growth, and adeptly raising prices.

Jim Markel

“Patrick’s contribution to our growth spans a decade of helping us execute an aggressive ecommerce growth strategy in all kinds of creative ways; all but discounting. He’s right that we never make a sale at the expense of discounting.” – Jim Markel, Red Oxx, Internet Retailer “Hot 100″ 2012

What if customers proudly lined up to pay full price versus you chasing them to pay less?

Patagonia.com and Apple.com are among the ecommerce merchants on the same Internet Retailer “Hot 100″ list as Redoxx.com. All three of these brands have customers who share an expectation of “saving up” to buy their products at full price.

Internet Retailer listed Red Oxx under the category of “Specialty Shops with Attitude”. That attitude stems from the conviction that their products are worth their full price, and the expectation that there are enough would-be customers out in this big wide internet-connected world who can save up with anticipation for the satisfaction of full-price buying.

• Can you imagine a similar price / value conviction for yourself as Red Oxx expresses?
• Can you imagine what you’d say to would-be customers in a similar spirit, appropriate to your brand?
• Would you like examples to model, showing what you’d say instead of ‘coupon’?

If you want to find full price customers online, there are ways to retrain your customers, and ways to train the new ones up right from start. I created Zero Percent Off! as a crash course in how to inspire your business away from discounting as a default tactic.

What this means is you need a plan and the clear intention about what you’ll do instead of discount. If you want a proven alternative strategy to follow, this course will show you how to get started.

Merlyn Gordon

“Patrick brings to the table deep expertise and knowledge in key areas related to online retailing and content creation. He is a true thought-partner with key sensitivity and eye towards performance.” Merlyn Gordon, former ecommerce director, Schnee’s

A doable no-discount strategy for niche retailers

There are two big dials you could turn instead of discounting. It starts with shifting how you communicate with customers online. It’s what you say, and how you say it — and then being consistent about it. This concise course shows how.

• A crash course you can listen to that doesn’t get bogged down in theory
• Step by step exercises you can complete with pen and paper
• Simple challenges that shake up your view of your own company and its opportunity to hold customer attention.

All course materials are conveniently delivered by email, delivering a “just right” 13 to 20 minute audio lesson every couple of days. You can listen — and reference transcripts later when doing assignments.

• Sample the audio lessons

Take out a highlighter and pass along the transcripts to certain people on your team! You’ll find the material actionable in small bits, and concise enough to share around the office.

Richard Scheiner

“Patrick did a fantastic job in helping us understand our ecommerce potential; He is a thoughtful, smart, and knowledgable professional and exhibits great integrity; I would recommend Patrick highly.” – Richard Scheiner, former COO, ITC, Inc.

What you can expect when sign up for the course

What you’ll learn: That if you turn DOWN the Discounts dial, there are two other dials you must also turn UP. You’ll learn what these dials are, and how you can carefully adjust for higher margins and healthy sales:

Session 1: Holding up the mirror, taking stock

Learn to amplify YOU, and then communicate it in the social styles of your customer. You’ll be asked 3 important questions. Then you’ll be guided through an exercise that turns your answers into seed material for the forthcoming sessions…

• Why there are some customers you don’t want — at any price
• Where you’ll find enough “full price” customers
• What about a person’s style of communicating changes what you tell them
• What 3 questions to ask about your products when starting a no discount strategy
• What you must ignore about the “global Internet” big wide world of prospective customers

Session 2: Finding your story as the alternative to shouting “sale”

Listen to the story of a man who’s passion for physical expression yielded world travels and the development of historically influenced, innovative products with fair trade manufacture. But all that was taken for granted, and instead there’s just talk of clearance sales. You’ll examine certain pages of your own site to learn how you can avoid his mistakes.

• Identify the easiest way to undo all your brand-building efforts in one fell swoop
• Which one word ruins the tone for all future brand interactions
• How to identify your most “engaging” story potential to spur sales
• How to evaluate email offers in light of top web pages and see if they are in sync
• Why website analysis can be compared to drinking whiskey

Session 3: Wring out the essence of your brand in an email subject field

How to back your way into your unique value proposition without getting stuck in marketing theory, or hung up on the “uniqueness” problem. We go through an examination of email subject lines as the simplest, most succinct statement that must engage the customer.

• How to distill the essence of your “specialness” in customers’ minds
• How to identify what makes your customers curious to learn more about you
• What to emulate about 5 amazing examples of email subject lines
• Why email subject lines are the shortcut to value propositions
• How to stir the imagination, with or without bacon. Or chocolate.

Session 4: Why sticky notes are an essential accessory to strategic thinking!

You’ll go through an interactive matching exercise, connecting your brand’s implicit or explicit promises with the actual messages you’re giving to customers on your website and in your emails.

• How to create a promise that engages the customer truthfully
• Why your promises must match up with all your marketing and customer service messages
• How the pairing of contrasting words and concepts can be like a magnet to customers
• How to dissect your brand promise into primary and secondary messages that support each other
• Which decision you must make to set the tone for communicating with customers without mentioning price

Session 5: Don’t I know you from somewhere?

You’ll learn why communicating with customers can be like a game of recognition. And how you can make it like a homecoming experience that affirms a trusting, profitable relationship.

• When price becomes secondary, it’s because the customer has recognized this…
• Be wary if you discount as a means to encourage a sample the product…
• What happens to the customer when you take your biography for granted
• Two words that ought never, ever go on your ‘About’ page or messaging
• A design improvement exercise you can do without a designer!

Session 6: How to generate ideas that engage your customer

You’ll learn a novel technique for analyzing how people communicate, how they prefer to communicate. We can use that preference to shape everything we communicate to customers, both in the timing and manner in which we deliver our messages.

• What to add to landing pages when you’ve figured out customer preferences
• How to string together a narrative of engaging mini-stories that the customer buys into
• What you’re taking for granted, and why it’s killing your marketing stories
• Why you must introduce all the senses to the online shopping experience, and how..
• How to classify your customer’s emotions & reactions, on a relative scale

Sessions 7: How to talk with and connect to customers of each social style

You’ll learn how to take an understanding of customer social styles and apply that to optimizing your website landing pages. Your insights into the customer’s heart and mind will enable you to present a story in ways that resonate and engage with the customer.

• How to get unstuck when you’re feeling ‘dry’ or ‘empty’ in what to communicate
• How to conceive of photos that resonate with customers, by type or style
• How to match emotional states with social styles and ‘say the right thing at the right time’
• Why you must claim your authority as the expert, and speak in the ‘right’ style
• How to critique your own emails or landing pages, and how you’ll recognize what to improve

Session 8: Understanding your own social style as the secret to recharging your customer communications

You’ll start to learn how your understanding of a shopper’s social style gives you an authentic opening, a sustainable conversation with which to engage your customer. Plus, an exercise to identify your very best customers’ emotional, responsive, and behavioral qualities.

• Why you must classify customers along a scale of emotional responsiveness, recognizing their differences
• Why you must ‘keep it real’ and recognize the limits of ‘social style’ classifications and practices
• The one word / concept upon which discount-free selling is founded
• The unfair advantage of in-store, in-person shopping and what to do about it online
• How the lens of social styles becomes a tool for diagnosing marketing failures

Session 9: Have customers clamoring for more by knowing what to hold back

Stop feeling overwhelmed and instead get to a productive place of simply communicating in an engaging manner. Plus, an exercise you can do with a calendar that lays it all out for you in a piece-meal, approachable, doable plan.

• How your claim to authority can help you simplify your stories
• Get examples of tantalizing mini-stories you can emulate
• Conquer your paralyzing perfectionist tendencies and start making a difference to sales.
• A recipe for a simple (easy) story that packs a punch.
• Why a monthly or weekly calendar can be your best marketing friend

Session 10: Why mystery matters to your marketing, even for unsexy products

You’ll learn about a simple question that classifies all retail companies into one type or the other — and why you must bridge the divide. And when you can think like those “other” companies, then your marketing stories can gain that enticing quality of “mystery.”

• Why the best restaurants and celebrities don’t come with taglines
• What you can learn from paradox, and why customers crave it
• Where to find the tension in your brand, and why you might amplify it
• Why you musn’t tell your WHOLE story to customers, and why they’ll thank you for it.
• Ideas for the budget-conscious merchant who wants to add mystery

• Sample the audio lessons

Dave Bayless

“I’ve been Patrick’s customer, collaborator, and peer for 10 years or more. He thinks strategically and systematically, but always finds ways to act upon his insights in an eminently practical manner. Patrick knows what to do and how to get it done.” – Dave Bayless, Director, TrashCo Inc.

You can do it! An doable, actionable strategy

Taking on a shift in your business like moving away from discounts can be scary. If you’re not sure how your sales will fare, there are several baby steps you can take before you dispense with your last coupon code offer. This is a crash course long on actionable steps, short on theory. You can do it!

• Listen to the audio lessons at your desk or in the car – about 18 minutes each
• All you need is a printer, your own website, some highlighters, and sticky notes
• Examples of real merchants’ marketing materials analyzed in the same way as you’re invited to analyze your own
• Printer-friendly transcripts you can highlight and share around the office

Choose your level of participation

10 audio sessions delivered by email. MP3 format, 20 min.
Printer-friendly transcripts of audios. Review, highlight, share.
Paypal or Visa / MasterCard payment options
Actionable exercises for you or your team
Video screencast analysis of your website by author Patrick Pitman.
Two Q&A calls with author Patrick Pitman, phone or skype consultations to support your understanding of the course.
Choose your level of participation	Regular	Premium
	$147	$497
	2 payments of $75	2 payments of $250

Peace of mind, from our business to yours

You can order this course confident in your satisfaction being attended to with prompt professionalism. Over the years of our business in the United States and United Kingdom, we’ve responded to all manner of inquiries and situations. If for some reason, this course doesn’t work out for you, we’re glad to assure your 100% satisfaction.

If you have any question or concern, phone us at 1-877-816-8161 or help@franklearning.com

Spencer Williams

“Patrick’s deep knowledge about selling online and his ability to transfer that knowledge to my company has allowed us to exceed our revenue goals and to have a top-performing web site when compared against our peers. He is someone who we have repeatedly sought consulting from and training for our company and employees. Patrick is an excellent resource and leader.” Spencer Williams, CEO, West Paw Design

P.S. Would you like to sample the audio lessons?

• Sample the audio lessons

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