The Problem With Discounting Hearing Aids
Want to attract more patients like bees to honey?
Should you use discounts?
You know – send out a mailer a few times a year offering new patients or previous patients 15% or $500 off?
Is this a good idea for your practice? …Only if you’re closing forever and just trying to eliminate inventory so you don’t have to pay to throw it away.
I know some practices pride themselves on being the lowest cost provider, but that’s a fools errand when you’re competing with online sales and big box discounters.
Discounting is a bad idea…
- It devalues your products and services.
- Once you tell patients you sell for less, they always want a bigger discount.
- And it’s a hole that is hard to climb out of.
The fastest way to make more money with your practice is:
- Don’t discount, ever!
- Use bonuses instead of discounts to attract patients like bees to honey.
What do I mean by a bonus?
A bonus is a product or service you can include that has a high perceived value to the patient, but costs you little. It minimizes damage to your profits while bringing in more patients, so ultimately you make more money.
For example, my local VW dealer includes a free car wash every time I take my sporty VW GTI in for service. And I know it’s nuts, but typically I skip going to the local car wash for weeks if I know my car is going in for a tune-up.
In the case of my VW dealer, I pay them hundreds of dollars for service and they wash my car for free, something that costs them essentially nothing. And even though I know the math, it’s a bonus I value, and it keeps me going back to pay top dollar for German trained mechanics.
Now that’s an effective bonus!
Get it?
When you give a cash discount, it’s the most damaging thing you can do to your profits. Sure, you might sell more hearing aids, but you’re doing so at a lower profit margin and setting your practice up for long-term struggles. A discount adds no value to your services or products, and as I mentioned earlier, it destroys the value you’ve worked so hard to create.
A premium bonus is the opposite. It’s something that might cost you $10 or $20, but has a perceived value of $100. Now that’s something patients will go for.
What bonuses should you offer?
Not sure?
Talk to Kevin, he’s the expert. Call (888) 469-5497 to schedule a free consultation and discover how to increase your profits and transform your practice from good to great.
Ready to find out the key to standing out so you attract more patients, sell more hearing aids, and increase your profit margins?
Achieve more. Talk to us.
