Why Discounts and Sales Don't Work in Your Doula Business
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00:05
Welcome to doula Tips and Tits. This podcast is a place where we answer one question about doula work, both to support you and to help you support your clients. I'm Kaylee Harrod. I've been supporting families in this perinatal space since my oldest was born, 12, nearly 13 years ago.
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I am a birth and postpartum doula, childbirth educator, La Leche League leader, and a doulla coach. I love guiding and supporting doulas as they work out their doulah business. It is tremendous is joy to be trusted in this way.
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Thank you for joining us on this journey. Welcome back to doula tips and tips. Today we are talking about discounts and sales and why they almost never work. So I want to just dive into this a bit because I think that this goes with the same idea of having low cost services, right?
00:58
That somehow our services being cheaper are going to be they're gonna be hired more or you know people are gonna be more attracted to them. I just want to say that I have been in business for six years.
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I've had online offerings for four so I had virtual classes and workshops and things like that for 4 years anytime I'd had a discount on my doula services or my classes, I get less clients and not more.
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And I know that maybe sounds a little bit crazy, but I just don't think this is the work that people want a discount in. Now, maybe a class, but honestly, every time I've done a Class Discount, it's gone nowhere, like literally nowhere.
01:46
And so that, yeah, is just I don t know what to tell you. Like it s, it's not something that works well, right? Now I want to think, I want you to thing about some things that do maybe work and some things you can think about in terms of promotional things, right.
02:08
So, things like bundles of services. My clients really love that if they book a birth package that has postpartum hours. The postpartum hours are cheaper per hour than they would have otherwise been.
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So that's that the kind of discount that they like. A discount like if they buy a birth package they actually get the childbirth class at a lower fee than the class normally is. That is the kinda thing that they like.
02:47
The different ways to pay like a payment plan or a like extended payment the option to remove something that they don't need from a package. So I've had clients say like oh I already took a childbirth class can I take out the childbirth or can i take the postpartum hours because my family will be here and I'm gonna have lots of post partum help and so you know is it okay for me to not pay for something that I don't need.
03:15
Those kinds of things do work well in our businesses. But having like a flash 50% off sale, not so much. And honestly, maybe I just don t know how to do it well. I mean, it could be me, right? Like we could we can blame user error in this situation.
03:32
but also I would say that, I Just don T see it work. Well, most of the time, Like I don't see it be something that people jump on very often, okay? now I Know that you know me by now and know that I'm not just gonna be like, ok, that's it by Because the other thing I want you to think about here is Why are you offering discounts and sales?
03:59
now we're about to move into some episodes about desperation. And I think this feeds into that perfectly. Because when we're talking about new business owners, new clients, New doulas, we are usually talking about discounts and sales from a place of desperate energy.
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Like a place that's like, please for the love of God hire me because I don't have enough clients or I don't have enough students or I don' t have enough whatever. That is never going to be a space from which your business thrives.
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And I know that's a hard pill to swallow. I do. I really do know that. And i know myself that I still live in that space occasionally. Right. Especially when like I mean I broke my ankle and then was like oh shit.
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Like how much money is this gonna cost me. You know I mean that that' s immediately where my my head went to. And I was like, okay, how do I make this work? You know, that it's not that I want you to aim for perfection here in terms of mindset, right?
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But I do want You to question yourself. Now, I tend to be a little bit of a critic anyway, like I am the person that asks, like Okay, but why? Like, why do we do that? Why do We need to do That? Why Do you want to Do that Why?
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Do You want me to that, right? Like that is the space that I live in, in my brain, in life, and my body, my marriage, family and everything. And so when I think about discounts and sales in my business, if I'm like, okay, I am going to put something on sale and I will give them a discount and this is going, then I also just want to take a second to stop and be like but why?
05:48
cso much for supporting our shop. As a thank -you gift here is 15% off your next purchase. To be completely honest with you I almost always just throw that card away like I'm like oh that's so sweet like it makes me feel amazing.
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I am so happy about it and I also like, I don't have the mental capacity to keep track of this coupon until I decide to buy something from you again if I ever decide buy from me again. Now if it was a shop that I shop out like all the time maybe I would hold on to it you know but most of my purchases on Etsy are kind of one -off purchases like I buy a bracelet and that's the only bracelet that I ever buy from that place you.
07:01
So it's not, it is also not super practical for me but I do feel amazing about getting it sent to me. Like I feel so personally impacted by the fact that the business owner took the time to send me this card and maybe like wrote a little note on it and I'm like oh my gosh like that shit works on me you know.
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Now it doesn't make me buy something else from their shop necessarily but if I loved it, and wanted to buy another thing, I would and I actually wouldn't even use that discount. Like I just buy it full price.
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In part because as a small business owner I am now like hey you should be charging more money for this you know like I don't want to discount things because I want people to make the money that they should be making on it.
07:48
So what I what i'm saying when I say that is it depends on why you're sending a discount or a sale. Depends on the energy that you are using for it and it depends on your motivation behind it, and I want you to kind of get used to stopping yourself and thinking through your motivation and thinking like, gosh, what is my motivation here?
08:12
You know, like how, how am I showing up to this? Like is it something that is out of desperation, out of financial scarcity, or is something like that's out of gratitude and out abundance and out generosity, right?
08:28
If it's those things that that is coming from, it is a different kind of space that you're bringing it from and also a kind different energy that you are even just building the discount from. Your language around the discount is gonna be completely different if you're talking about it in a way that's like thank you so much for being my client here's a discount versus like oh my gosh please be my client, here is a discount so you'll please please, please hire my stuff right?
08:57
There that is it completely different like frame of mind when you are talking to someone about it and so I encourage you to not only maybe avoid discounts and sales but think about how you're using them and if you are using them in a way that that communicates gratitude and abundance or if you using in in way that communicate desperation and scarcity because only one of those is actually helpful to your business.
09:25
Okay, so we're going to wrap that up. I do hope that you have seen all the awesome ads out all the Awesome stuff on Instagram and the pre -show like, you know, ad that's on the podcast about our newest masterclass.
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It's a brand new one. This is a free master class on April 8th at 1pm. That is all about client chemistry. And I realized I should have like done this on Valentine's Day or something. But you know here we are, it's April and we're doing it.
09:58
Um, but that is dealing with how to set prices, how does, to not specifically prices, but like showing up in a way that keeps clients, that helps them hire you, that help you communicate with them, and then keeps them in your world.
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So it is very relevant to what we're talking about here. Like always, there's only a hundred spots in that class and I want you to sign up quick for it because those spots will fill. The sign -up information is in the show notes.
10:25
It's also in our bio on Instagram. If you hit me up on I'm happy to personally send you the link for it. If you are on our newsletter, you will also get that link via the newsletter. Okay. In the meantime, I will see you in the next episode.
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Thanks for joining us for this episode of the doula tips and tips podcast. If You learned something today or had an aha moment, we'd love for you to share that on Instagram and tag us at her rod doulla so we can celebrate alongside you.
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This podcast is intended as educational and entertainment. It is not medical advice or business advice. Please consult your own medical or legal team for your needs around your health and your business.
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We'll see you again soon.
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This week’s hot question is why do we feel like we need to put things on sale or discount our packages? Your prices are set that way because it shows your worth, so why do we as small business owners feel like we need to lower our prices? Let’s instead discuss how we can have payment options or build our confidence to say these are our prices.
“And so when I think about discounts and sales in my business, if I'm like, okay, I am going to put something on sale and I will give them a discount and this is going, then I also just want to take a second to stop and be like but why?”
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Kaely Daily is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services
It is sponsored by The Birth Prep Blueprint Childbirth Class
Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay
