Don't Run That Sale Yet

A coaching member messaged me this week about running a flash sale on his course.

It’s been at $297 for a while. He hadn’t pitched it in seven months. He figured a 50% off sale could move some units before his summer launch.

I told him not to do it.

Not because flash sales don’t work — they do. But because he was about to use the wrong tool.

Here’s what I told him instead.

Raise the price to $397. Then run the exact same email campaign, but instead of “50% off,” the message is: “last chance at $297.”

Same money out of the buyer’s pocket. Completely different story in their head.

A discount says: this thing isn’t worth what they were asking.

A price increase says: this thing is about to cost more.

One of those trains your list to wait. The other trains them to act.

There’s also a longer-game reason. He’ll probably do another full-list sale around Black Friday. If he discounts to $197 now and then again in November, he’s basically taught his audience that the real price is whatever number ends in 97-and-feels-low-this-week.

Whereas if he raises the price now and runs Black Friday at the original $297, that is the discount. Same campaign. More respect for the work.

Sales are fine. Price increases are better.

If you’ve had something at the same price for a year, the question isn’t “should I run a sale?”

The question is: why hasn’t this gone up yet?

Matt “last chance” Ragland

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