Whether you sell baby clothes or funeral services, whale watching trips or microscopes, you face the task of persuading buyers to commit themselves monetarily to your product or service now. The offer is a key powerful marketing tool slighted or overlooked by many businesses. If you merely tell prospective customers or clients about your price and the terms of the sale, you're probably not crafting a compelling, motivating offer. With a creative proposition for the buyer, you can make a purchase nearly irresistible.

Ideas for tantalizing offers are as close as your newspaper or your radio dial, as you'll see from the rest of this booklet. Borrow, adapt and test inducements for other kinds of businesses that you read and hear. Before finalizing any offer in an ad, brochure, telemarketing pitch or sales letter, make sure it meets these criteria:

1. Is it clear? Show your copy to people who will be honest with you, and ask if they understand what they'd be getting, on what terms. You may think the offer couldn't possibly be any more black and white, but if your way of stating the payment and delivery terms gets misinterpreted on the other end, you must clarify it further.

2. Does it have high perceived value? Sometimes, as when you're offering information people absolutely can't find anywhere else, a tape, booklet or manual, or consultation can feel almost priceless to your market, even though it costs you next to nothing to make it available. Consider adding this kind of sweetener to your deal.

3. Does it carry a low risk for the buyer? Guarantees make a tremendous difference. Contrary to what you might expect, the longer the time stated in the guarantee, the fewer returns and refund requests you'll usually get. This doesn't mean you should put your business into peril, only that, providing you have a quality offering, you'll sell more with a reassuring guarantee.

4. Is the offer believable? If you're in the position to sell something for an incredibly low price or astonishingly generous payment terms, explain why. For instance: "Our supplier sold his business at a loss to join a religious cult." Or: "We're running out of space in our warehouse." Or: "We have so many hundreds of years of experience at our disposal that we're confident we can solve your problem quickly." Or: "We figure that once you experience our weegies free for a month, you won't ever want to be without them again."

5. Have you provided an inducement to act now? Human beings procrastinate. But fewer do so when you toss in a special reason to pick up the phone or the pen right now. "Order before July 31 and receive an extra dozen parachute rings free." "Come in to arrange your own will before October 19 and get another for a second member of your family at half-price." "This offer expires March 15 or when we run out of stock, whichever comes sooner, so pick up the phone now!"

Here are just a few of the kinds of offers businesses have used profitably. Remember, consider how you can adapt strategies that you notice working for a very different kind of product or service to your own. Don't dismiss an item on the list just because you haven't heard of it being applied to your kind of business.

I. Pricing

- Two for the price of one
- Second item/person half price
- Flat fee instead of hourly charge, or vice versa
- Commission instead of a fee, or vice versa
- Bulk discounts
- Special introductory prices for new customers
- Free introductory session or free sample
- Discount for slower service, older products
- Discount for less than first-rate quality or experience
- Customer names the price
- Donation of $XX requested
- Discount for sneak-preview session
- Discount during typical slow day/month/season
- Discount for referrals
- Rounding down prices
- Rounding up of prices to convenient numbers, like $10.00
- Free if you fax request on your office stationery
- Match any competitor's prices
- Guarantee against price rises for specific period
- No extra charge for special orders
- Free for children/veterans/senior citizens
- Higher prices for priority service

II. Bonuses

- Get a free whooziwhatsit if you order this month
- Frequent buyer/inner circle program
- Buy N, get the N + 1 free
- Premiums from other vendors/practitioners that cost you nothing
- Bonus in exchange for customer feedback (positive or negative)
- 24-hour accessibility for no extra charge
- Eligibility for special drawing/sweepstakes
- Unannounced, random prizes
- Bonus items not purchasable at any price
- Free shipping for sales over $XX
- Free home delivery
- Free catalog/newsletter for the next year
- Hot line open for preferred customers
- Reward for customer referrals
- Collect coupons/receipts for prizes
- Free equipment; pay only for service
- We keep your information on file for you free
- Free after-sale information
- Your choice from a selection of bonus items
- Free upgrades under certain conditions

III. Payment terms

- Discount for payment in advance or before a deadline
- Automatic monthly billing to your credit card
- Pay nothing until 1997
- Pay only $X a month
- No payment until buyer sees results
- Monthly payments with no interest
- Lease/rent rather than purchase
- We won't cash your check for thirty days

IV. Guarantee

- You must be satisfied, or your money back
- If not satisfied, you'll receive double your money back
- Double the customary warranty period
- Guaranteed no matter what, no questions asked
- Returnable if damaged
- Don't pay anything unless it works
- Your money back if the problem returns
- We'll fix the problem again if it returns, no extra charge
- Your money back if you can demonstrate that you tried it and it didn't work
- If we forget to thank you for your business, everything is free

V. Package deals

One of the most powerful kinds of offers involves creating an attractive bundle of products and/or services at a set price. The trick lies in assembling a package that appeals to your clientele, encourages them to spend more than they might otherwise and provides them with a high amount of perceived value. Consultants, attorneys, accountants, retail merchants, mail-order merchandisers and many other kind of enterprises should consider devising these kinds of offers. Give the program a special name.

For example, "Carefree Cancun" might include six nights at hotels, two meals a day, coach air fare, two helicopter tours, one bus tour, two travel books, a free "Cancun Hotline" subscription and two complimentary massages.

And test, test, test!

1. Test everything - your prices, your guarantee, even the specific wording of your offer. For instance, each of these quantitatively equivalent offers has a different emotional impact:

- Bring a friend and you each get half price
- Sign up now and bring a friend, colleague, employee or spouse free
- Bring along a friend and don't pay a penny more

2. Test the biggest factors first. For example, before you get hung up on whether the price should be $295, $297 or $299, test $195, $295, $395 and perhaps even $495. Many business owners have been shocked to find they sometimes make more sales after they raise prices. (The perceived value can rise along with the price.) On the other hand, the greater volume possible at the lower price may mean higher profits overall.

3. Remember that the only valid test is an actual one. Some people think that asking potential customers or clients which offer they would prefer saves time and money compared with running different ads or mailing divergent direct mail offers. It doesn't work that way. What people say they'd do can bear little relationship to what actually gets them to open their wallet.

4. Keep on testing. When an offer seems to be working fine, you should always tweak it here and there to see if little changes have a significant impact. With good records, you can meaningfully compare sales with each change to a baseline. Keep in mind that a changing competitive, economic or social environment may affect which offers pull best.

Boston-based marketing and publicity consultant Marcia Yudkin is a syndicated columnist through ParadigmTSA, a public radio commentator and the author of nine books, including Six Steps to Free Publicity and Persuading on Paper: The Complete Guide to Writing Copy that Pulls in Business. She also delivers eye-opening, content-rich seminars on publicity and marketing to business and professional groups nationwide.

Read about direct mail.
Read about marketing creativity.
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Copyright 1996 Marcia Yudkin. All rights reserved.