An appliance company owner was on one of his quarterly market visits to four cities, dealer counters and modern trade outlets, the usual routine. At the third outlet, he watched a customer walk up to the premium range: better warranty, quieter motor, the model that actually carries the company’s margin. Ninety seconds later, the salesperson had steered him toward the base model instead. “This one does the same job, sir, and I can give you a better price.”
He almost let it go as one salesperson having an off day. Then it happened again at the next outlet. And the one after that.
Back at head office, he asked his national sales head to pull the mix report and cross-check it against mystery-shop data from the last quarter. Premium range: under 10% of units sold, across every region. Base range: moved constantly, discounted on the overwhelming majority of sales including plenty where the customer hadn’t even asked for a better price.
That second part is the one that should worry you. If your sales force is discounting products nobody asked to have discounted, the problem was never really about price.
The Root Cause Nobody Budgets For
Ask most owners why the premium line underperforms and you’ll hear “the market is price-sensitive” or “our team needs better training on value-selling.” Both miss what’s happening on the floor.
A salesperson doesn’t reach for a discount because they’re lazy or dishonest. They reach for it because it’s the only tool in their hand. Ask a Salesperson to explain, in one sentence, why the premium model is worth the difference not a features list, one sentence a customer would remember on the drive home and most of Salesperson are not able to answer that USP. Nobody ever gave them that narrative. So when a customer gives a pause/will come back, the only fallback available to him is price.
Layer the incentive structure on top and the pattern locks in completely. If a Salesperson hits the same number whether they sell ten base units at a discount or five premium units at full price, there’s no real reason to fight for the harder, slower premium conversation. The team isn’t ignoring your premium range out of preference. They’re responding rationally to a system that never asked them to sell it any differently.
Three Places to Actually Look
1. Give every premium SKU a one-line reason, not a features list.
Not “superior build quality with advanced technology that’s a brochure, not a sentence a human says out loud. Something closer to “this is the one that doesn’t need a service call in year two.” One sentence, memorable, repeatable by every single person on the floor without checking notes.
2. Check what your incentive structure is actually rewarding.
Pull it apart and ask honestly: does a premium sale get treated any differently from a base sale in how the team is measured? If volume and mix are rewarded identically, mix will always lose it’s simply the harder sale to close.
3. Get a regular read on real conversations, not just the mix report.
The report tells you what got discounted. It won’t tell you the discount happened on a sale where nobody asked for one. That only shows up in mystery-shop data or field audits run consistently across outlets not just what you happen to catch on your own quarterly visit.
The Question Worth Asking
When did you last see real mystery-shop data on how your sales force actually talks about your premium product, not what the mix report says it sold for, the real sentence they use in the room?
If you can’t answer that, the discounting isn’t really the problem. It’s the symptom.
Want a clearer read on what’s driving your discount pattern? Lets connect https://make10xhappen.in
