3 Cheapskates and How to Respond
If you sell online, especially if you’re an artisan, there are a few questions you’ll probably hear over and over. They don’t get less annoying, but having a stock response to these queries helps a little.
1. Can I have it cheaper?
You’ll get people asking if they can have a discount or asking why you’re charging so much money for X. Don’t feel compelled to lower your price or justify your price. A few acceptable replies:
- We sometimes offer discounts through our mailing list, please feel free to sign up to find out about our next sale or discount.
- We offer 10% off for orders over $100, here is the coupon code.
- I’m sorry but we simply can’t offer our products at a lower price at this time.
2. Can I have it for free?
Some people will claim they’re dying of scarlet fever and your free product is their dying wish. Other people will say they just started a blog and want to review your products. It all amounts to virtual panhandling and there’s no reason to give into it. A few acceptable replies:
To members of the public who just want freebies:
I’m sorry, but we’re unable to provide you with a free product at this time. Please feel free to join our mailing list and follow our blog. We announce fan sweepstakes events in both places.
To “bloggers” with little to no readership:
I’m sorry but we’re unable to provide free samples for review at this time.
(Note: Legitimate press are another story, if you get a sample request from a large publication it may be well worth it to provide a sample. Just make sure you find out what the requester’s readership is like before you part with your product.)
3. Can I just make it myself?
Some people will ask how you made something, where you got supplies to make something, etc. This information should be proprietary. You worked long and hard to learn your craft and find the best suppliers, that information is private.
A few acceptable replies:
- I’m sorry, we unfortunately can’t give away our trade secrets
- Learning to make X took me several years and it would just be too complicated to explain my process.
- We work with overseas suppliers who require a 10,000 unit minimum purchase, so they probably wouldn’t be suitable for small projects. If you want to work with overseas suppliers you can try a site like alibaba.com for sources.
I always thank people for taking the time to write, even if I am not going to fulfill their somewhat offensive request. Most people don’t realize they’re being annoying with these types of requests, so it’s best to still keep up the appearance of charm and stick to calling them a moron in private.
Have a favorite stock response to these questions? Share in the comments below.
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If you’re on Etsy, you also need to be able to say “Thank you for asking, but I’m not interested in trading right now”.
Sometimes it’s tough to say no! Great pointers.
Comment by Josie Marsh/ Wooly Baby — June 8, 2010 @ 11:01 am
Thanks for these fantastic tips! I’m never sure how to respond to requests for a discount, so I often don’t respond at all. Now I’ll have my answers at the ready! (And I LOVE the idea of having them sign up for your mailing list!)
Comment by megan — June 8, 2010 @ 3:09 pm
@megan I’ve learned to get better at replying to all kinds of emails from dealing with all the email we get on my ecomm site.
For coupons, we actually created a coupons page on our website and it has discount codes for purchases over certain dollar amounts. This is helpful for a few reasons:
1. It encourages people to make a larger purchase.
2. It gives us a place to direct people if they ask for coupon codes.
3. It cuts down on people leaving our site to look for better deals elsewhere, or going off to look for coupons on our affiliate sites (and us ending up having to pay an affiliate for a sale they didn’t legitimately refer).
We link our coupons page on the footer of our site and on our checkout right next to our coupon code field. This is actually getting to be pretty common practice with a lot of major ecomms now. You’ll see it on sites like Victoria Secret and Macys.
Comment by Meredith — June 8, 2010 @ 3:19 pm
Really great advice – I had no idea how to handle these requests! I also created a page on my website to for coupons, great idea! Thank you! http://www.etsy.com/shop/pinkycrafts
Comment by Mishelle — June 10, 2010 @ 12:25 pm
Great post! I get asked #1 & #3 several times at EVERY SHOW. It drives me nuts.
My reply to #1 is usually, “I’m sorry I can’t offer a discount because the demand is so high at shows I often sell out, and my products are already priced as low as I can go.”
And #3 I say, “I’m sorry I don’t share that information unless I’m giving a class.”
Now – any tips for when you craft show neighbor starts telling your customers how to make your crafts?! That really upset me when another vendor did that once!
Comment by Heather — June 10, 2010 @ 12:41 pm
Heather, I’d probably ignore that last situation. First of all, other people don’t necessarily know how you made something, even if they think they do. Second of all, most people asking how to make something probably won’t actually go to the trouble and even if they do, the result probably won’t be as high quality since they don’t have much experience. I really wouldn’t worry about it. If they want to try to duplicate your work, let ‘em knock themselves out. You just don’t have to help them with the effort.
Comment by Meredith — June 10, 2010 @ 12:46 pm
using “Miss Manners” guidelines EVERYWHERE i go … “no, thank you” … “no, sorry, thank you” … “no, not now, thank you” … said with a “puzzled smile” … and NO explanations … because some people figure it doesn’t hurt to ask … and i choose not to let it hurt or bother me to answer
Comment by frill.friend — June 11, 2010 @ 12:36 pm
[...] 3 Cheapskates and How to Respond – Great advice on dealing with requests for discounts and freebies. [...]
Pingback by business buzz 6-12-10 — June 12, 2010 @ 4:09 am
I have been noticing more and more blogs requesting free samples. One alternative might be asking these blogs if you enclosed enough funds to cover the postage for mailing items back, would they consider working that way.
Reputable magazine publishers like Somerset Press has artists send their work with funds to cover return shipping and it works great! Maybe the smaller blogs could consider this to provide a break for the crafters out there. Both would benefit- the crafter gets exposure and the blog gets access to great content- and exposure, and the crafter gets her/his item back.
Comment by Faith — June 12, 2010 @ 7:13 am
Faith, quite honestly most “bloggers” asking for samples will not agree to this. They aren’t asking for samples because they need content, they’re asking because they want a free gift. People start blogs all the time for the sole purpose of getting freebies and do no real work to build a sizable readership. They don’t have a legitimate interest in helping the businesses they are collecting freebies from. They rely on finding gullible businesses who won’t check their site traffic.
Comment by Meredith — June 12, 2010 @ 7:33 am
Good post, especially for those who have a difficult time saying “no” for whatever reason. I do think #3 isn’t a terribly big deal…Some people really are just curious about the working process and do not want to steal ideas. They’re the sort who love watching “How It’s Made”.
I can’t believe bloggers are out there asking for free samples. When I did write an indie finds blog, I never once asked for a sample…I just looked around every night, found something I liked on Etsy or a shop site, and wrote about it. The end.
Comment by Jen — June 12, 2010 @ 11:49 am
Meredith- this is so good to know. A lot of newer sellers are not aware of the blogging for freebies tactic.
I would recommend only dealing with reputable blogs and magazines. The reputable ones will have a return policy provided you supply return shipping fees. I know Somerset Press does because I’ve had something published in Altered Threads, one of their magazines centered on upcycled garments. They prefer to have the object in shop so they can photograph it, but they returned it unharmed and I was only out the amount for shipping. They still get their content, but the artists gets to keep her/his artwork. Not bad at all!
Comment by Faith — June 12, 2010 @ 1:28 pm
You just have to be analytical about giving away freebies. Some high profile press will also ask for freebies and in those cases sometimes it is worth it to pay to play.
If you are dealing with a blog, you can get an idea of their site traffic from trafficestimate.com. Then you do some math. If they get 90k visits/month that’s around 3k/day. If you expect 5% of their readers will click through from the review you can expect 150 clicks, and if you expect a 1% conversion rate you should sell 1-2 things from this placement. Maybe a few more over time, since online placements stay up forever usually, and often bring sales months or years after the placement goes live.
You can play around with those numbers trying out best and worst case scenarios but you’ll see if the blog only has 50 readers/day it’s statistically unlikely you’ll get a single conversion from the placement and thus probably not worth the expense. You can get numbers to play with based on performance from past placements. (See what your site’s average conversion rate is. See how many click-throughs you got from past press placements vs. how much traffic the site had total, etc.)
I actually wrote an article about this specific topic last year. You can find it here:
http://smallerbox.net/blog/pr/giving-away-the-store-how-to-know-when-giving-away-product-is-good-for-business/
Comment by Meredith — June 12, 2010 @ 1:43 pm
[...] Smallerbox has 3 Cheapskates and How to Respond [...]
Pingback by Links – June 18, 2010 « Beautiful Flower Pictures Blog: Floral Photography by Patty Hankins — June 18, 2010 @ 2:08 am
When the people want to know how I make things, I tell them that from time to time, I offer classes in a specific technique. Of course this is for a price. That way, if they really want to know, they will pay for my expertise. It has worked out fine. Many of my students are regular clients as they’ve come to realize that creating something takes time, expertise and patience.
Yes, for discounts I have a mailing list. I offer two major discounts through out the year and plus the occasional friends and family discount.
Comment by Sol — July 7, 2010 @ 10:16 am
Great article and great responses! It always feels like a sticky situation when people ask for a deal at a craft show, but most people feel like “it doesn’t hurt to ask”. Luckily, 9 times out of 10 when you tell them you can’t offer a discount, they will buy anyway. It also bugs me when people ask if they pay in cash, will I not charge the sales tax. They are basically asking me to break the law by being sneaky and not reporting my cash sales. I do not appreciate being put in that position, and I am also not interested in paying their sales tax!
Comment by Beth — July 7, 2010 @ 3:10 pm
Beth,
They could also be asking because you avoid the fees of a credit card. If someone asks me to pay in cash, if its a small amount, I will sometimes not charge tax because I am saving on fees and it gets them through the line quicker.
Comment by Brooke — July 9, 2010 @ 11:13 pm