Discounting can be an easy way to get attention.
Put a big percentage off your services in front of potential clients and you may get plenty of interest.
But there’s a bigger question to ask:
Are those clients actually good for your salon business?
I’ve worked with salon owners who have used heavily discounted promotions to generate new clients or bring in some quick cash.
Sometimes it works.
Sometimes it creates more problems than it solves.
The important thing is to understand what you’re trying to achieve before you start discounting.
Discounting Isn’t the Same as Marketing
A promotion can get people through the door.
But getting someone to book an appointment is only the beginning.
You need to consider what happens after that first visit.
Will they come back?
Will they book again at your normal price?
Will they recommend you?
Will they buy other services or products?
And perhaps most importantly:
Did you actually make money from the promotion?
It’s easy to look at the number of new clients generated by an offer and think the promotion has been successful.
But new clients aren’t necessarily profitable clients.
You need to look at the whole picture.
What Does the Discount Really Cost You?
Before you run a promotion, work out what the discount is actually costing your business.
If you normally charge $100 for a service and offer it for $60, you’ve given away $40.
But that’s not the only cost.
You also have the cost of the products used, wages, rent, payment fees and the value of the appointment time you’ve used.
And there’s another cost that can be easy to overlook.
Opportunity cost.
If a discounted client takes an appointment that could have been sold to an existing client at your normal price, the promotion may be costing you more than you realise.
That’s why filling the appointment book isn’t automatically the same as improving profitability.
When Can Discounting Make Sense?
I’m not against promotions.
There are situations where they can be useful.
For example, you might use a targeted offer to:
- Fill normally quiet appointment times
- Introduce a new service
- Encourage an existing client to try something they haven’t experienced before
- Generate some short-term cash flow
- Give a new team member an opportunity to build experience
- Reactivate clients who haven’t visited for some time
The key is to have a clear reason for the promotion.
Don’t simply discount because the salon is quiet.
Ask yourself:
“What am I trying to achieve with this promotion?”
Then decide how you’ll measure whether it worked.
Be Careful Who You Attract
One of the biggest traps with discounting is attracting people who are primarily looking for the cheapest price.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting good value.
But if your salon is built around quality, expertise and service, you need clients who value those things too.
Someone who visits because you’re 50% cheaper may not be interested in returning when the price goes back to normal.
That doesn’t mean every discounted client is a poor prospect.
Some will become loyal, full-paying clients.
But you shouldn’t assume that simply because someone comes through your door, they’ll automatically become a regular client.
The goal isn’t to attract as many people as possible. It’s to attract the right people for your salon.
What Happens After the First Visit?
This is where your team becomes important.
If you run a promotion, don’t leave the conversion of that client to chance.
Give your team a clear plan.
Make sure they know:
- What the promotion includes
- What it doesn’t include
- How to deliver the service
- What other services may genuinely be appropriate
- How to recommend home care
- How and when to discuss the next appointment
The goal isn’t to pressure someone into spending more.
It’s to give them a great experience and make appropriate recommendations based on what they actually need.
Then give them a reason to come back.
That’s where your salon’s client retention systems matter.
A discounted first visit is only valuable if you can turn it into a longer-term client relationship.
Don’t Train Your Clients to Wait for a Discount
There’s another risk with constant promotions.
Your clients can start to expect them.
If you’re regularly offering 30%, 40% or 50% off, why would someone pay full price?
They may simply wait for the next offer.
That can put you into a cycle where you need another promotion to generate the bookings you need.
And that’s not a particularly healthy place for a salon to be.
Your regular price should reflect the value of what you provide.
If clients only book when you’re discounting, it’s worth asking why.
What About Deal Websites?
Daily deal websites were once a major part of salon marketing.
The platforms and technology have changed, but the underlying question hasn’t:
Is giving away a large discount a good way to build a long-term salon business?
The answer depends on what you’re trying to achieve.
If you have genuinely quiet periods and can use a carefully controlled promotion to generate additional revenue without displacing full-paying clients, there may be a case for it.
But if your salon is already busy and you’re using deep discounts simply because you need more clients, you may be solving the wrong problem.
You could be filling valuable appointment time with work that produces very little profit.
Look at the Numbers Before You Decide
Before running any promotion, work out what success actually looks like.
For example:
- How many new clients do you want?
- How much will each client spend?
- What will the promotion cost you?
- How many appointments can you realistically handle?
- Which days and times will you offer it?
- How many clients do you expect to return?
- What percentage need to rebook for the promotion to make sense?
- What will the longer-term value of those clients be?
Then track the results.
Don’t just count how many vouchers or appointments you sold.
Look at what happened afterwards.
How many clients returned?
How many paid your normal price?
How much did they spend?
Did they buy retail?
Did they refer someone?
And ultimately:
Did the promotion produce a worthwhile return for your salon?
A Promotion Should Have a Job to Do
Discounting isn’t automatically good or bad.
It depends on why you’re doing it, how you structure it and what happens afterwards.
A well-designed promotion can help you achieve a specific business objective.
A poorly thought-out discount can simply make a busy salon busier while making the owner poorer.
So before you put another offer out there, ask yourself:
“What problem am I actually trying to solve?”
If the answer is quiet appointments, perhaps a targeted offer on specific days makes sense.
If the answer is cash flow, understand that a promotion may give you a short-term injection but won’t necessarily fix the underlying problem.
If the answer is that you need more clients, look at your overall marketing and client retention systems rather than assuming a bigger discount is the answer.
And if the answer is that your salon is busy but not profitable, discounting is probably worth looking at very carefully.
Don’t use discounting to hide a business problem that needs fixing.
Use it deliberately, measure the result and make sure the numbers stack up.
If you’re unsure whether your salon’s biggest problem is attracting clients, retaining them or simply making enough profit from the clients you already have, that’s something we can work through together.
On a complimentary 30-minute Salon Bottleneck Breakthrough Call, we’ll look at what’s happening in your salon, identify the biggest bottleneck and work out what you should focus on first.
No pressure. Just clarity on what to fix first.
Book Your Salon Bottleneck Breakthrough Call