Sales Tip: Avoid discounts

Cornwell Tool Dealer Vito Abbinante of Schaumburg, Illinois is big on weekly specials. Each week he puts together a bag of specials to tote-and-promote at each shop. 

The specials are made up of the sales items from the Cornwell sales flyers, and then he mixes in a couple extra products of his own choosing. Those items are always sold at full price. By mixing in the promotional items with full-price items customers are viewing all the products, even those at a 'normal' price, in a new way. They view everything in the bag as a deal.

"I try not to discount, period," Abbinante says. "I do discount sometimes. In certain situations where I don’t have somebody on the books and I want to get their business, I’ll discount them."

But Abbinante doesn't make a habit of it. After nine years on his route he's found that products at full price during his tote-and-promote routine still sell.