A blank sage green price tag with a curled corner and a slack copper string

Rory Sutherland: people don't buy products, they buy psychological states. A 10% discount changes the price and leaves the state alone.

The buyer who left the cart was unconvinced about the fit or the return policy. Or they were waiting on a partner, or wondering whether they had picked the right one.

A coupon doesn't speak to any of that.

What the Data Says

  • Most consumers now wait for a sale before buying anything mid-priced. The buyer trained the brand to discount, then learned to wait.
  • Constant discounting erodes perceived brand value within a year.
  • The discount you fired in week 1 is the price the buyer expects in week 6.

So the discount is doing 2 jobs at once: conceding margin and eroding pricing power. In a high-consideration category, neither addresses why the buyer hesitated.

What Does Work

A conversation that picks up where the buyer left off and asks the unanswered question. Memory across the thread, so a salesperson walks in already knowing the buyer's last objection.

With the model, the thread opens within minutes of the pause, with a question and no discount. Reply rates run high on high-AOV products, because the question lands while the doubt is still fresh.

The Reframing

The buyer who was going to buy does not need the coupon. The one still on the fence needs a conversation.

The next time you're tempted to ship a coupon, ask the smaller question first: what was the buyer unsure about? Then answer that.

Written by Sellence. The team building the persuasion model for financial services.