
Ask HN: Details regarding the offering of discounts? - cdvonstinkpot
Hi,<p>I&#x27;m gearing up to offer the following as a reseller:<p>a) Domain Name Registration<p>b) WebMail &#x2F; Calendar &#x2F; Cloud Storage<p>c) Small Hosted WordPress Websites<p>It&#x27;s crossed my mind that it would help fuel referrals if I were to offer discounts to specific groups. Specifically:<p>&quot;100% &#x27;No-Profit&#x27; Discount for Police, Active Service Military Personnel, Paramedics, &amp; Animal Shelters&quot;, where they&#x27;re only charged &#x27;cost&#x27; for the projects I do for them.<p>For those who&#x27;ve done something similar in their work, what did you wish you had known before offering this type of discount? And what did you learn after doing so?<p>What comes to mind first to me is, how should I go about verifying qualification for these rates? Maybe I should restrict it to full-time work at these professions, to be sure someone&#x27;s not doing the bare minimum to qualify.<p>...But that&#x27;s as far as I&#x27;ve got with it.<p>Thanks,<p>-c
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codegeek
"it would help fuel referrals if I were to offer discounts to specific groups"

Offering discount is not necessarily a trigger to get referrals. Referrals
happen when clients love your product/service and hardly due to discounts.

You could surely offer discounts to non-profits as a nice gesture but don't
get your hopes on them getting you referrals. Instead, I will even say that
offer the same pricing to everyone and do a great job at providing service to
clients.

Also, in my experience, a client who gets a discount does not magically become
great and sends referrals. In fact, they may remain the same and now they are
costing you more by you charging them less.

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taprun
The usual method in the US is to require clients to prove that the are
501(c)(3) organizations.

