Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am
Speaker 1: Matt and today we're talking about the art of asking
Speaker 1: for a discount. All right, man, that's right. Coming up
Speaker 1: on the show, we're going to talk about why you
Speaker 1: should ask for a discount, why it's hard for some
Speaker 1: people to ask for a discount, and then we're gonna
Speaker 1: go through step by step how to ask for a
Speaker 1: discount it can be so hard. But first I wanted
Speaker 1: to thank everyone that listens. We appreciate everyone out there.
Speaker 1: Joel and I are going to ask you to please subscribe.
Speaker 1: It just really helps us out, gives the podcast like
Speaker 1: a little boost in the in the ratings, and it
Speaker 1: starts getting recommended it to other other folks. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: if you found any of these episodes and topics particularly helpful, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: we would love for you to spread the word, but
Speaker 1: but specifically subscribe on on whatever app you happen to use.
Speaker 1: That would be awesome, and also join our Facebook group.
Speaker 1: It's really funny we're posting different things throughout the week
Speaker 1: and uh having interesting conversations about you know, some of
Speaker 1: the topics that we're covering here on the podcast, and
Speaker 1: then other topics that just kind of out of the
Speaker 1: blue that people ask or that we're posting articles too.
Speaker 1: I'm enjoying it. Yeah, there's like minded folks up there,
Speaker 1: no doubt. All right, Matt, real quick, I wanted to
Speaker 1: tell you about this really cool website that one of
Speaker 1: my co workers sent my way because she knows I
Speaker 1: love saving money and I love Kraft Beer. And there's
Speaker 1: this really cool website called secret hopper dot com and
Speaker 1: it is what it sounds like. It is secret shopping. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so if you go to secret hopper dot com,
Speaker 1: you can sign up to be a secret shopper at breweries.
Speaker 1: And essentially what what you're doing is the brewery is
Speaker 1: you know, they don't know that you're a secret shopper,
Speaker 1: and you go into the brewery and you order some beers,
Speaker 1: you try them out, and then you write a report
Speaker 1: about what your experience was like, and you get your
Speaker 1: beers reimbursed by secret hopper dot com. Yeah, not just
Speaker 1: the beers too, but it's about like the space and
Speaker 1: like the tasting room and just like the whole experience. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So it's a really cool idea. I love what they're doing.
Speaker 1: If you like free beer, if you like saving money
Speaker 1: and you don't mind, and who doesn't, right, Yeah, So
Speaker 1: I mean if you're listening to this podcast, those things
Speaker 1: probably all kind of get your radar buzzing. Uh. And
Speaker 1: so Secret Hoppers a really cool site. Um. Sadly they're
Speaker 1: not available in Atlanta right now, so I couldn't take advantage, um,
Speaker 1: but definitely something I would be interested if they were
Speaker 1: available in my town. So go to secret hopper dot
Speaker 1: com if you want to check that out. I just
Speaker 1: thought that was neat and that the people that listen
Speaker 1: to this podcast in particular would kind of gravitate towards
Speaker 1: hopefully you're listening to this though. We want to be
Speaker 1: Secret Hoppers in Atlanta because we're already there anyways. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're going to be drinking the beer we're going to
Speaker 1: be drinking in the space, so like, yeah, pay us
Speaker 1: to do it. We'll we'll definitely take that job, gladly
Speaker 1: do it. Something that's kind of related and I guess
Speaker 1: to what we're talking about, Asking for a Discount, which
Speaker 1: is a podcast episode that aired years ago now, and
Speaker 1: funny enough and I both have listened to it, we've
Speaker 1: never talked about it. It's of this American Life episode
Speaker 1: and I forget what the episode is called, but it is.
Speaker 1: I think they called the good Guy disc Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I was gonna say, something along like good guy,
Speaker 1: good guy discount, something like that, but which I had
Speaker 1: already kind of been fascinating. Yeah, I've already been implumenting
Speaker 1: like a lot of these strategies in my life before
Speaker 1: I heard that. But and I listened to that episode
Speaker 1: and I enjoyed it, But I also think, uh, that concept,
Speaker 1: I think what we've gotten here is is different than
Speaker 1: the way they approached it there, and and I think
Speaker 1: there are some ways that in that episode, essentially his
Speaker 1: premise was asking people for the quote unquote good guy discount,
Speaker 1: and that felt like a little awkward to me because
Speaker 1: he said that people would just kind of look at
Speaker 1: him and be like huh yeah, and he'd be like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm a good guy, Like you're a guy,
Speaker 1: good guy, let's can I get the good guy discount?
Speaker 1: And that just seems like an awkward woid over. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it definitely seems a little more kitchy. Yeahah, And obviously
Speaker 1: it fit well for what they're doing for the show,
Speaker 1: So certainly we want to kind of address today we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about some of those things, but we're gonna
Speaker 1: dive more into like the meat of ways to ask
Speaker 1: for a discount to you. But it's a great podcast though,
Speaker 1: This American Life. Give some other favorites that that you
Speaker 1: listen to, oh Man, totally. I'll tell you a couple
Speaker 1: of the ones I listened to, and and I'll be honest,
Speaker 1: I'm such a nerd. Most of them are personal financial related,
Speaker 1: I really. I think the one I can't get enough of,
Speaker 1: probably my favorite that I love listening to is How
Speaker 1: I Built This with Guy Robs. Yeah, freaking love that one.
Speaker 1: The guy Roses. Uh, he's everywhere. Yeah, I didn't really.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's got so many shows now and he's
Speaker 1: a baller. That's my favorite. And I think too, it's
Speaker 1: it's in that sphere that I enjoy. But it feels
Speaker 1: a bit of business, a little bit of like personal
Speaker 1: story narrative. Yeah, it feels a little more like like
Speaker 1: can't eating candy though that I can get It's like
Speaker 1: I can get away with it. But because it's still
Speaker 1: in my sphere, you know what I'm saying, Like, it's
Speaker 1: not quite as like nuts and Bolts personal finance it
Speaker 1: feels like it's a story. Guilty pleasure is because it's
Speaker 1: a story. I I enjoy that a lot. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: dig that one too. Something. I mean, I've been surprised
Speaker 1: that some of the people he's he's had on where
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm not going to be interested in
Speaker 1: this one at all, and they're totally fascinating. You know,
Speaker 1: the five Guys. Have you listened to five? Yes? That's uh.
Speaker 1: He started out literally making burgers like in Philly or
Speaker 1: something like somewhere up north with like his brothers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he just didn't seem to have any interest in
Speaker 1: it to a certain extent. Who I was. I thought
Speaker 1: it was amazing that he's gotten so far. He accidentally
Speaker 1: became like the fastest growing burger place, you know, nationwide.
Speaker 1: It's insane. It really is incredible, And there's so many
Speaker 1: good stories like that. Do you ever listened to ninety
Speaker 1: nine p I but I have friends are rape about it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's worth worth checking out. I like that one. So.
Speaker 1: So I used to be a designer, and so this
Speaker 1: podcast is all about design and they look at all
Speaker 1: sorts of design. So everything from some simple like a
Speaker 1: product that you can hold and use every day to
Speaker 1: like cities and just everything, and they just really go
Speaker 1: into the history of it and talk about how it's
Speaker 1: implemented and just yeah, I really dig it. It's kind
Speaker 1: of a nerdy design. It keeps me um connected of
Speaker 1: my graphic design routes, and uh, yeah, I like it
Speaker 1: all right, you have to check it out, Okay, I will.
Speaker 1: I will. A couple of others that I'm into. I
Speaker 1: really like Radical Personal Finance. Um, this guy Joshua does
Speaker 1: that podcast, and he's he's really good, really smart guy.
Speaker 1: Enjoy listening to him. Another one if you're into real
Speaker 1: estate investing, Bigger Pockets. I don't listen to all of
Speaker 1: the episodes of either of those, but I really like
Speaker 1: kind of the direction they go in and what they're
Speaker 1: talking about. Yeah, and every and I love to hear,
Speaker 1: you know, real estate investing stories, how people are doing it,
Speaker 1: how people are doing it differently than me, and I
Speaker 1: can kind of implement some of those strategies into my life. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then I really love long form interviews. I've just
Speaker 1: always been a fan. I don't know if I'm allowed
Speaker 1: to say that. I used to like Charlie Rose because
Speaker 1: he's kind of disgraced now at this point, but I
Speaker 1: loved his show. That was like my favorite. And Joe
Speaker 1: Rogan is kind of doing that in podcast and everyone
Speaker 1: knows that he's got essentially the number one or two
Speaker 1: most listen to podcasts out there. But he does really
Speaker 1: great long form two three, sometimes longer our interviews with people.
Speaker 1: Some of those are in saying I'm just like, how
Speaker 1: can you just keep going? Yeah, but some of the
Speaker 1: people are incredible. I again another one. I don't listen
Speaker 1: to all of them, but if there's an interesting person
Speaker 1: on their compelling, compelling individual, I totally willing to give
Speaker 1: two and a half hours of my time. Maybe I
Speaker 1: should listen to more of like the Personal Finance podcast,
Speaker 1: considering that's kind of what we do. But really the
Speaker 1: like the most personal money like Personal Finance and Money
Speaker 1: I kind of get, is like the MPR Planet Money,
Speaker 1: and I'm pretty religious about it that I really like them.
Speaker 1: I literally listened to every single one, even though it's
Speaker 1: like NPR, it's a kind of sterile, it's kind of
Speaker 1: cleaned up, sanitize. Maybe when they're they're not drinking booze
Speaker 1: on those, I mean, I guess occasionally there was that
Speaker 1: one about vodka. Yes, oh my gosh, maybe we should
Speaker 1: link to them one because that was a man I
Speaker 1: thought that was an amazing and amazing story. And then
Speaker 1: one of my other favorites, Actually, I listened to a
Speaker 1: bunch of h Atlanta United Soccer podcast. Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: like a bunch. I don't know if we've talked about
Speaker 1: how many I listened to you, but you you listened
Speaker 1: to like at least two. How many do you listen to?
Speaker 1: War now? O'm oh my gosh, I'm trying to cut
Speaker 1: one of them out, but two of my favorite hosts
Speaker 1: on one of them actually just started a new one.
Speaker 1: It's called Unrelegated H A t L. I believe they've
Speaker 1: only released one episode, but I listened to it, and
Speaker 1: it's gonna be good. It's like right in the sort
Speaker 1: of vein that I want to hear stuff talked about
Speaker 1: where it's it's not too technical, where it's just a
Speaker 1: bunch of like dudes that played soccer in high school
Speaker 1: and are now kind of like you know that coach
Speaker 1: as well, Like they don't get super technical, they keep
Speaker 1: it light, but at the same time they hit all
Speaker 1: the good good knowledge I want to I want to
Speaker 1: hear discussed sort of like maybe we do with personal finance.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Yeah, I know. I mean I think
Speaker 1: we aim to be and I don't know that we've
Speaker 1: really told our listeners. It's like we aim to be
Speaker 1: that place kind of in the middle. Like I think
Speaker 1: there's people out there that have personal finance podcasts that
Speaker 1: are like super hardcore, and then there's other people that
Speaker 1: are completely just winging it. Uh, And I think you
Speaker 1: and I were sitting around literally drinking beers on the couch. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just like happened to toss on microphone in their la
Speaker 1: or something like that. And we want to be really
Speaker 1: intentional here out what we're talking about and the points
Speaker 1: that we're making their well thought through their their planned
Speaker 1: these podcasts. We discuss what we're gonna talk about, and
Speaker 1: we're very intentional about you know, what makes it in
Speaker 1: and what doesn't into this podcast. But we're also two
Speaker 1: thirty something dudes with a lot of other things going
Speaker 1: on in our lives. So we want this podcast to
Speaker 1: be kind of that blend between getting all the facts
Speaker 1: that you need most of the facts at least. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna give you some of the facts and then
Speaker 1: some of that kind of relational and yeah, like we're
Speaker 1: kind of just hanging out having beers and talking money.
Speaker 1: I mean essentially that's how I mean, that's how this
Speaker 1: whole thing started, right because we would sit around and
Speaker 1: drink beers and talk about money in personal finance and
Speaker 1: real estate and investing, and there are some numbers you
Speaker 1: need to know, but then there are other things that
Speaker 1: can be left to to other people to explain exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that beings said, we appreciate you guys listening, and
Speaker 1: that'll be it. False. Let's get to beer. Oh man,
Speaker 1: I'm so excited about these beers. So once you get
Speaker 1: started cracking these open. Jill brought a bunch of beers
Speaker 1: back from France on that trip he went on, and
Speaker 1: I'm super stoked to try some of these craft French
Speaker 1: beers that are going in the direction of craft beer,
Speaker 1: like like they're in the States, but obviously they're from
Speaker 1: a different country. So yeah, today we're gonna try to beers.
Speaker 1: And what are these called? Man, Please tell me they're
Speaker 1: not in French, because you're gonna slaughter the hell out
Speaker 1: of him. That's the interesting thing about these the French
Speaker 1: beers and and from some of the styles I was
Speaker 1: seeing over there, they're very much trying to be like
Speaker 1: American craft beer. Like the styles that they're going for,
Speaker 1: the kind of absurdity of some of the some of
Speaker 1: the names and some of the combos. They're really trying
Speaker 1: to go big like some of the American craft beers.
Speaker 1: It seems like really pushing the boundaries. Well that's because
Speaker 1: when when you think of European beers, what do you
Speaker 1: think of? You think of these old school for the
Speaker 1: most part, right old school pilseners and loggers that have
Speaker 1: been around for centuries, I mean literally right centuries. Oh yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: And when you think of like French styles, I guess
Speaker 1: you normally assume like a French farmhouse kind of style,
Speaker 1: like a season something kind of rustic at table beer.
Speaker 1: And so the two beers I've chosen for tonight out
Speaker 1: of the beer trade I did, And if you want
Speaker 1: to see how many beers and what beers I got,
Speaker 1: check out our Instagram page and we posted a picture
Speaker 1: of kind of my beer hall from France. But the
Speaker 1: two beers tonight are a vanilla milkshake I p a
Speaker 1: from a brewery called Man that sounds awesome as ammut
Speaker 1: I believe, and then a probably throw an accident on
Speaker 1: in there. Yeah, right, and then an Imperial berlinervice made
Speaker 1: with Heller tau Blanc. Nice, very good jos maybe from
Speaker 1: a brewery called Ponting. Can you read my daughter's madeline? Next?
Speaker 1: I feel like you can get all the all the
Speaker 1: accents just right. I'll put your kids to sleep. Man,
Speaker 1: what is an Imperial berlinervice? I'm excited. I don't think
Speaker 1: I've ever had an Imperial burllinervice. And by the way,
Speaker 1: the label on this one's really cool. We'll have a
Speaker 1: picture up at our websites. You can see the labe
Speaker 1: on that Imperial Berliner. It's just so so cool. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And the reason Matt I chose the first one that
Speaker 1: we're gonna drink, which is the Imperial Berliner with white grapes,
Speaker 1: I thought this one might have like kind of the
Speaker 1: most wine resemblance, and coming from France, where do they
Speaker 1: specialize in wine, I kind of wanted to bring back
Speaker 1: a beer that had some of those kind of wine
Speaker 1: notes going on, and this one totally does. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: it's totally does. This is really really good. It's probably
Speaker 1: the most wine like beer I've ever had. Ye, Like
Speaker 1: I can, I mean, I can picture the grapes like
Speaker 1: as I'm drinking. Yeah, yeah, white grapes. Yeah, that's delicious. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I know that even in the United States right now,
Speaker 1: that's this is a style that's kind of becoming popular.
Speaker 1: Firestone Walker and some other breweries are starting to kind
Speaker 1: of especially California breweries, starting to brew hybrid beers, so
Speaker 1: they're this mix between beer and wine, and so I'm
Speaker 1: definitely interested to try more of those kind of beers.
Speaker 1: This one seems very much like that in that vein,
Speaker 1: and it's delicious. I think it's just because of the grapes,
Speaker 1: Like it's making me think a little bit about like muscadines,
Speaker 1: like musk muscadine wine, a little bit like sweetness. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Like it's just got that sort of thick skin kind
Speaker 1: of grape piness to it. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I think the best word is mustiness. It's got that
Speaker 1: great mustiness to it. Yeah, I'm with you. This is
Speaker 1: really good man. Thanks for bringing this back. I like
Speaker 1: your thoughts, you like with your heads that bringing back
Speaker 1: something that's kind of like whin ish. Yeah, I figured
Speaker 1: I had to. I had some great wine while while
Speaker 1: I was there. I know the French microbrewers are doing
Speaker 1: a lot of things that try to resemble American beers,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to bring something back that felt kind
Speaker 1: of uniquely French. Yeah. Yeah, and so that this one
Speaker 1: definitely does that. So now onto the vanilla milkshake. I
Speaker 1: p a, Yeah, take a little slip your water, cleanse
Speaker 1: that palett. Yeah, two beers at the same time. Oh man,
Speaker 1: this smells nice and yeah, a little funky. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: definitely got lacto smoothness combined with a little bit of funk. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Brett funk too. Man, this is does it say it's
Speaker 1: specifically Brett. I don't know, Matt, I can't read French.
Speaker 1: I'm looking for words that look like they might say Brett. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's got It's definitely got that funk level going uh
Speaker 1: and that kind of smooth lactose, a little bit of
Speaker 1: vanilla in there. Definitely not as hoppy or fruity as
Speaker 1: some of the milkshake I pa s that I've had
Speaker 1: here in the States. Yeah. Man, it's almost got this
Speaker 1: herbal sort of quality, like less fruit less hot, definitely
Speaker 1: less hot I mean, it's kind of almost a misnomer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh man, Yeah, some of those beers we've had that
Speaker 1: are like confused with tea. I'm yeah, I'm with you.
Speaker 1: It's got a little bit of that t vibe and
Speaker 1: and it's good. I like, I like some beers with
Speaker 1: tea in them. Um, that's a style. I think I've
Speaker 1: only had two or three of uh, But this one
Speaker 1: it's not build like that, So I'm not sure if
Speaker 1: that's like what they're going for on purpose. And this
Speaker 1: is definitely interesting. I don't think I've ever had a
Speaker 1: beer that tasted quite like this, but I will, but
Speaker 1: I will. I will say it's also like it though. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's good, but it's also not my favorite. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be like, oh, you gotta go get a bottle
Speaker 1: of that, Whereas the the Imperial, the Imperial Berlinervice, that's
Speaker 1: freaking fantastic. I'd say you definitely need to try that. Well, dude,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for bringing these over. You know what,
Speaker 1: that's one of my favorite things about craft beer is
Speaker 1: sharing it with friends that appreciate it. There's something really
Speaker 1: great about having a conversation over beer, enjoying it together.
Speaker 1: And that's what we do here on the podcast. And man,
Speaker 1: I love that because there's something great about drinking a
Speaker 1: good beer by myself at home, but it's better when
Speaker 1: it's shared. So plus the fact that you got this
Speaker 1: when you're traveling too. It's kind of like buying a keepsake,
Speaker 1: you know, like something, but instead we just get to
Speaker 1: drink it, you know, my favorite way, better than just
Speaker 1: sticking on your fridge. Right. Well, one of my favorite
Speaker 1: things about traveling is when you book far enough in advance,
Speaker 1: you have months and months and months to look forward
Speaker 1: to it, and then you get to enjoy the trip
Speaker 1: itself and then hopefully, you know, you bring back some
Speaker 1: sort of souvenir like this. Every time I pop a
Speaker 1: bottle over the next over the course of the next
Speaker 1: six months or a year, and like I told you,
Speaker 1: I still have a bottle left from Amsterdam. Every time
Speaker 1: I see that, you know, it takes you back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it reminds me about the trip and that beer trade,
Speaker 1: the people I met, and the fun I had. And
Speaker 1: that's really fun to get to kind of relive, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, relive that trip over and over as you
Speaker 1: see those things or you know, that's why Emily and
Speaker 1: I try to buy a piece of art from everywhere
Speaker 1: we go, just a little reminder that token. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: so every time we see it on our wall, reminded
Speaker 1: that was that trip. And that's really fun. I love
Speaker 1: having little reminders of the places that we've been. I'm
Speaker 1: with you, man, I love it all right. Matt onto
Speaker 1: the topic of hand the art of asking for a discount,
Speaker 1: and I have to confess before we get too far
Speaker 1: into this, that I've kind of always enjoyed haggling, Like
Speaker 1: I like flea markets, I like Craigslist, and I know
Speaker 1: that that's probably a little odd. I don't think most
Speaker 1: so you've always been that way. Yeah, pretty much, I've
Speaker 1: kind of always enjoyed ever since you're like a little kid.
Speaker 1: You're kind of like into that and bartering or figuring
Speaker 1: out a way to get something cheaper or just I
Speaker 1: like talking with people, like pretty much anybody, and so
Speaker 1: that's just kind of a way that you talk with
Speaker 1: somebody as opposed to just paying the amount that that's requested.
Speaker 1: Is working on the price. Having of you all wondered
Speaker 1: if Joel likes talking to people, right, Yeah, but I
Speaker 1: will say I think some of the things that we're
Speaker 1: gonna share here. You don't have to be naturally inclined. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't have to be extrovert, which is which is
Speaker 1: what you are, right, So I think that has a
Speaker 1: lot to do with why obviously you like talking to people,
Speaker 1: and I think that definitely translates into like haggling and
Speaker 1: kind of trying to get a deal. I will say
Speaker 1: I remember as a kid, my parents, especially my my dad,
Speaker 1: asking for a discount, like at restaurants, and he's in
Speaker 1: the military and so he would always ask for a
Speaker 1: military discount, and I just remember as a kid hating that,
Speaker 1: like I'm just sitting there. I'm just like, man, just
Speaker 1: just pay for it. And I think that's more of uh,
Speaker 1: like an embarrassed middle school are But you're embarrassed about
Speaker 1: everything in middle school, so yeah, you're going to be
Speaker 1: about embarrassed about anything your parents, but that specifically, I
Speaker 1: just I just remember that standing out, being like, man,
Speaker 1: let's just pay for the full amount here, Like I'll
Speaker 1: just pitch in a few bucks, let's just do this
Speaker 1: and go. But now that I'm an adult, I'm like, nah,
Speaker 1: that's my money. That being said, I didn't grow up
Speaker 1: kind of with that mentality. It wasn't until I had
Speaker 1: my own money, my own job where yeah, I made
Speaker 1: that connection that this is my money and I need
Speaker 1: to make sure that I'm making it stretch and go
Speaker 1: as far as I wanted to. Well, I think that's
Speaker 1: probably the first point that we need to make is
Speaker 1: that whatever you're asking for a discount on, it's your money,
Speaker 1: and so if you don't ask for the discount, no
Speaker 1: one else is looking out for you. No one else
Speaker 1: is going to make sure you get the right deal
Speaker 1: or you get the price that you want. And so
Speaker 1: if you don't do it, no one else will. Whether
Speaker 1: it's a good or a service that you're asking for
Speaker 1: a discount on. The mindset behind it is protecting your
Speaker 1: money so they can work for you the way you
Speaker 1: wanted to. Ye, Man, I think a big part of
Speaker 1: that too is just knowing that that's an option. I
Speaker 1: think most folks just kind of go through life and
Speaker 1: they just think, oh, you know, you get a bill
Speaker 1: or you receive a quote or whatever it is, and
Speaker 1: you just pay it. And obviously that's probably I think
Speaker 1: that's what most folks do. But kind of having that
Speaker 1: knowledge is I think what's missing and just know that
Speaker 1: that is an option and knowing that you can do
Speaker 1: that and hopefully too by the end of this podcast
Speaker 1: you as listeners. That's what we're hoping that you kind
Speaker 1: of get from this is uh is hearing that like cool,
Speaker 1: I can sort of ask for a discount. It's not
Speaker 1: a huge deal. Yeah. I think most people don't know
Speaker 1: that it's an option, right, and and there's certainly some
Speaker 1: parts of life where it's not an option. So for instance,
Speaker 1: let's say you are renting a place and you are
Speaker 1: in a lease for a year with a landlord, and
Speaker 1: you pay a thousand dollars a month for rent. Uh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can't negotiate months a month asking for a discount
Speaker 1: when you have assigned lease for a certain amount that
Speaker 1: you're supposed to pay every month. That's not good form,
Speaker 1: you know. So just know that there are certain times
Speaker 1: that it's uncouth, and I think you can use a
Speaker 1: little bit of common sense and hopefully some of the
Speaker 1: things we lay out here in order to know kind
Speaker 1: of when that is and when asking for a discount
Speaker 1: is just a terrible idea. If Joel thinks it's uncouth,
Speaker 1: you've better watch out though, exactly because I feel like
Speaker 1: you ask anybody and everybody for anything. Uh what does
Speaker 1: that mean? Well, I'm just saying you're not scared, right,
Speaker 1: like can I have your firstborn child? Yeah? What? Why
Speaker 1: would you ask me that? Like? It was not But
Speaker 1: kind of along those lines, we kind of got started
Speaker 1: talking about this topic because we were we both came
Speaker 1: across this article that I was talking about negotiating and
Speaker 1: asking for discounts specifically to credit cards, and man, some
Speaker 1: of the stats they had on there were freaking amazing.
Speaker 1: They said that the biggest reason consumers don't negotiate or
Speaker 1: or ask for discounts is because they don't know that
Speaker 1: they can, but that when people do ask, it's amazing
Speaker 1: what they're able to get. Specifically, people who asked, we're
Speaker 1: able to get a late fee waived and just dropped,
Speaker 1: just straight incredible, right, Yeah, Like, I mean that's a
Speaker 1: ton of people, but who doesn't how many people don't
Speaker 1: do it? Right? They see the late fee, they're like
Speaker 1: a crap, I was late paying the bill. I deserve
Speaker 1: to pay the fee. I'm just gonna do it, And
Speaker 1: so you just end up, you know, sucking it up
Speaker 1: and paying that extra money out of your bank account
Speaker 1: to the credit card company when you can make a
Speaker 1: nice little four minute phone call and ask the representative
Speaker 1: in a in a kind voice, if you can get
Speaker 1: the late few waves this month because it was purely
Speaker 1: accidental and it won't happen again. I assume you've done
Speaker 1: this right. I've done it before and it works, and
Speaker 1: I've done it. I've done it a few times too.
Speaker 1: Like normally I am just on top of, you know,
Speaker 1: my my payments and stuff. Sometimes specifically Actually it was
Speaker 1: before a vacation. It was like a trip when the
Speaker 1: my payment cycle fell when I was when when I
Speaker 1: was gone, and I just, you know, you just don't
Speaker 1: think about that kind of stuff when you're on vacation.
Speaker 1: And I didn't take care of it ahead of time,
Speaker 1: and came back to freaking yeah late payment fee and yeah,
Speaker 1: I just gave him a call and dropped it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Same here. It's it's something like that that falls through
Speaker 1: the cracks. Like once every few years, something like that happens,
Speaker 1: and I called in and every time it's happened, you know,
Speaker 1: two or three times now at this point, they've always
Speaker 1: reversed it. The other thing too. In that survey, most
Speaker 1: people that ask for a credit card limit increase, usually
Speaker 1: get that yeah. And episode ten we dedicated to how
Speaker 1: to improve your credit score. Having a higher overall credit
Speaker 1: card limit available to you helps your credit score, and so, uh,
Speaker 1: the fact that most people are able to get that
Speaker 1: if they ask is pretty cool. So that article really
Speaker 1: helps solidifying my mind that that these aren't just odd
Speaker 1: things that I do, but these are things that everyone
Speaker 1: can be doing, and especially with credit card companies, for
Speaker 1: the most part, you'll be met with the resounding yes. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And something else man they covered in the article too,
Speaker 1: I thought was super interesting was the fact that it
Speaker 1: seems like from the research that they did was that
Speaker 1: specifically with people that were in the Midwest, they haggle
Speaker 1: way more than consumers of my kind of people, Salt
Speaker 1: of the Earth baby, that folks that are in more
Speaker 1: urban environments, you know, like in cities and uh, specifically
Speaker 1: on the East coast. But yeah, I just found that
Speaker 1: super interesting. They're just like I guess, folks in the
Speaker 1: Midwest are just way more about just trying to strike
Speaker 1: up a deal. You know. Well, it's interesting too, if
Speaker 1: you've traveled too many places and gone to many flea
Speaker 1: markets in other countries, you kind of see the different ethnicities,
Speaker 1: different people groups tend to kind of assume a certain
Speaker 1: amount of haggling, and other people groups, other other ethnicities,
Speaker 1: other countries. It's kind of frowned upon it. It's right,
Speaker 1: and uh, it's kind of interesting to see that too,
Speaker 1: that if you just pay the asking price in a
Speaker 1: place like China, they think you're an idiot because everybody negotiates.
Speaker 1: Everybody haggles. I mean really, I feel like it's literally
Speaker 1: almost in every country except for the US. I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe like US, the UK and France probably, yeah, most
Speaker 1: any other country that's not super snooty. I feel like
Speaker 1: they're all about haggling, which is more fun. I agree,
Speaker 1: I think it's fun. Well let's keep moving then, right.
Speaker 1: And so I think the biggest reason why a lot
Speaker 1: of people don't like to ask for a discount is
Speaker 1: because of rejection, right, I mean, I think that's one
Speaker 1: of my biggest sort of concerns. I do ask for discounts,
Speaker 1: but I don't think I feel as comfortable as you do.
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of universal, right. Nobody likes to
Speaker 1: ask for something and kind of put yourself out there
Speaker 1: and then be told no, you know, it's just it sucks.
Speaker 1: I definitely think that's the main reason that people don't
Speaker 1: do it. I think it's either shyness or fear of rejection.
Speaker 1: I think those are the two main reasons people decide
Speaker 1: not to ask for a discount, or they're unwilling to
Speaker 1: look like the person that broke the conventional rules. And so, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's true, the rule of convention for like straight laced
Speaker 1: folks that are like, oh, we don't ask for discounts,
Speaker 1: they'll be offended if I ask for a discount, rice
Speaker 1: or But let's dispel that rumor right now, most of
Speaker 1: the time, no one is greatly offended that you Usually
Speaker 1: businesses as well, right and most of time we're we're talking,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about businesses specifically. But a business
Speaker 1: is not offended if you ask for a discount. And
Speaker 1: lots of times you're asking the cashier or somebody like that,
Speaker 1: who might have a few options to give you a discount,
Speaker 1: or they might not. They might have some power or
Speaker 1: they might have no power to give you a discount,
Speaker 1: but ultimately they're not offended that you asked. They don't
Speaker 1: really care. They just work for the company. They either
Speaker 1: look at you and they say, no, I can't do that,
Speaker 1: or well, let me see what I can do, and
Speaker 1: so there's a option, or if there happens to be
Speaker 1: a manager and they're like, let me just wipe my
Speaker 1: card and sure, no one's asked me in like three years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but no one is. They're not offended at the fact
Speaker 1: that you right, and you're still going to even if
Speaker 1: you if you want to make the purchase anyway, you're
Speaker 1: still gonna be able to make the purchase and walk
Speaker 1: out of there with not hanging your head in shame
Speaker 1: because no one cares that you asked nobody. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: nobody cares, and honestly to like, I think it's important
Speaker 1: to keep in mind too that even though if they say,
Speaker 1: you know that is a rejection, just keep in mind
Speaker 1: that they're just saying no to your question. They're not
Speaker 1: saying that like no to you is like a human being, right,
Speaker 1: Like this isn't a counseling show, but like they're they're
Speaker 1: saying no to your question. And then you can kind
Speaker 1: of move on with life realizing that and just being like,
Speaker 1: all right, this is sort of like this isolated thing.
Speaker 1: If it doesn't work out, it's no big deal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I mean I think to this extends to other
Speaker 1: areas of life, right Like, so ultimately the advices go
Speaker 1: after it, ask for the discount. And when it comes
Speaker 1: to asking for a raise at work, asking for more money,
Speaker 1: asking for a bonus. I know at times I've just
Speaker 1: had to get over it, suck it up, and do
Speaker 1: it because because you know what you want, because I
Speaker 1: know what I want. I know, I feel like I
Speaker 1: know what I'm worth. And so but studies consistently show
Speaker 1: that people, especially when man sorry ladies are are not
Speaker 1: good at asking for a raise at work. And so
Speaker 1: hopefully this podcast, this episode gives you kind of that
Speaker 1: little bit of gusto to go walk into your boss
Speaker 1: with the knowledge, as we'll get to further on down
Speaker 1: in the podcast, how to walk in there and and
Speaker 1: ask for it appropriately, do it the right way. You
Speaker 1: want to walk in there armed, and so we'll talk
Speaker 1: about that in a second. But ultimately it extends to
Speaker 1: these other areas of life too. And you want to
Speaker 1: work the muscle of putting yourself out there because that's
Speaker 1: just a good muscle to exercise and it's gonna benefit
Speaker 1: you in a lot of arenas in life. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: like going in and asking for that raise or the
Speaker 1: promotion like that might be hard to do, Like if
Speaker 1: you just have never asked somebody for something that where
Speaker 1: you knew that that was gonna be a slam dunkey. Yes, right,
Speaker 1: but honestly, yeah, like working the muscle, I think doing
Speaker 1: something like this, like going into a store and asking
Speaker 1: for a discount or seeing if you can get a
Speaker 1: little free to be thrown in or something that kind
Speaker 1: of prepares you and it's it's really is like muscle.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's conditioning. And the more you get used
Speaker 1: to doing something like that, the easier that it's going
Speaker 1: to be when it comes time for something that's like
Speaker 1: a little higher pressure, like specifically work related, where you're
Speaker 1: you have to go to a boss or superior and
Speaker 1: present that request or or and ask them for that.
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be a lot easier for you
Speaker 1: if you've been haggling at the grocery store, you know,
Speaker 1: or like at the even at the yard sale or yeah,
Speaker 1: a couple of lemonade stand even, Well, don't berrate the
Speaker 1: little eight year old that's trying to be making man.
Speaker 1: That's like literally two ounces of alemates. You know that's
Speaker 1: not cool that being said. Like that happened to me. Man.
Speaker 1: The other like a few months ago, some kids were
Speaker 1: selling lemonade and I was like, all right, you know whatever,
Speaker 1: fifty cents or a dollar. The kid poured me like
Speaker 1: two ounces, and I was just like, man, look, man,
Speaker 1: can I get it like a little bit more because
Speaker 1: I'll pay you know, I'll pay you what you're asking,
Speaker 1: but I need. I'm thirsty, like I'm literally thirsty. And
Speaker 1: then you wrote that bad review on Yelp, and that
Speaker 1: was just that was unfair. Yeah. I called in the
Speaker 1: Georgia Business License shut that kid down. Did joker wasn't licensed? Man? Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think when you get a couple of wins under
Speaker 1: your belt, it gives you the confidence then to pursue
Speaker 1: asking for discounts on bigger purchases and then walking into
Speaker 1: your boss and asking for the race. So I think
Speaker 1: exercising this muscle, like we said, is such an important
Speaker 1: thing because getting that affirmative response a few times is
Speaker 1: this confidence building strategy that not only saves you money,
Speaker 1: but it also kind of reinforces this good habit that's
Speaker 1: going to benefit you in lots of other ways. Cool,
Speaker 1: let's talk about how to ask for a discount, man,
Speaker 1: you want to kick it off. Yeah, the first thing
Speaker 1: that you have to do. There's a lot of other
Speaker 1: good tips in here, but the first thing you have
Speaker 1: to do is be prepared with the proper information. If
Speaker 1: that's asking for a raise, then you want to know
Speaker 1: what people of similar ilk in your profession and get paid.
Speaker 1: If that's asking for a discount on a propane tank
Speaker 1: refill like I just did the other day at Kroger,
Speaker 1: you want to know what another store is charging. You
Speaker 1: want to be armed with that information. You want to
Speaker 1: have it maybe on your smartphone, at your fingertips. You
Speaker 1: want to be able to quickly recite a reason why
Speaker 1: you should be getting that discount. And if you're not
Speaker 1: prepared with the information, your request for that discount is
Speaker 1: likely going to fall on deaf ears. Yeah, So specifically
Speaker 1: to that, a lot of companies price match now right,
Speaker 1: like it's store policy. If you knew that and you
Speaker 1: went in and you had like a competitor's rates, well
Speaker 1: then boom, you've got your as your leverage. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: so particularly I think the best price matching policy is
Speaker 1: at home depot. If their competitor has a better price,
Speaker 1: they will beat it by right, And so most people
Speaker 1: just price match exactly the same amount. So let's say
Speaker 1: you didn't want to drive to Walmart, the targets closer
Speaker 1: target will price match. That's cool, you got the same price.
Speaker 1: You didn't have to drive us far. But home depot,
Speaker 1: I'm saving an extra ten percent on top of what
Speaker 1: their closest competitor usually lows is charging. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: so those kind of discounts are already built into the equation.
Speaker 1: They know it's listed on their website, so know the
Speaker 1: store's policy as well. That's another great thing to be
Speaker 1: armed with what their policy allows for. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: I mentioned I went into Kroger to try to get
Speaker 1: a price match on a propane tank refill, and I
Speaker 1: knew that from their website they didn't seem to be
Speaker 1: huge into the price matching thing. They didn't tout it.
Speaker 1: I wasn't sure they did it at all, but I
Speaker 1: see that being like a Kroger priority right to be
Speaker 1: honest with. But you know, I still had the gall
Speaker 1: and yeah, you gotta gotta go for it, man, you
Speaker 1: gotta ask to ask for it. Anyway, I had it
Speaker 1: pulled up on my phone. Hey, here's what Walmart charges.
Speaker 1: And you know what, I wasn't successful that time, but
Speaker 1: I'm often successful, uh in these strategies work out for me.
Speaker 1: But you have to be armed with the information and
Speaker 1: you have to be ready to show someone a web
Speaker 1: page or their own store policy or a coupon or something. Yeah, yep, exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's like your AMMO. That's how you like arrive ready.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't want to present like a battle.
Speaker 1: It's not like a fight, but like literally that's what
Speaker 1: you're presenting to kind of present your case. But I
Speaker 1: think what you said to man, that's that's that's so clutch.
Speaker 1: You still went for it, and honestly too. That's again
Speaker 1: this is like an overarching thing. But the whole reason
Speaker 1: you need to ask for a disk count, right, like
Speaker 1: we're talking, we're saying how this is like the art
Speaker 1: of asking for a discount, is that if you don't ask,
Speaker 1: the answer is already going to be no. If you
Speaker 1: don't ask, you're not going to get the discount. So
Speaker 1: may as well just try, even if it seems like
Speaker 1: it's Kroger and they don't really give a damn. And
Speaker 1: so you're just gonna have to get your propane at
Speaker 1: full price. So you also want to be human, smile,
Speaker 1: be kind. Nobody wants to help or do a favor
Speaker 1: for a jerk, So you can't go in expecting that
Speaker 1: they're going to give a discount. You can go in hoping,
Speaker 1: and you can go in armed with the proper information,
Speaker 1: but you're gonna want to be kind and treat that
Speaker 1: person like a human and ask them nicely. You just
Speaker 1: need to like, yeah, be cool. I came across this
Speaker 1: quote as well online that I thought it was awesome.
Speaker 1: Her name is Amanda Palmer, and she was specifically talking
Speaker 1: about kind of asking people, like making requests of people,
Speaker 1: not specifically for like a discount, but you know, this
Speaker 1: kind of fits in the same vein. And she said
Speaker 1: that through the act of asking people, I connect with them,
Speaker 1: and when you connect with them, people want to help you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so it kind of it's it seems counterintuitive, and
Speaker 1: that's what she was talking about. She's specifically, I think
Speaker 1: she was addressing like singers and songwriters, you know, artists,
Speaker 1: But it kind of seems counterintuitive to think that, well,
Speaker 1: when you ask somebody, oh, their natural inclination is gonna
Speaker 1: want to be to like recoil, you know, be like
Speaker 1: oh no, thank you, you know, sorry. But but what
Speaker 1: she was saying is that what she finds is that
Speaker 1: by asking people like you're able to kind of connect
Speaker 1: with them on a sort of human level. And when
Speaker 1: you do that, you're known and you're kind of going
Speaker 1: out there and you're putting putting yourself out there and
Speaker 1: then people want to help you. That just really resonated
Speaker 1: with with me when I read that, I just thought
Speaker 1: it was awesome. But I think especially if you're honest,
Speaker 1: earnest and direct, right, and if you if you act
Speaker 1: like that, if you walk in and you are direct
Speaker 1: with your need, with your desire, um, don't talk in
Speaker 1: circles about what you want. People respond to you when
Speaker 1: you approached them from a standpoint of not trying to
Speaker 1: rip them off, not trying to get something that you
Speaker 1: don't deserve, but kindly asking for something that seems reasonable. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well that's the other thing too, is it just that
Speaker 1: asking for a discount is kind of a rare thing, right,
Speaker 1: Like if you're just kind of talking your way around
Speaker 1: a topic with a salesperson, like they're not going to
Speaker 1: know what you're looking for, you know, And so I
Speaker 1: think literally just to be like, hey, look, I'll be honest,
Speaker 1: this is my budget, or look, I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: get a deal. I love this product, whatever it happens
Speaker 1: to be being direct and letting just letting them know
Speaker 1: what you want, because they might immediately be like, look, no,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I just I literally don't have the power
Speaker 1: to do that. I can't help you. Cool, Well, you
Speaker 1: don't need to waste your time, like, no one's got
Speaker 1: time for that, right right, But if you're able to
Speaker 1: kind of connect with them on a human level, then
Speaker 1: they're gonna help you out. Yeah. One quick example, Matt
Speaker 1: was when Emily and I were shopping for a couch
Speaker 1: right before we got married, uh, for my new house
Speaker 1: and furniture shopping and what was about to be engaged
Speaker 1: and what was about to be our new house. And
Speaker 1: we went to Creton Barrel and we were looking at
Speaker 1: the cleanerance section of furniture that they had there. We
Speaker 1: found this couch. Ob Yeah, and we found this couch
Speaker 1: that we loved. It was really cool, totally in our style,
Speaker 1: and I think it was regularly a four thousand dollar
Speaker 1: couch marked down to something like four that's a great price.
Speaker 1: That's a great discount. Still out of our price range, yes,
Speaker 1: still a price of couch. And so we had decided
Speaker 1: we had eight hundred dollars to spend. So I asked
Speaker 1: the sales associate, is there any chance that you can
Speaker 1: discount this couch any further? And they said, well, we
Speaker 1: could take two more off, but but that's it. And
Speaker 1: I asked if there was a chance of it getting
Speaker 1: further reduced in the near future, and she said, every
Speaker 1: week they take stock of their inventory and decide how
Speaker 1: much further they're going to market down. So we'll call
Speaker 1: back Wednesday and ask. So I called back Wednesday and
Speaker 1: they still weren't ready to market down to the price
Speaker 1: that I wanted. And then I called back the following
Speaker 1: Wednesday and they were. And so if I hadn't asked
Speaker 1: for the discount, if I had just seen the price
Speaker 1: tag and walked away, we never would have gotten that couch.
Speaker 1: And we're so excited to get it. Plus you get
Speaker 1: the like sort of rush of like getting a great
Speaker 1: deal too, right, Oh, totally totally yeah, I totally probabe
Speaker 1: on that. Uh, but it's such a good lesson for
Speaker 1: me that asking, even at a kind of fancy place
Speaker 1: of business like Crate and Barrel, asking them for the
Speaker 1: discount and then finding that it actually, you know, in
Speaker 1: the long run, it didn't work right then and there,
Speaker 1: but it's this kind of lesson in patience and asking
Speaker 1: and seeing what happens. And the people there were super
Speaker 1: happy to help. And it took a little bit longer
Speaker 1: than I thought. Most times when I asked for a discount,
Speaker 1: it's a little more instantaneous yes or no. But that
Speaker 1: was kind of fun that we got the couch we
Speaker 1: wanted at the price we wanted. And if we hadn't
Speaker 1: asked we want, seen the price tag and walked away,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't happened. Yeah, exactly, man, just being direct, right,
Speaker 1: and so like because of that, they were able to
Speaker 1: let you know that, like, hey, look, this is how
Speaker 1: it works. It's almost like they kind of gave you
Speaker 1: a peek behind the curtain. They're like, this is how
Speaker 1: we do it every week on Wednesdays, I guess they
Speaker 1: kind of reevaluate, uh, take stock of inventory. That's a
Speaker 1: good way to do it. And you wouldn't have known
Speaker 1: that had you not just sort of right up to
Speaker 1: ask exactly and kind of on the flip side of
Speaker 1: that though, if I mean if they say no, if
Speaker 1: you're out there shop and you need to be willing
Speaker 1: to walk, Yeah, And for me that means too that
Speaker 1: you have to note the price point of the item
Speaker 1: that you're asking about the discount for, and how much
Speaker 1: it might be sold for other places or what that's
Speaker 1: going for having that knowledge, and so you have to
Speaker 1: be willing to walk. And I think sometimes people sometimes
Speaker 1: they'll call your bluff. Sometimes they'll call your bluff and
Speaker 1: you need to just high tail it out of there.
Speaker 1: And this applies to too if you get the deal
Speaker 1: or if you don't get the deal, right, Like, if
Speaker 1: you get the deal, then sweet, you need to definitely
Speaker 1: be gracious and thankful. But even if you don't get
Speaker 1: the deal, you don't need a pout and like storm
Speaker 1: out the store and like knock something over or leave
Speaker 1: a bad review on Yelp or something you know awful,
Speaker 1: like we're joking about it, like the Molotov cocktail to place,
Speaker 1: or get too crazy, gonna burn this mother down. You're
Speaker 1: all gonna pay for this. You'll regret that you said
Speaker 1: no to me. Yeah, exactly, know, like you need to
Speaker 1: be human, you need to be cool and being a
Speaker 1: decent human being. That's that's a huge part of that.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean I think, you know, going back
Speaker 1: to what we talked about originally the This American Life episode,
Speaker 1: the good guy discount, I think kind of that gets
Speaker 1: at the heart of it. Uh, that that he said,
Speaker 1: you know, you're a good guy. I'm a good guy?
Speaker 1: Can I get the good guy discount? Again? A terrible
Speaker 1: way to ask. I think it's super awkward, but it
Speaker 1: should be the thing that is unsaid. It's kind of
Speaker 1: brilliant though, because it does put the person who's being
Speaker 1: asked at ease because they think that like, Okay, well
Speaker 1: this guy is nice. He's not gonna punch punch me
Speaker 1: or anything, but be nice without saying it. Hey, by
Speaker 1: the way, I'm a nice guy, can you give me
Speaker 1: a discount? Coman almost I'm an honest guy, because when
Speaker 1: you say tell me that you're honest or that you're nice,
Speaker 1: I'm automatically going to kind of probably assume the opposite.
Speaker 1: So just be nice and don't say it out loud.
Speaker 1: So quickly, Matt, let's talk about online ordering and kind
Speaker 1: of how to do the discount. I feel like a
Speaker 1: lot of these things have applied to in person asking
Speaker 1: for disco which is the hardest thing, which I mean,
Speaker 1: so it's why we wanted to spend the most time
Speaker 1: talking about this because that's think for most folks, that's
Speaker 1: the most difficult thing is looking at another human being
Speaker 1: in the eye, asking them a question with that's all
Speaker 1: the hard work of trying to get a discount in person. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's almost a bit easier to do online. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: there's definitely some techniques and some strategies that work great
Speaker 1: for online shopping. Yeah. So the first thing to do
Speaker 1: is really almost not like asking at all. It's kind
Speaker 1: of just a quick Google search and websites like retell
Speaker 1: me not or just googling a discount code for a
Speaker 1: company is kind of equivalent to asking for the discount,
Speaker 1: but it's really no human interaction involved. And lots of
Speaker 1: times you can find t discount on something that you're
Speaker 1: ordering from a website that you like, and if you
Speaker 1: skip that search process, you don't get the discount. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't even have to talk to him, but either
Speaker 1: it's so easy. So that's another way too, is just
Speaker 1: to hit up a company's Twitter account or like a
Speaker 1: lot of companies as well that are sort of service
Speaker 1: oriented or service related, they have like the chat now box,
Speaker 1: and man, I really don't use that at hunt. Do
Speaker 1: you use that a lot? I will say, especially with
Speaker 1: like my bank and some other things where I had
Speaker 1: questions cell phone provider for me, Oh yeah, they always
Speaker 1: have that, like how can I help you today? It's
Speaker 1: been great. And what's great about that too is this documented.
Speaker 1: Uh it's up there, and I always like screenshot it
Speaker 1: or save it and sometimes even have the option where
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, would you like to say this
Speaker 1: this conversation? Yeah, it's it's uh saved in your Twitter
Speaker 1: direct messages too, and so oh yeah, I think in Twitter.
Speaker 1: In our Monthly Bills episode, we talked about, you know,
Speaker 1: asking for a discount from your cable provider or internet
Speaker 1: provider and how Twitter is one of the best places
Speaker 1: to do that, and so asking for a discount on Twitter.
Speaker 1: Direct tweeting at the company or direct messaging a company
Speaker 1: that you like and follow can be a good tactic
Speaker 1: to ask for, you know, a ten percent cubant code
Speaker 1: off the item that you're considering buying. Or maybe asking
Speaker 1: for free shipping if that's not something that they offer.
Speaker 1: Those are kind of easy things to ask for that
Speaker 1: a company is more than willing to do in many
Speaker 1: cases in order to make that sale. Yeah, make that sale,
Speaker 1: keep a customer happy. So what would you do then
Speaker 1: if there isn't a chat box or if you can't
Speaker 1: hit him any up online, look for an email address
Speaker 1: to the company. And the bummer about that is sometimes
Speaker 1: it takes longer and you might have to hold off
Speaker 1: on your purchase. But I did this recently when we
Speaker 1: were forming our own LLC, right, the poor not poor
Speaker 1: LLC Boom, we're incorporated, that's right. So trying to sue us,
Speaker 1: I mean, wait, no, don't But so Mama says, we're botafied.
Speaker 1: We were doing it the cheap way through legal zoom
Speaker 1: dot com, which is great for kind of d I
Speaker 1: Y legal services or getting super cheap help. And so
Speaker 1: come on, we're poor, not poor. We're not. We're not
Speaker 1: gonna like hire a legit attorney. Right Still, I draw
Speaker 1: the papers together. But so they I had seen in
Speaker 1: the past that they had coupon codes after I did
Speaker 1: a little Google search, like they have some they're just
Speaker 1: inactive at the time, so I couldn't find one that
Speaker 1: was current, and so I decided to shoot an email
Speaker 1: to legal Zoom's email address. Took a couple of days
Speaker 1: for them to get back to me, but they said, hey,
Speaker 1: thanks for writing in. Here's a cupon code for off
Speaker 1: nice and so that's saved saved us some money, and
Speaker 1: it was worth wait in two days because it wasn't
Speaker 1: like we need needed to do it right then and there. Um,
Speaker 1: And so I would say, yeah, email is great. It's
Speaker 1: a little bit slower, but sometimes that can be worthwhile too.
Speaker 1: And if I hadn't asked, we would have paid full price.
Speaker 1: Thanks for saving me twelve fifty buddy, you got it, man,
Speaker 1: That's what I'm here for. So hopefully those were some
Speaker 1: like helpful actionable items. Right, In general, asking for a
Speaker 1: discount kind of takes more of like a salesman sort
Speaker 1: of mentality, right, Um, I think if you're sort of
Speaker 1: in that industry, asking for a discount might come a
Speaker 1: little bit easier. Um, and I dode. I think this
Speaker 1: is also why this is harder for a lot of
Speaker 1: folks who are kind of artists or if they own
Speaker 1: their own business, because that's just not how their brain works,
Speaker 1: and because of that, it's harder. I think they a
Speaker 1: lot of artists and people that are producing like a
Speaker 1: product or something that they're putting out there just think, well,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna focus on that and then that like
Speaker 1: people will come, it'll be found. But that's not how
Speaker 1: it works when it comes to asking for a discount,
Speaker 1: like you have to ask. Yeah, that's true if it's
Speaker 1: natural for you to ask for a discount, if you're
Speaker 1: not like in a sales job or in that sort
Speaker 1: of environment and you feel like you are more like
Speaker 1: that artist type where it's a little awkward and it's
Speaker 1: not your natural inclination. Remember, it is a muscle that
Speaker 1: you need to exercise and start small, ask for something little,
Speaker 1: and each time that you get a yes, it builds
Speaker 1: that confidence just a little bit. So first ask via
Speaker 1: email or something like that or via twitter. Uh. Starts small,
Speaker 1: ask for something little, and every time that you get
Speaker 1: a yes, boom, it's that move in the right direction
Speaker 1: and that muscle gets a little bit stronger and you
Speaker 1: feel like you can ask for something a little bit bigger,
Speaker 1: or maybe do it in person next time at a
Speaker 1: story you're at yeah, And kind of along those lines
Speaker 1: as well is the ability and working the muscle to
Speaker 1: say no. And so I guess I'll start kind of
Speaker 1: thinking down this path a little bit. So you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a small business owner, I'm a creative, and sometimes
Speaker 1: I get asked for discounts, and I think, man, sometimes
Speaker 1: creatives get sort of been out of shape when they
Speaker 1: are asked that because they think, oh, man, like they
Speaker 1: don't respect my work, like they don't value what I do,
Speaker 1: and it kind of ruins their whole attitude for the
Speaker 1: day or for that customer specifically. Right when I think
Speaker 1: I've been in it long enough now that I realized
Speaker 1: that it's fine to ask for a discount, Like sure,
Speaker 1: anybody can ask me a discount, I might say no.
Speaker 1: And so I think that's sort of on the flip
Speaker 1: side of it, right, build that muscle and get stronger,
Speaker 1: get more used to asking for a discount. But if
Speaker 1: you're on the flip side of that, if you're someone
Speaker 1: that provides a service or someone that sells a product,
Speaker 1: you also need to sort of build the muscle and
Speaker 1: kind of have the ability to lay boundaries and say
Speaker 1: no when you know that it's not either appropriate, or
Speaker 1: it's not best for the business or even for personal reasons,
Speaker 1: like if they came in demanding it or something and
Speaker 1: they seem entitled, and if it's not something you want
Speaker 1: to compromise on, then I think that's something that is
Speaker 1: very worthwhile to sort of build up and get used
Speaker 1: to doing, because otherwise you're just gonna get walked all over.
Speaker 1: And as a creative and as like an entrepreneur, they're like,
Speaker 1: there's nothing that sort of dampens that fire to want
Speaker 1: to do that than feeling like everyone's just trying to
Speaker 1: like screw you over. So question for you, have you
Speaker 1: given discounts to clients when they ask and if so,
Speaker 1: did some of these kind of things that we discussed
Speaker 1: come into play the way somebody asked, and their directness,
Speaker 1: their humanity, and their preparation with rates from other photographers,
Speaker 1: Did any of those things kind of come into play
Speaker 1: for you to grant that discount. Yes, people do ask
Speaker 1: for discounts, not like all the time, but it's not
Speaker 1: an uncommon thing for folks to ask for a discount. So,
Speaker 1: you know, as a wedding photographer, sometimes folks will come
Speaker 1: to me and say, Hey, I'm getting married, on a
Speaker 1: Friday or or a Sunday, do you offer discounts for that?
Speaker 1: And sometimes they are prepared. That's one of the points
Speaker 1: we talked about earlier. They never say specifically who. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like general and vague, which is probably smart
Speaker 1: at least in your line of work. When you're going
Speaker 1: into Target, you want to say that Walmart's going yeah.
Speaker 1: But in your line of work, it makes sense that
Speaker 1: they say, you know, I've got another similar It's a
Speaker 1: little more relational, and I guess it's a little less
Speaker 1: lazy to say, hey, like we've been talk to talk
Speaker 1: about some folks and they don't want to like just
Speaker 1: put everybody up against each other. But but yeah, they've
Speaker 1: come to me and said, hey, there's another photographer and
Speaker 1: they're willing to include a second photographer for the same rate.
Speaker 1: Or they offered discounts for on Saturday weddings, things like that,
Speaker 1: And and sometimes I do you know, it just depends
Speaker 1: on sort of my book of business. If I'm crazy busy,
Speaker 1: well sorry, you know, I just can't. I can't offer
Speaker 1: a discount. I'm already too busy as it is. But
Speaker 1: if it's pretty far in advance and it says, say,
Speaker 1: it's a month where I don't have anything on the
Speaker 1: books yet, that's once something I'll completely consider and I
Speaker 1: definitely never think less of them, uh, and it does
Speaker 1: not affect how I view them as people or how
Speaker 1: I treat them as clients. One of the ways that
Speaker 1: I was surprised that we were now we're able to
Speaker 1: get a discount was with delivering a baby. Um so
Speaker 1: back when we had our yeah, I did it for
Speaker 1: twenty bucks. It was quite the deal. Back when we
Speaker 1: had Vye, our oldest daughter, we didn't have maternity included.
Speaker 1: But with Evy, we're paying out of pocket because we
Speaker 1: were doing self pay and we had heard that you
Speaker 1: could talk to the hospital and get a reduced rate.
Speaker 1: We went to the billing department there at the hospital
Speaker 1: ahead of time, before everything went down right, they agreed
Speaker 1: to a specific rate that they offer for patients that
Speaker 1: are looking to self pay. And we not only did
Speaker 1: that with the hospital, we did that with my wife's
Speaker 1: obie and all the other doctors and bills that you
Speaker 1: get in the mail after the fact, which heads up
Speaker 1: you get a ton of bills because obviously you've got
Speaker 1: the hospital and you've got your ob your doctor that
Speaker 1: delivers the baby. But there's just all these other little
Speaker 1: things too, like the hearing test and the epidural and
Speaker 1: you know, if you if you go that route, and
Speaker 1: there's just so many little things. And not a single
Speaker 1: one of those bills did we pay full price because
Speaker 1: I called them up, had a decent human conversation with
Speaker 1: them or in the case with the obie in the hospital.
Speaker 1: It's just something we talked about ahead of time and
Speaker 1: had a great reduced, agreed upon rate that we were
Speaker 1: able to set up. Yeah, and sometimes yet you can
Speaker 1: ask for the discount after the fact, but definitely in
Speaker 1: this case, better to ask beforehand. You're going to get
Speaker 1: a better rate negotiating that beforehand than afterwards. And we
Speaker 1: just wanted the peace of mind knowing that right going
Speaker 1: going into ahead of time. So and one thing that
Speaker 1: might affect a lot more people than that scenario to
Speaker 1: Amazon Prime will give you a discount. So Amazon Prime
Speaker 1: has guaranteed two day delivery on packages. We're still talking
Speaker 1: about delivery, but that's a good point. That's a good point. Uh,
Speaker 1: But let's say that package gets delivered in three to
Speaker 1: four days instead of two days. You can call Amazon
Speaker 1: primes number, and this is kind of a documented thing
Speaker 1: at this point, and ask for a free month and
Speaker 1: they'll say, well, why should we do that, Well, because
Speaker 1: the package wasn't delivered in two days, and that's kind
Speaker 1: of your deal, right Amazon Prime supposed to be here
Speaker 1: in two days, and they will give you an extra
Speaker 1: month of Amazon Prime service for free, So they'll add
Speaker 1: that on. So every time a package is delayed a
Speaker 1: little bit longer than expected, you can get that extra
Speaker 1: free month of Amazon Prime. I'm sure you can probably
Speaker 1: wear out your welcome over time and they will stop
Speaker 1: doing it. But that's kind of a cool thing just
Speaker 1: to know that that's a atually kind of part of
Speaker 1: their culture, part of their policy at this point, and
Speaker 1: asking for that discount doesn't hurt, but you just need
Speaker 1: to know that it's available and that you should be
Speaker 1: asking for it. And hopefully to a certain extent, this
Speaker 1: episode gives you the permission to ask. I think sometimes
Speaker 1: we think that we can't or we're gonna hurt somebody's
Speaker 1: feelings or that's a little uncouth, But that permission to ask,
Speaker 1: that's what this is right here, so exactly, and we
Speaker 1: would love to hear from you in our Facebook group
Speaker 1: or on the comments on the show notes of this
Speaker 1: post at Poor not Poor dot com. We would love
Speaker 1: to hear about the best discounts you've got. Yeah, I'd
Speaker 1: love to see that just by asking, so so toss
Speaker 1: those up we and we will hopefully share those on
Speaker 1: the future episode. That would be a lot of fun. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a really good one. I'll oh, man, I would
Speaker 1: love to share that, so, Matt. Back to the beer.
Speaker 1: We had two French beers brought back from my trip
Speaker 1: to France. A vanilla milkshake I p a. I'm not
Speaker 1: even gonna try to pronounce the brewery's name in an
Speaker 1: imperial for litteralise with hell tow blanc grapes. Yeah, both
Speaker 1: of these were great. You didn't like the vanilla milkshake
Speaker 1: I p as much, I will say, man, as it
Speaker 1: kind of warmed up the more I had it. It
Speaker 1: had like this sort of jasmine honeysuckle, sort of floral
Speaker 1: notes to it, kind of goes along with what you're saying,
Speaker 1: like the tea aspect of it, and I kind of
Speaker 1: kind of grew on me. It just wasn't quite my vibe.
Speaker 1: I usually like beers like that, but then this one
Speaker 1: had kind of some interesting flavor combos. It wasn't bad,
Speaker 1: but it's just not a beer that I would be
Speaker 1: I would want to go back to the Gallia Brewery
Speaker 1: that made the Imperial Berlin device that was absolutely delicious
Speaker 1: and the beer was not even outdone by this amazing artwork.
Speaker 1: That beer was so good as a sweet bottle. So
Speaker 1: it's so crazy about that is it's considered an Imperial
Speaker 1: Berlin of ice, which isn't something I've literally I've literally
Speaker 1: never had that before. I want to see more berries
Speaker 1: making Imperial Brillin of vices because this was fantastic. It
Speaker 1: was like a regular Brillin Brillin avice, but with just
Speaker 1: more flavor, you know. It was just more aggressive and
Speaker 1: the grapes came through like gangbusters. It felt like I
Speaker 1: was biting into the grapes in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: That nice musty, winey kind of quality, uh in this
Speaker 1: beer was really fantastic. That this was like an impeccably
Speaker 1: made beer. And yeah, I wish I had more of
Speaker 1: these because that was really really good. Awesome Joel, Let's
Speaker 1: go ahead and do a quick recap and then we'll
Speaker 1: end this episode. Yeah, man, So the art of asking
Speaker 1: for a discount. Most people don't even think to do it,
Speaker 1: and usually that's because they're afraid of getting rejected. No
Speaker 1: one likes being turned down for something. But just know
Speaker 1: they're saying no to the question, not to you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then how to ask for a discount. I think
Speaker 1: the most important thing is to be prepared. Right. If
Speaker 1: you don't know what it is that you're looking for,
Speaker 1: what it is that you're gonna ask for, and if
Speaker 1: you don't have sort of the leverage, specifically, if you
Speaker 1: don't know what a competitor is offering, um, you're not
Speaker 1: gonna be able to get quite the deal and you're
Speaker 1: not gonna be able to present the information and make
Speaker 1: a case. You want to be prepared. You want to
Speaker 1: know what's out there. You want to have that information
Speaker 1: ready to go when you are about to ask for
Speaker 1: that discount. That's right, And you want to be human.
Speaker 1: Smile look people in the eyes also very important, right
Speaker 1: and uh, and I think people respond when you ask
Speaker 1: kindly and you're not expecting to get something for free.
Speaker 1: People don't want to do a favor for a jerk,
Speaker 1: So be kind, yeah, man, being nice, like you're able
Speaker 1: to make that human connection and like that that's just
Speaker 1: so important. And the other thing too, when you're asking
Speaker 1: for discounts too, is it just builds up that muscle.
Speaker 1: Like we talked about earlier. It gets you used to saying,
Speaker 1: it gets you used to asking, and it also gets
Speaker 1: you used to being told no, getting used to that rejection.
Speaker 1: And over time that's something that you'll get better at
Speaker 1: doing and hopefully you'll find that kind of translates into
Speaker 1: other aspects, other areas of your of your life as well,
Speaker 1: like asking for a raise or really just kind of
Speaker 1: going after something you want to do and hopefully it
Speaker 1: will work out for you. But ultimately the answer is
Speaker 1: always going to be no if you never ask, Yeah, Matt.
Speaker 1: Essentially it's like cross fit for your ask for a
Speaker 1: discount muscle, right, And so I've never done cross it,
Speaker 1: but I'm assuming that it's good and then you get
Speaker 1: strong So um, yeah, that's what you people do, get stronger.
Speaker 1: I know that that's to here. Thanks for listening. Our
Speaker 1: home on the web is how to money dot com.
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