---
id: "action-implement-price-hurdles"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["§ Serve customers who value products at less than their selling prices"]
tags: ["tactics", "segmentation"]
related: ["concept-discounting-hurdles", "concept-profit-cannibalization"]
speakers: ["Rafi Mohammed"]
action: "Erect hurdles like coupons or price-matching to force budget-conscious customers to self-identify."
outcome: "Limits profit cannibalization while capturing incremental sales from price-sensitive buyers."
sources: ["commercial"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-commercial"
originDay: 5
articleStem: "hbr-ext-22-art-of-discounting"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/05/the-art-of-discounting"
sourceTitle: "The Art of Discounting"
---
# Implement price hurdles to segment customers

**Action:** Require customers to take a specific action — use a coupon, request a price match, sign up for an email list — to access a discount. This is the operational form of [[concept-discounting-hurdles]].

**Why:** Only price-sensitive customers will bother clearing the hurdle, so full-price buyers keep paying full price, protecting margins.

**Outcome:** Limits [[concept-profit-cannibalization]] while capturing incremental sales from budget-minded buyers. (Calibrating hurdle height is the unresolved tension in [[question-optimal-hurdle-friction]].)