Before Your Next Promo, Run the 18-Point Diagnostic

When a quarter slips, most teams reach for the promo calendar first.

It makes sense. A discount is fast, easy to launch and easy to measure. But it usually treats the wrong problem. If the real issue is the product, the team or the checkout, a promo hides it for a few weeks and trains customers to wait for the next code.

There’s a better first step: diagnose before you discount.

Where the framework comes from

Sol Price founded FedMart and later Price Club, the warehouse club that set the template for modern membership retail. Jim Sinegal worked under him at FedMart before co-founding Costco, and he credited Sol for much of what he knew about the business.

Sol gave his teams a simple checklist he called the Six Rights:

The right kind
In the right place
At the right time
In the right quantity
In the right condition
At the right price

Most people read this as a merchandising list. The part they miss is that Sol didn’t apply it only to merchandise. He applied the same six rules to his product, his people and his facilities.

Six rights times three areas gives you 18 checks. Only one row of the grid is about price.

The 18-point diagnostic

I turned the Six Rights into a scorecard for today’s commerce teams. Go through each question and score it green, yellow or red.

Product

Kind: Does our hero SKU solve a real problem?
Place: Are we on the platforms our buyer scrolls?
Time: Are we in stock before launches and Q4?
Quantity: Do our bundles and pack sizes lift AOV?
Condition: Does the unboxing match the ad?
Price: Does our margin survive CAC and shipping?

A discount can’t fix the wrong product.

People

Kind: Do we have the right skills for this stage?
Place: Is someone clearly accountable for every channel?
Time: Are we hiring ahead of the bottleneck?
Quantity: Do we have the right balance of team vs. agencies?
Condition: Is CX trusted to fix problems on the spot?
Price: Does our pay keep the people we can’t lose?

A team without clear owners will keep reaching for the easiest lever.

Site & ops

Kind: Is our channel mix right for this buyer?
Place: Can they find us in two taps on mobile?
Time: Does delivery meet the promise?
Quantity: Can our 3PL handle peak demand?
Condition: Are speed, checkout and returns working?
Price: Is our tech stack worth what it costs?

Any “no” here is a leak a discount won’t plug.

How to use it

The goal isn’t 18 greens. No business has that.

The goal is to find the red cell that’s costing you the most and fix that first. Run it with your team before the next promo goes on the calendar. If price really is the red cell, you’ll know a discount is the right move. If it isn’t, you just saved margin.

Why Sol protected price

Sol refused to use loss leaders. He priced from cost with the smallest markup he could, so customers got a fair price on everything instead of a great deal on one item and a quiet markup on the rest.

That idea maps directly onto modern commerce. A traditional loss leader gives up margin on one item to win the rest of the cart. A sitewide discount habit gives it up on everything, and there’s no full-price cart left to make it back.

Discount once, and it’s a tactic. Discount always, and it’s your price.

“Isn’t this just the 7 Rs of logistics?”

Close. The 7 Rs (right product, quantity, condition, place, time, customer and price) are a supply chain standard, and they overlap with Sol’s list.

The difference is scope. The 7 Rs cover getting product to the customer. Sol used the same rules to check his people and his facilities too. That’s what turns a logistics checklist into an operating diagnostic for the whole business.

Key takeaways

Most growth problems get treated as price problems first, because a promo is the fastest lever.
Sol Price’s Six Rights apply to product, people and site & ops, not just merchandise.
That’s 18 checks, and only one row is price.
Score each cell, find the red one that costs you most, and fix it before you discount.

Where’s your red cell right now?