$100M Offers
At some point, every successful business owner was a wantrepreneur. A person full of ideas and frustrated at having potential to spare. Something clicks when they realize the horrible trade they (and so many people) make ― trading their freedom for (falsely) perceived security. Their discomfort compounds. And once the discomfort of staying the same surpasses the discomfort of change, they take the leap. I’m going to be an entrepreneur so I can be free. Free to do whatever I want, whenever I want, with whomever I want.
Much to the disappointment of the idealists on the sidelines, succeeding in business means getting prospective customers to trade us money for our services. Our passion for their hard-earned coins. That’s the agreement. The only way to facilitate that exchange, to transact, to literally carry out business as a business is by making the prospect an offer.
What’s An Offer Anyways?
The Two Main Problems Most Entrepreneurs Face and How This Book Solves Them
prospects savagely compare and belittle our services in favor of cheaper and crappier alternatives — with the cheapest one “winning.” This, of course, when “winning” means getting to work more for even less (sad face).
Let’s say you’ve slashed prices to get more customers. You may even have a full client load. But here you are, barely making it because profit margins are too thin. “Competition” becomes a race to the bottom.
What’s In It For You?
I’ve made my money doing this stuff, not teaching how to do this stuff, contrary to most of the marketing community at large. So my model is different (I’ll explain more in a second).
If you’re curious, my business model is simple, just like the four-piece pyramid logo: (1) Provide value at no cost far in excess of what the rest of the marketplace charges for. (2) Have entrepreneurs use materials that actually work and make money helping more folks (3) Earn the trust of the hyper-executor business owners who use the frameworks to scale their businesses (4) Invest in those businesses to make more impact at scale while helping everyone else for free. If you look carefully, the process reverse-engineers success. I think it’s pretty cool. Here’s how: I know these business owners can execute the frameworks I have without hand-holding, and therefore, would be very likely to succeed with the next set of frameworks (getting to $30M, $50M, $100M looks different than getting to $3-$10M). They know that my style works for them, because it already has. So we operate on shared trust - I trust they can execute, and they trust that our stuff works
if your company isn’t growing, it’s dying. This is a sobering reality for many of us. I learned the hard way, and my businesses suffered for a long time because of it. Let me explain. The market is continuously growing. The stock market grows at 9 percent per year. If we aren't growing at 9 percent per year, we are falling behind. “Maintenance,” in the most generic sense, would be 9 percent growth year over year.
So, then, what does it take to grow? Thankfully, just three simple things: 1) Get more customers 2) Increase their average purchase value 3) Get them to buy more times That’s it.
Example: If I sell 10 clients a month, and a client is worth $1,000 to me over their lifetime (through avg cart value x avg number of purchases), then my business will cap at $10,000/mo (10 x $1,000).
Gross Profit: The revenue minus the direct cost of servicing an ADDITIONAL customer. If I sell lotion for $10 and it costs me $2, my gross profit is $8 or 80 percent. If I sell agency services for $1,000/mo and it costs me $100/mo in labor to run that client's advertising, then my gross profit is $900 or 90 percent. Note: This is not net profit. Net profit is what’s left over after all expenses are paid, not just the direct costs of fulfillment.
Lifetime Value: The gross profit accrued over the entire lifetime of a customer. This is gross profit multiplied by the number of purchases an average customer will make over their lifetime.
Value-Driven vs. Price-Driven Purchases
A commodity, as I define it, is a product available from many places. For that reason, it’s prone to purchases based on “price” instead of “value.” If all products are “equal,” then the cheapest one is the most valuable by default. In other words, if a prospect compares your product to another and thinks “these are pretty much the same, I’ll buy the cheaper one,” then they commoditized you. How embarrassing! But really . . . it’s one of the worst experiences a value-driven entrepreneur can have.
This is a massive problem for the entrepreneur because commodities are valued at the point of market efficiency. This means that the marketplace drives the price down through competition until the margins are just enough to keep the lights on:
But What Does A Grand Slam Offer Do?
It’s an offer you present to the marketplace that cannot be compared to any other product or service available, combining an attractive promotion, an unmatchable value proposition, a premium price, and an unbeatable guarantee with a money model (payment terms) that allows you to get paid to get new customers . . . forever removing the cash constraint on business growth.
In other words, it allows you to sell in a “category of one,” or, to apply another great phrase, to “sell in a vacuum.” The resulting purchasing decision for the prospect is now between your product and nothing.
If you like fancy marketing terms, it breaks down like this: 1) Increased Response Rates (think clicks) 2) Increased Conversion (think sales) 3) Premium Prices (think charging a lot of money). Having a Grand Slam Offer increases your response rates to advertisements (aka more people will click or take an action on an advertisement they see containing a Grand Slam Offer).
Here’s the key takeaway from all this: a business does the same work in both cases (with a commoditized or a Grand Slam Offer). The fulfillment is the same. But if one business uses a Grand Slam Offer and another uses a “commodity” offer, the Grand Slam Offer makes that business appear as if it has a totally different product — and that means a value-driven, versus price-driven, purchase.
If you have a “commodity” offer, you will compete on price (having a price-driven purchase versus a value-driven purchase). Your Grand Slam Offer, however, forces a prospect to stop and think differently to assess the value of your differentiated product. Doing this establishes you as your own category, which means it’s too difficult to compare prices, which means you re-calibrate the prospect’s value-meter.
We want to make an offer that’s so different that you can skip the awkward explanation of why your product is different from everyone else’s (which, if they have to ask, then they are probably too ignorant to understand the explanation) and instead just have the offer do that work for you. That’s the Grand Slam Offer way.
New Grand Slam Offer Way (Differentiated, Incomparable) (Value-Driven)
Grand Slam Offer: Pay one time. (No recurring fee. No retainer.) Just cover ad spend. I’ll generate leads and work your leads for you. And only pay me if people show up. And I’ll guarantee you get 20 people in your first month, or you get your next month free. I’ll also provide all the best practices from the other businesses like yours. ● Daily sales coaching for your staff ● Tested scripts ● Tested price points and offers to swipe and deploy ● Sales recordings . . . and everything else you need to sell and fulfill your customers. I’ll give you the entire play book for (insert industry), absolutely free just for becoming a client. In a nutshell, I'm feeding people into your business, showing you, exactly, how to sell them so that you can get the highest prices, which means that you make the most money possible . . . sound fair enough?
If you play the same game everyone else does, you’ll get the same results everyone else does (mediocre). You hit singles and doubles, keep the lights on, but never get ahead. But remember the opening passage of this book: that when you align all the pieces, you can knock it out of the park so well that you win for good.
Summary Points This chapter illustrated the basic problem with commoditization and how Grand Slam Offers solve that. This gets you out of the pricing war and into a category of one. The next chapter will focus on finding the correct market to apply our pricing strategies to. It’s one of the most important things to get right. A grand slam offer given to the wrong audience will fall on deaf ears. We want to avoid that at all costs. We must detour from pricing for a moment to learn what to look for in a market. It’s an essential box to check before continuing on our journey.
A marketing professor asked his students, “If you were going to open a hotdog stand, and you could only have one advantage over your competitors . . . which would it be . . . ?” “Location! ….Quality! …. Low prices! ….Best taste!” The students kept going until eventually they had run out of answers. They looked at each other waiting for the professor to speak. The room finally fell quiet. The professor smiled and replied, “A starving crowd.”
At the end of the day, if there is a ton of demand for a solution, you can be mediocre at business, have a terrible offer, and have no ability to persuade people, and you can still make money. An example of this was the toilet paper shortage at the beginning of Covid-19. There was no offer. The pricing was atrocious. And there was no compelling sales pitch. But because the crowd was so big and so starving, rolls of toilet paper were going for $100 or more. That’s the value of a starving crowd.
A good friend of mine, Lloyd, owned a software business that served newspapers for almost a decade. They set up digital ad services on newspaper websites with a few clicks and instantly helped them sell a whole new ad product. He only charged them a percentage of the revenue he added. So if they made nothing, neither did he. It was pure gain for the papers and a great offer.
Let’s break it down. It wasn’t his product — that was great. It wasn’t his offer — he had a zero risk revshare model. It wasn’t his sales skills — he was a natural salesman. So, then what was the problem? He was selling to newspapers! His market was shrinking by 25 percent every year! He had looked at all the angles, except for the most obvious one. Finally, after years of fighting an uphill battle in his market, he realized his market was the source of his problems and decided to downsize his company.
Don’t worry — this story has a second half. To illustrate the power of a market, as soon as COVID hit, Lloyd pivoted. He started an automated mask manufacturing company. With new technology, he brought the cost per mask below what people could buy them for from China. Within five months he was doing millions per month. Same entrepreneur. Different market. He applied his same skill set to a business he had zero experience in and was able to win. That’s the power of picking the right market. I give you that story as a cautionary tale. Your market matters. Lloyd is a very smart human. He is obviously very capable. But we can all be blinded as entrepreneurs because we don't like to give up. We are so accustomed to solving impossible problems that we will keep ramming our heads into the wall. We hate quitting. But the reality is that everyone is affected by their market.
There is a market in desperate need of your abilities. You need to find it. And when you do, you will capitalize, all while wondering what took you so long. Don’t be romantic about your audience. Serve the people who can pay you what you’re worth. And remember that picking a market, like anything, is always our choice, so choose wisely.
In order to sell anything, you need demand. We are not trying to create demand. We are trying to channel it. That is a very important distinction. If you don’t have a market for your offer, nothing that follows will work. This entire book sits atop the assumption that you have at least a “normal” market, which I define as a market that is growing at the same rate as the marketplace and that has common unmet needs that fall into one of three categories: improved health, increased wealth, or improved relationships.
When picking markets, I look for four indicators:
1) Massive Pain They must not want, but desperately need, what I am offering. Pain can be anything that frustrates people about their lives. Being broke is painful. A bad marriage is painful. Waiting in line at the grocery stores is painful. Back pain . . . ugly smile pain . . . overweight pain . . . Humans suffer a lot. So for us entrepreneurs, endless opportunity abounds. The degree of the pain will be proportional to the price you will be able to charge (more on this in the Value Equation chapter). When they hear the solution to their pain, and inversely, what their life would look like without this pain, they should be drawn to your solution. I have a saying I use to train sales teams “The pain is the pitch.” If you can articulate the pain a prospect is feeling accurately, they will almost always buy what you are offering. A prospect must have a painful problem for us to solve and charge money for our solution.
Purchasing Power A friend of mine had a very good system for helping people improve their resumes to get more job interviews. He was great at it. But try as he did, he just could not get people to pay for his services. Why? Because they were all unemployed!
3) Easy to Target Let’s say you have a perfect market, but no way of finding the people who comprise it. Well, making a Grand Slam Offer will be difficult. I make my life easier by looking for easy-to-target markets. Examples of this are avatars that have associations they belong to, mailing lists, social media groups, channels they all watch, etc. If our potential customers are all gathered together somewhere, then we can market to them. If searching them out, however, is like finding needles in a haystack, then it can be very difficult to get your offer in front of any potentially interested eyes.
Growing Growing markets are like a tailwind. They make everything move forward faster. Declining markers are like headwinds. They make all efforts harder.
There are three main markets that will always exist: Health, Wealth, and Relationships. The reason that those will always exist is that there is always tremendous pain when you lack them. There is always demand for solutions to these core human pains. The goal is to find a smaller subgroup within one of those larger buckets that is growing, has the buying power, and is easy to target (the other three variables).
That is the idea. Think about what you are good at in regards to health, wealth, and relationships. Then think about who might value your service the most (is in the most pain), has the buying power to pay what you want (money), and can be found easily (targeting). As long as those three criteria are strong and the market isn't shrinking, you’ll be in good shape.
Too often, a newer entrepreneur half-heartedly tries one offer in one market, doesn't make a million dollars, then mistakenly thinks “this is a bad market.” Most times that’s not actually the case. They just haven’t found a Grand Slam Offer yet to apply to that market. They think, I’ll switch from helping dentists to helping chiropractors — that’s it! When, in reality, both of those are normal markets and represent billions of dollars in revenue. Either would work, just not both. You must pick one. No one can serve two masters.
When I truly grasped how much more profit I was leaving on the table, it changed my life. It was what took me from doing acquisition for anyone to teaching it to a specific avatar. In my instance, I decided on a microgym owner with ~100 members, a signed lease, at least one employee, and wanted to help clients lose weight. That’s pretty specific compared to “small business owners” or “anyone who will pay me” which is common. And I was very specific. In that business (Gym Launch) - we turned down - and still do - anyone who is not that avatar. That means no personal trainers, no online coaches, etc. Could I have helped them? Of course I could have. I mean heck, the majority of our portfolio is comprised of non-gym companies. But in order to maintain product focus, and high converting messaging, knowing exactly who the product was for was a game changer. It helped us know exactly who we were speaking to at all times. And exactly whose problems we were solving.
Niching Product Pricing Example: Example Product Price Time Management $19 Time Management For Sales Professionals $99 Time Management For Outbound B2B Sales $499 Time Management For Outbound B2B Power Tools & Gardening Sales Reps
So let’s go down another level of niching and call our product…. “Time Management for B2B Outbound Sales Reps.” Following the same principles of specificity, now we know our sales people probably have very experienced deals and commissions. A single sale would easily net this salesman $500 (or more), so it would be easy to justify a $499 price tag. This is already a 25x increase in price for almost an identical product. I could stop here, but I’m going to go one step further.
Think about it for a second, if you were a power tools outbound sales rep, you would think to yourself “This is made exactly for me” and would happily fork over maybe $1000 to $2000 for a time management program that could help you achieve your goal. The actual pieces of the program may be the same as the generic $19 course, but since they have been applied, and the sales messaging could speak so much to this avatar, they will find it more compelling and get more value from it in a real way. This concept applies to anything you decide to do. You want to be ‘the guy’ who services ‘this type of person’ or solves ‘this type of problem.’ And even more niched ‘I solve this type of problem for this specific type of person in this unique counter-intuitive way that reverses their deepest fear.” That’s why a fitness program for generic weight loss might be priced at only $19 while a fitness program designed and marketed only to shift-nurses might be priced at $1997….(even though the core of the program is likely similar - eat less, move more). End Result: The market matters. Your niche matters. And if you can sell the same product for 100x the price, should you?
If you try one hundred offers, I promise you will succeed. Most people never try anything. Others fail once, then give up. It takes resilience to succeed. Stop personalizing! It’s not about you! If your offer doesn’t work, it doesn’t mean you suck. It means your offer sucks. Big difference. You only suck if you stop trying. So, try again. You’ll never become world class if you stop after a failed attempt.
Making shit loads of money breaks people’s minds. It literally stretches their minds so far past what they believe is possible they assume you are doing something wrong or illegal. They literally “can’t even.” Why? Because they think to themselves . . . they can't be that much smarter than me or work that much harder than me, so how is it possible for them to make 1,000 times more than me? Enough money that it would take me literally ten lifetimes to make what they make in a year.
In the three years leading up to me writing this book, I took home over $1,200,000/mo in profit. Every. Single. Month. That’s more than the compensation for the CEOs of Ford, McDonalds, Motorola, & Yahoo . . . combined . . . every year . . . as a kid in his twenties. It angers those who believe life isn't fair. It confuses others who cannot comprehend and believe there must have been a mistake. And it inspires a select few, who are bound for greatness.
In order to understand how to make a compelling offer, you must understand value. The reason people buy anything is to get a deal. They believe what they are getting (VALUE) is worth more than what they are giving in exchange for it (PRICE). The moment the value they receive dips below what they are paying, they stop buying from you. This price to value discrepancy is what you need to avoid at all costs.
The simplest way to increase the gap between price to value is by lowering the price. It’s also, most of the time, the wrong decision for the business. Getting people to buy is NOT the objective of a business. Making money is. And lowering price is a one-way road to destruction for most — you can only go down to $0, but you can go infinitely high in the other direction. So, unless you have a revolutionary way of decreasing your costs to 1/10th compared to your competition, don't compete on price.
Dan Kennedy said, “There is no strategic benefit to being the second cheapest in the marketplace, but there is for being the most expensive.”
Most business owners are not competing on price or value. In fact, they’re not actually competing on anything at all. Their pricing process typically goes something like this: 1) Look at marketplace 2) See what everyone else offers 3) Take the average 4) Go slightly below to remain “competitive” 5) Provide what their competitors offers with a “little more” 6) End up at a value proposition of “more for less” And the big secret: those competitors they are copying are dead broke. So why on earth copy them? Pricing where the market is means you’re pricing for market efficiency. Over time, in an efficient marketplace, more competitors enter offering “a little more for a little less,” until eventually no one can provide any more for any less. At this point, a market reaches perfect efficiency, and the business owners participating make just enough at the end of the month to keep going.
in the margini learned this in microeconomics
Again, we are not trying to get the most customers. We are trying to make the most money.
That being said, since there is no strategic benefit to being the second-lowest priced player in your marketplace. Allow me to give you a brief overview of why I see premium pricing as not only a very smart business decision, but a moral one. Furthermore, it’s the only choice that will allow you to truly provide the most value, a unique and strong position in the marketplace. Let me introduce you to the virtuous cycle of price. Virtuous Cycle of Price
swing the argument even further in favor of higher prices, here are a few interesting concepts. When you raise your price, you increase the value the consumer receives without changing anything else about your product. Wait, what? Yes. Higher Price Means Higher Value (Literally) In a blind taste test, researchers asked consumers to rate three wines: a low-priced wine, a medium-priced wine and an expensive wine. Throughout the study, the participants rated the wines with the prices visible. They rated them, unsurprisingly, in order of their price, with the most expensive being the “best,” the second most expensive being “second best,” and the third, cheapest option, being rated as “cheap wine.” What the tasters didn’t know is that the researchers gave them the exact same wine all three times.
People want to buy expensive things. They just need a reason. And the goal isn’t just to be slightly above the market price — the goal is to be so much higher that a consumer thinks to themselves, “This is so much more expensive, there must be something entirely different going on here.”
One final point I want to drive home: if you offer a service where a customer must do something in order to achieve the result, or solve the problem you say you solve, they must be invested. The more invested they are, the more likely they are to achieve a positive result. Therefore, it follows that if you care about your customers, you should get them as invested as humanly possible. Ideally, this means pricing your services or product in such a way that it stings a little when they buy. That sting will force and focus their attention and their investment in your product or service. Those who pay the most, pay the most attention. And if your customers are more adherent and follow through, and if they achieve better results with your service than your competition, then you are in a very real way providing more value than anyone else. This is how you win.
Your product must deliver. So many wish to shortcut the real work. Do that and you will fail. In the real world, to have the “gonads” to charge big ticket prices, you must outwork your self doubt. You must be so confident in your delivery, because you have done it so many times, that you know that this person will succeed. Experience is what gives you the conviction to ask for someone’s entire year’s salary as payment. You must believe so deeply in your solution that when you look at yourself in the mirror at night, alone, your conviction remains unshakable.
One month, there was a gym we were scheduled to go fly out to. But, I simply didn’t want to do it. So I told them we were going to cancel the engagement. The gym owner practically threatened me to help him. So I said I would help him, but he would have to do all the work, but I would show him how. Within thirty days, this gym had made almost $44,000 in new upfront cash collected sales (4x their previous month). As soon as I saw that my process could be duplicated from afar, without me having to fly people in. . .our business exploded. I had found the missing link because my travel schedule was no longer a constraint. We went on to sell 4000+ more gyms over the next few years (and counting) using a done-with-you rather than a done-for-you model.
When I entered the space, low-price competitors offered full-service marketing for $500 per month, with a single high-price competitor charging $5,000 for his product. I wanted to be the premium price leader. I wanted to be so expensive that it created allure around what we were doing. So, we came in at three-times the highest-priced player and 32 times more than the lower-priced players. A price of $16,000 for a 16-week, done-with-you intensive. Then we upsold 35 percent of those people into a three-year, $42,000/year agreement for us to help them grow their gyms.
For context: The average gym owner makes $35,280/year in take-home profits. If that’s the average, it means half make even less than that. So for many of them, they were committing to half of their yearly pay or more to buy our program. And I was selling this to grown men as a kid in his twenties, telling them I was going to help them make more money. This was possible because my conviction was stronger than their skepticism. How? Based on a voluntary survey taken at our last full company event, with 158 gyms responding, we found that a Gym Launch gym who has been in our program for 11 months will experience the following average improvements: Top Line Revenue Growth: +$19,932/mo (+$239,000/yr) Recurring Revenue Growth: +$13,339/mo (+$160,068/yr) Bottom Line Growth (Profit): From $2,943/mo to $8,940/mo (3.1x!) Client Growth: +67 Churn (% of clients who leave each month): From 10.7 percent to 6.8 percent Retail Sales: +$4,400/mo in retail product sales revenue Prices: From $129/mo to $167/mo The survey just proved what I already knew. I had complete conviction in our product. I knew it worked. I had outworked my self-doubt.
We were able to charge a premium because we provided more value than anyone else in the industry. In a real way, we were charging on a fraction of what our clients made using our system. This is important. Our clients still got a deal. The gap between what they paid (price) and what they got (value) was massive.
From this point forward, you must abandon any notion you have about “what's fair.” Every enormous company in the world charges you money for things that cost them nothing. It costs pennies for the phone company to add an additional user, except they don’t mind charging you hundreds per month for access. It costs pennies to manufacture pharmaceutical drugs, but they don’t mind charging hundreds of dollars a month for it. Media companies charge advertisers a king’s ransom for your eyeballs, and it costs them next to nothing to get you to like kitten photos on social media. You need to have a big discrepancy between what something costs you and what you charge for it. It is the only way to be unreasonably successful.
yes, you should never charge more than your product is worth. But you should charge far more for your product and services than it costs to fulfill it. Think up to a hundred times more, not just two or three times more. And if you provide enough value, it should still always be a steal for the prospect.
I call it The Value Equation. Once you see it, you can never unsee it. It will operate in your subconscious, running in the background, calling out to you. It’s a new lens through which to see the world. The Value Equation
In the beginning of my career, I focused all my attention on dream outcomes and the perception of achievement (social proof, third-party edification, etc.). In other words, the top side of the equation. That’s where beginner marketers make bigger and bigger claims. It’s easy, and it’s lazy.
But as time has gone on, I have realized that these larger-than-life claims are the easiest to establish (and therefore less unique). After all, anyone can make a promise. The harder, and more competitive, are the Time Delay and Effort & Sacrifice. The best companies in the world focus all their attention on the bottom side of the equation. Making things immediate, seamless, and effortless. Apple made the iPhone effortless compared to other phones at the time. Amazon made purchases with a single click of a button and made purchases arrive almost immediately (maybe by the time you read this, they’ll be sending drones to our doors within 60 minutes). Netflix made consuming television immediate and effortless. So, the older I get, the more I have shifted my focus to “the hard stuff” — decreasing the bottom side of the equation. And I believe the better you do this, the more you will be rewarded by the marketplace.
The reason this is a division equation and not an addition (“+”) is that I wanted to convey one key point. If you can make the bottom part of the equation equal to zero, you’re golden. No matter how small the top side is, anything divided by zero equals infinity (which is technically undefined for the math nerds). In other words, if you can reduce your prospects' true time delay to receiving value to zero (aka you realize your immediate dream outcome), and…
Imagine clicking the purchase button on a weight loss product and instantly seeing your stomach turn into a six-pack. Or imagine hiring a marketing firm, and as soon as you sign your document, your phone begins ringing with new highly qualified prospects. How valuable would these products/services be? Infinitely valuable. And that’s the point. I don't know if we entrepreneurs will ever get there, but…
Perception is reality. It’s not about how much you increase your prospect’s likelihood of success, or decrease the time delay to achievement, or decrease their effort and sacrifice. That in itself is not valuable. Many times, they will have no idea. The Grand Slam Offer only becomes valuable once the prospect perceives the increase in likelihood of…
A prime example of this happened in the London tunnel system. The biggest increase in rider satisfaction (aka value) was never from faster trains to decrease wait times. Instead, it was from a simple dotted map that showed them when the next train was coming and how long they had to wait. The dotted map, which only cost a few million dollars, decreased the riders’ perception of time delay and sacrifice (being bored waiting) more than actually making the…
As such, as business owners, it is up to us to communicate these value drivers with clarity to increase the prospect’s perception of these realities. The extent to which you answer these questions in the mind of your prospect will determine the value you are creating. Only then, will we truly be able to realize the actual value of our…
in the margincommunicate in a way to increase perveption
People have deep, unchanging desires. This is what marriages are lost over, wars are fought over, and people will willingly die for. Our goal is not to create desire. It’s simply to channel that desire through our offer and monetization vehicle. The dream outcome is the expression of the feelings and experiences the prospect has envisioned in their mind. It’s the gap between their current reality and their dreams. Our goal is to accurately depict that dream back to them, so they feel understood, and explain how…
People generally, and our clients specifically, want: . . . To be perceived as beautiful . . . To be respected . . . To be perceived as powerful . . . To be loved . . . To increase their status These are all powerful drivers. But multiple vehicles may accomplish the same thing. Take the desire “to be perceived as beautiful” for example, here are a lot of things that touch on this desire: Make Up Anti-aging creams/serums Supplements Shapewear Plastic Surgery Fitness → All these vehicles channel the desire to be perceived as beautiful. And if we further unpack the idea…
The dream outcome value driver is most prominently used when comparing the relative value between two different desires being satisfied. In general, the dream outcome that most directly increases a prospect’s status will be the one they value most. As such, a prospect may value that entire category of vehicles that satisfy one desire more than another category that satisfies a different desire. For many men, making money is more important than being handsome. Why? Because money drives status for men more…
She claimed she wasn’t driven by status and would never want to drive a Lamborghini. Instead, she favored her minivan. But, after talking further, she revealed it was because driving a Lamborghini would decrease her status amongst her mom friends, while driving a minivan would show she was a good mother (increase in status). So it’s not about the money, it's about the status (the…
Talk in terms of things your prospect believes will increase their status, and you will have…
#2 Perceived Likelihood of Achievement (Goal = Increase)
I realized people pay for certainty. They value certainty. I call this “the perceived likelihood of achievement.” In other words, “How likely do I believe it is that I will achieve the result I am looking for if I make this purchase?” For example, how much would you pay to be a plastic surgeon’s 10,000th patient versus their first? If you're a normal, sane person, a lot more. I mean heck, you might even ask them to pay you if you are their first patient ever.
Both surgeons take the same amount of time to do the surgery (if anything, the guy who has done it 10,000 times would likely get it done faster and still charge more). The more-experienced surgeon has a track record of…
So to increase value with all offers, we must communicate perceived likelihood of achievement through our messaging, proof, what we choose to include or exclude in our…
There are two elements to this driver of value: Long-term outcome and short-term experience. Many times, there are short-term experiences that occur while en route to the long-term outcomes…
The thing people buy is the long-term value, aka their “dream outcome.” But the thing that makes them stay long enough to get it is the short-term experience. These are little milestones a prospect sees along the way that shows them they are on the right path. We try and tie as many of these as possible into any service we offer. We want clients to have a big emotional win early (as close as possible to their…
For example, it takes a while to add an extra $239,000 per year to a gym. But that’s what they’re buying. So, once they have purchased, we need to create emotional wins fast. One way we do this is to get their ads live and get them to close their first $2,000 sale within their first seven days. By doing this, their decision to work with us is reinforced, and they immediately trust us more.…
Let me give you another example. If I sell someone a bikini body, their time delay to realize that outcome may be 12 months or even longer. Along the way, though, as they change their bodies, they may experience higher sex drive, more energy, and an increased community of friends. They aren’t initially buying those things, but those things may become short-term benefits that keep them in the game long enough to achieve their ultimate outcome. They buy the dream, but they stay for the benefits they discover along the way. The faster and more clearly you can demonstrate those benefits, the more valuable your service will be. For a weight loss customer, we would get them to meet someone else so they immediately had some social benefits from the program, and we usually gave them a more aggressive diet in the beginning. Why? Because we wanted them to…
#4 Effort & Sacrifice (Goal = Decrease)
This is why “done for you services” are almost always more expensive than “do-it-yourself” because the person doesn't have all the effort and sacrifice. There is also a component of “perceived likelihood of achievement” difference as well. People believe that if an expert does it, then they will be more likely to achieve the outcome than if they try on their own.
To start I will do a side by side comparison of two “vehicles” with identical Dream outcomes: Meditation and Xanax. Both offer the buyer relaxation, decreased anxiety, and feelings of well-being. I will demonstrate how the other three variables dramatically shift the value of delivering that dream outcome and ultimately, the price. Example: Dream Outcome: “Relaxation,” “Decreased Anxiety,” “Feelings of well-being” Meditation vs Xanax Value Measure Meditation Score Xanax Score Dream Outcome “Relaxation” “Decreased Anxiety” “Feelings of well-being” 1/1 “Relaxation” “Decreased Anxiety” “Feelings of well-being” 1/1 Perceived Likelihood Low, since most people get distracted and don't actually think they’ll follow through with daily meditation 0/1 High, since most people are confident that if they take the pill, it will make them feel more relaxed 1/1 Time Delay Long time to yield long term results. Some immediate benefits after 10 to 20 minutes (assuming you don't get frustrated) .5/1 15 minutes for effects to be felt 1/1 Effort & Sacrifice Physical discomfort (numb body limbs often). Mental discomfort (feeling like you are failing at it constantly). Time sacrifice (you have to set time aside everyday to do it). 0/1 Swallowing the pill 1/1 Overall Value Low 1.5/4 High 4/4 And that is why Xanax is a multi-billion dollar product while I know of almost no multi-billion dollar meditation businesses . . . value. I'm not here to argue about whether meditation is better than Xanax…
This is also the reason that the supplement industry ($123B, Grandview Research) is twice the size of the health club industry ($62B, IHRSA). They both accomplish the same perceived objectives — “being healthy,” “losing weight,” “looking good,” “increased energy,” etc. — but one is perceived as more valuable because it has lower “costs.”
in the marginindustry size to value relation
And you can either sit there and make “complain” posts about how people “ought” to be a certain way. Or you can take advantage of the way people are and capitalize. This book is for those people who want to be victors, not victims of circumstances. You can either be right or you can be rich. This book is for getting rich. If that bothers you, just put this down and go back to arguing against human nature. Hint: You’re not gonna change it.
PPS - Life hack: if you introduce something valuable to someone, they associate that value with you. If you’d like goodwill directly from another entrepreneur - send this book their way.
Convergent & Divergent Thinking
So if I were selling a brick, I would find out what my customer’s desire was, and then devise how many ways I could create value with my “brick.”
Value Offer: Creating Your Grand Slam Offer Part I: Problems & Solutions
When I started my gym, I struggled. I wanted so deeply to be successful, prove my dad wrong about my decision to start my own business, and prove to myself that I was worth something. But try as I did, I couldn't even sell people into a $99/mo bootcamp. People would say, “LA Fitness is $29/mo. This is expensive.” I even tried getting people to start for free. They said they wouldn't bother because $99/mo afterwards was still too much, and they didn't want to start something they wouldn't continue with. It’s a new level of frustration when you can’t even give your services away for free to people. I felt worthless, and I didn't know what to do. Thankfully, during this time, I was in groups with other gym owners, and I started hearing about marketers and books. I devoured everything I could. And as soon as I stumbled on Dan Kennedy’s books, I was hooked.
In his books, he talked about making “irresistible offers.” Again, this theme of “making an offer so good people would feel stupid to say no” kept re-appearing. But this time, remembering what TJ had told me, I decided to go all in on this concept, rather than just do what everyone else was doing. But how? Everyone else was selling $99/mo bootcamps. How was I going to compete? So I decided to look at what we did differently. I thought — what do they really want? No one wants a membership; they want to lose weight.
Step #1: Identify Dream Outcome I had heard of weight loss challenges, so I started there. Lose 20lbs in 6 weeks. Big dream outcome - lose 20lbs. With a decreased time delay - 6 weeks. Note: I wasn't selling my membership anymore. I wasn’t selling the plane flight. I was selling the vacation. When you are thinking about your dream outcome,…
Step #2: List Problems Next, I wrote down all the things people struggled with and their limiting thoughts around them. When listing out problems, think about what happens immediately before and immediately after someone uses your product/service. What's the “next” thing they need help with? These are all the problems. Think about it in insane detail. If you do, you will create a more valuable and compelling offer as you’ll continually be answering people’s next problem as it manifests.. So, let’s go ahead and list out the problems from a prospect’s perspective as you think about them. What points of friction exist for…
Example Problem List: Weight Loss First thing they must do: Buying healthy food, grocery shopping 1) Buying healthy food is hard, confusing, and I won’t like it 2) Buying healthy food will take too much time 3) Buying healthy food is expensive 4) I will not be able to cook healthy food forever. My family’s needs will get in my way. If I travel I won’t know what to get. Next thing they must do: Cooking healthy food 1) Cooking healthy food is hard and confusing. I won’t like it, and I will suck at it. 2) Cooking healthy food will take too much time 3) Cooking healthy food is expensive. It’s not worth it. 4) I will not be able to buy healthy food forever. My family’s needs will get in my way. If I travel I won’t know how to cook healthy. Next thing they must do: Eating healthy food 1) Etc... Next…
Now, go ahead and list out all the problems your prospect has. Don’t let these buckets, which are just meant to get your brain going, constrain you. If it’s easier for you, just list out everything you can possibly think of. What I showed here isn’t just four problems, though. We have 16 core problems with two to four sub problems underneath. So 32 to 64 problems total. Yowza. No wonder most people don't achieve their goals. Do not get overwhelmed. This is the best news ever. The more problems you think of, the more problems you get to solve.
So, to recap, just list out each core thing that someone has to do. Then think of all the reasons they wouldn't be able to do it or keep doing it (using the four value drivers as a guide).
Creating the solutions list has two steps. First, we are going to transform our problems into solutions. Second, we are going to name these solutions. That’s it. So let’s take a look at our list of problems from earlier. What we’re going to do is simply turn them into solutions by thinking, “What would I need to show someone to solve this problem?” Then we are going to reverse each element of the obstacle into solution-oriented language. This is copywriting 101. It’s beyond the scope of this book to get into, but simply adding “how to” then reversing the problem will give most people new to this process a great place to…
Once we have our list of solutions, we will operationalize how we are actually going to solve these problems (create value) in the next step. And I want to be 100…
PROBLEM: Buying healthy food, grocery shopping . . . is hard, confusing, I won’t like it. I will suck at it→ How to make buying healthy food easy and enjoyable, so that anyone can do it (especially busy moms!) . . . takes too much time→ How to buy healthy food quickly . . . is expensive→ How to buy healthy food for less than your current grocery bill . . . is unsustainable→ How to make buying healthy food take less effort than buying unhealthy food . . . is not my priority. My family’s needs will get in my way→ How to buy healthy food…
PROBLEM: Cooking healthy food . . . is hard, confusing. I won’t like it, and I will suck at it→ How anyone can enjoy cooking healthy meals easily . . . will take too much time→ How to cook meals in under 5 minutes . . . is expensive, it’s not worth it→ How eating healthy is actually cheaper than unhealthy food . . . is unsustainable → How to make eating healthy last forever . . . is not my priority, my family’s needs will get in my way→ How to cook this despite your…
Our problems always relate to those drivers, and our solutions provide the needed answer to give a prospect permission to purchase. What's even crazier: is that if only one of these needs is missing in a solution, it can cause someone not to buy. You would be amazed at the reasons people do not buy. So don’t limit yourself here.
Brooke Castillo is a friend who runs an enormous life coaching business. To give you a different take on the problems-solutions list, Brooke sent me her list as she was going through this book to make a Grand Slam Offer for a 90-Day Relationship course. Take a look to see this process through a totally different lens. The main takeaway, though: Don’t be fancy. Just get all the problems down then turn them into solutions.
Value Offer: Creating Your Grand Slam Offer Part II: Trim & Stack
The second half of making your offer is breaking down tactically what we are going to do/provide for our client. In theory, we’d all love to fly out and live with our customers to fix their problems. In reality, that wouldn’t make a very scalable business. We need our offer to be incredibly attractive and profitable.
Everyone buys bargains. Some people just buy $100,000 things for only $10,000. That’s where we want to live: high prices, but a steal for the value (like hopefully this book so far).
I have always lived by the mantra, “Create flow. Monetize flow. Then add friction.” This means I generate demand first. Then, with my offer, I get them to say yes. Once I have people saying yes, then, and only then, will I add friction in my marketing, or decide to offer less for the same price.
Here’s a perfect example to drive this home. When I started Gym Launch, gym owners reached out asking me to help. They needed so much help, I didn’t know where to start. But I wanted to make sure they got way more than they paid me. So here’s what I ended up doing to fill their gyms: I would fly out to their gym for 21 days, spend my own money on hotels, car rentals, eating out, advertising, generate the leads, work the leads, then sell for them. I would even do the first onboarding meeting with clients to get them started. In short, I did everything. I took on all the risk. They only had to put down $500 to “reserve” their date, which I made refundable at the end of their launch. So they had 0 financial risk, 0 time risk, 0 effort, and the deal was, I got to keep all the up front cash collected from selling their services, and they got clients for free. You can imagine how this was a pretty compelling offer.
Over time, I scaled that to a team of 8 guys selling every month. But this began to wear on me and the team. It was at that point that I realized that if I were to simply teach them how to do what I did, I could charge maybe a third of what I would normally make, but I would be able to help hundreds of gyms a month instead of eight. And, I could do it all sleeping in my own bed every night. My promise was fundamentally the same: I will fill your gym in 30 days. It was simply the how and what I did that changed.
When talking to business owners about their model, I tell them to create cash flow by over-delivering like crazy at first. Then use the cash flow to fix your operations and make your business more efficient. This revision process can be pretty seamless. You may not even have to change what you offer. You may just end up creating systems that create the same value for the customer but cost you significantly less resources. Ultimately this is how businesses beat one another. Understanding this will be important as you scale your business.
Step #4 Create Your Solutions Delivery Vehicles (“The How”)
For the purposes of keeping creativity high (divergent thinking), think about anything you could possibly do. Think of all the things that might enhance the value of your offer. So much so that they would be stupid to say no. What could you do that someone would immediately say, “All that? Seriously? Yes, I'm in.” Doing this exercise will make your job of selling So. Much. Easier. Even if you come up with something you’re not actually willing to do, it’s okay. The goal here is to push your limits and jog your brain into thinking of a different version of the solution you’d normally default to. This is where you get to flex your entrepreneurial creativity.
Reminder: You only need to do this once. Literally one time for a product that may last years. This is high-value, high-leverage work. You ultimately get paid for thinking. You got this. This should be fun. Go ahead and list out all your possibilities now.
Problem: Buying Healthy Food Is Hard, Confusing, and I Won’t Like It If I wanted to provide a one-on-one solution I might offer . . . a) In-person grocery shopping, where I take clients to the store and teach them how to shop b) Personalized grocery list, where I teach them how to make their list c) Full-service shopping, where I buy their food for them. We’re talking 100 percent done for them. d) In-person orientation (not at store), where I teach them what to get e) Text support while shopping, where I help them if they get stuck f) Phone call while grocery shopping, where I plan to call when they go shopping to provide direction and support If I wanted to provide a small group solution I might offer . . . a) In-person grocery shopping, where I meet a bunch of people and take them all shopping for themselves b) Personalized grocery list, where I teach a bunch of people how to make their weekly lists. I could do this one time or every week if I wanted to. c) Buy their food for them, where I purchase their groceries and deliver them as well d) In-person orientation, where I teach a small group offsite what to do (not at store) If I wanted to provide a one to many solution I might offer . . . a) Live grocery tour virtual, where I might live stream me going through the grocery store for all my new customers and let them ask questions live b) Recorded grocery tour, where I might shop once, record it, then give it as a…
As you see, the list can really go on and on here. This is just to illustrate the many ways to solve a single problem. Now do this for all of the perceived problems that your clients encounter before, after, and during their experience with your service/products. You should have a monster list by the end of this.
What’s that? You’re having trouble being creative? I'm going to give you the cheat codes right now, kind of like I did with the brick example: “the brick could be gold, or plastic, or have holes in it, or be a lego, etc.”…
a) What level of personal attention do I want to provide? one-on-one, small group, one to many b) What level of effort is expected from them? Do it themselves (DIY) - figure out how to do it on their own; do it with them (DWY) - you teach them how to do it; done for them (DFY) - you do it for them c) If doing something live, what environment or medium do I want to deliver it in? In-person, phone support, email support, text support, Zoom support, chat support d) If doing a recording, how do I want them to consume it? Audio, video, or written. e) How quickly do we want to reply? On what days? During what hours? 24/7. 9-5, within 5 minutes, within an hour, within 24 hrs.? f) 10x to 1/10th test. If my customers paid me 10x my price (or $100,000) what would I provide? If they paid me 1/10th the price and I had to…
In other words, how could I actually deliver on these solutions I am claiming I will provide. Do this for each problem because solutions from one problem will give you ideas for…
Remember, it’s important that you solve every problem. I can’t tell you the amount of times one single item becomes…
Now that we have enumerated our potential solutions, we will have a gigantic list. Next, I look at the cost of providing these solutions to me (the business). I remove the ones that are high cost and low…
go through the value equation and ask yourself which of these things will this person: 1) Financially value 2) Cause them to believe they will be likely to succeed 3) Make them feel like they can do it with much less effort and sacrifice 4) Help them accomplish their goal and see the result they want with far less time investment. What…
If there’s one type of delivery vehicle to focus on, it’s creating high value, “one to many” solutions. These will be the ones that typically have the biggest discrepancy between cost and value. For example, before I started my first gym, I had an online training business. I created a small excel sheet application that after inputting all of someone’s goals, automatically generated over 100 meals perfectly suited to their macronutrient and calorie needs. Better yet, depending which meals they selected, would tell them what they needed to buy at the grocery store in exact amounts, and how to prepare them in bulk for their exact amounts. It took me about 100 hours to put the whole thing together. But from that point going forward I sold truly personalized eating plans for very expensive prices, but they only took me about 15 minutes to make. High value. Low cost.
These types of solutions require a high, one-time cost of creation, but infinitely low additional effort after. (FYI - This is exactly why software becomes so valuable).
You just want to make sure you save those high cost items for big value adds only. If you think you can accomplish the same value with a lower cost alternative, then do that instead.
When I was running my gym, I went through this exercise and created: bulking blueprints, an eating-out system, a travel eating and workout guide, meal plans for every body weight and gender, a grocery list calculator, plateau busting meal plans (for when they got stuck), fast cooking guides partnered with meal prep services, and did in-person nutrition orientations with every client one-on-one.
The Final High Value Deliverable
Step #1: We figured out our prospective client's dream outcome.
Step #2: We listed out all the obstacles they’re likely to encounter on their way (our opportunities for value).
Step #3: We listed all those obstacles as solutions.
in the marginthere is no objection handling. all solutions.
Step #4: We figured out all the different ways we could deliver those solutions.
Step #5a: We trimmed those ways down to only the things that were the highest value and lowest cost to us.
Step #5b: Put all the bundles together into the ultimate high value deliverable.
Buying food→ How anyone can buy food fast, easy, cheaply → Foolproof Bargain Grocery System . . . that’ll save hundreds of dollars per month on your food and take less time than your current shopping routine ($1,000 value for the money it'll save you from this point on in your life)
1-on-1 Nutrition Orientation where I explain how to use… Recoded grocery tour DIY Grocery Calculator Each plan comes with it’s own list for each week Bargain grocery shopping training Grocery Buddy System Pre-made insta-cart grocery carts for delivery And a check-in via text weekly.
Cooking→ Ready in 5 min Busy Parent Cooking Guide . . . how anyone can eat healthy even if they have no time ($600 value from getting 200 hours per year back — that’s four weeks of work!)
Exercise→ Fat Burning Workouts Proven To Burn More Fat Than Doing It Alone . . . adjusted to your needs so you never go too fast, plateau, or risk injury ($699 value)
Traveling→ The Ultimate Tone Up While You Travel Eating & Workout Blueprint . . . for getting amazing workouts in with no equipment so you don't feel guilty enjoying yourself ($199 value)
How to actually stick with it→ The “Never Fall Off” Accountability System . . . the unbeatable system that works without your permission (it’s even gotten people who hate coming to the gym to look forward to showing up) ($1000 value)
How To Be Social→ The ‘Live It Up While Slimming Down” Eating Out System that will give you the freedom to eat out and live life without feeling like the “odd man out” ($349 value)
Total value: $4,351 (!) All for only $599.
Can you see how much more valuable this is than a gym membership? The bundle does three core things: 1) Solves all the perceived problems (not just some) 2) Gives you the conviction that what you’re selling is one of a kind (very important) 3) Makes it impossible to compare or confuse your business or offering with the one down the street Whew! We finally have what we are going to deliver in all its glory. That being said, it is unlikely we would present it in this way.
We went through this entire process to accomplish one objective: to create a valuable offer that is differentiated and unable to be compared to anything else in the marketplace. We are selling something unique. As such, we are no longer bound by the normal pricing forces of commoditization. Prospects will now only make a value-based rather than a price-based decision on whether they should buy from us. Hoorah!
People want what they can’t have. People want what other people want. People want things only a select few have access to.
Fundamentally, all marketing exists to influence the supply and demand curve. We artificially increase the demand for our products and services through some sort of persuasive communication. When we increase the demand, we can sell more units. When we decrease supply, we can sell those units for more money. The “perfect profit combination” is lots of demand, and very little supply, or perceived supply. The process of enhancing your core offer is designed to do both of these things: increase demand and decrease perceived supply so that you can sell the same products for more money than you otherwise could, and in higher volumes than you otherwise would (over a longer time horizon).
Desire comes from not getting what you want. In fact, I heard this quote that I love from Naval Ravikant: “Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.” It follows, therefore, that we only want things we do not have. As soon as we have them, our desire for them disappears. Therefore, if we seek to increase the demand (or desire), we must decrease or delay satisfying the desires of our prospects. We must sell fewer units than we otherwise can. Let that sit with you for a second.
Consider this example. We promote some two-day workshops that are upcoming. First we whisper that it’s coming. Then we tease it with some of the benefits. Then we shout that it is launching in a week. Then, when we launch this amazing workshop. We have two supply-demand scenarios: Scenario one: We sell 10 units at $500 each (sell entire pyramid at price all say yes) Scenario two: We sell two one-day workshops 1-on-1 for $5000 each. (skim top of pyramid, with 80 percent not purchasing) It’s worth noting that each of these prospects have a different buying threshold. In my experience, demand for services is non-linear. Instead, I’ve found demand to be fractal (80/20). In other words, one fifth of the prospects are willing to pay five times the price (or more).
I might have ten people willing to pay $500, but two of them willing to pay $5000. So, I would make more, have lower costs (more profits), provide more value, and increase the demand in the remaining prospect base by selling fewer units. Think about how exclusive scenario one vs scenario two would feel. Think about all the people who would want to purchase, but would not be able to. Would this increase or decrease their desire?
So now, in the aftermath of our second scenario, we still have eight people who have unsatisfied desires. This increases their desire further. And to boot, we now have new prospects who weren't in the original pool who now want what we have.
Conversely, if we were to promote scenario one again (the $500 price point), we would probably sell fewer slots the second time around. Why? We have no pent up demand. All desire has been satisfied. When you “pull the trigger too early,” each successive instance we promote, we sell even fewer. Eventually, we run out of sufficient demand to make even a single sale. This is the sad state many businesses find themselves in always trying to generate more demand to make another quick sale.
We must endeavor to keep our supply (and satisfaction of desire) under the demand that we are able to generate. This maximizes profits and keeps desire ravenous in our customer base. This is the real key to never going hungry.
Conversely, if you satisfy all the demand, you will kill your golden goose, and not know where your next meal will come from. Mastering supply and demand comes from the elegant dance between the two. If you sleep with your significant other everyday they have less desire than if you haven’t slept with them for a week.
When I got into this world of acquisition, I saw mentors of mine selling days of time for $50,000+. My mind was blown for two reasons. First, because I didn’t understand how they could make so much money for a single day. Second, because I didn’t understand who in their right mind was buying it. Over time, I learned.
That’s how these guys can charge so much . . . because they don’t need it. The person who needs the exchange less always has the upper hand. I always try to remember that. It’s one of the negotiating and pricing principles that has best served me in my life.
Creating Scarcity
When there’s a fixed supply or quantity of products or services that are available for purchase it creates “scarcity” or a “fear of missing out.” It increases the need to take action, and by extension, purchase your offer. This is where you publicly share that you are only giving away X amount of products or can only handle Y new clients.
in the marginoffer immense value at an unfair price for 6 months only
Humans are far more motivated to take action to hoard a scarce resource than they are to act on something that could help them. Fear of loss is stronger than desire for gain.
Three Types of Scarcity 1) Limited Supply of Seats/Slots: in general or over X period of time. 2) Limited Supply of Bonuses 3) Never available again. But how do you use this properly without being phony? I’ll try and give you some real-world examples
Physical Products Having limited releases is a tried and true method of using this psychological bias to your advantage. You can have limited releases for flavors, colors, designs, sizes, etc. “This month, we are releasing 100 boxes of mint chocolate cookie flavored protein bars.” Important point: to properly utilize this method you should always sell out. Here’s why: it’s better to sell out consistently than over order and fail at creating that scarcity. This method stacks in effectiveness if it is done repeatedly over time (just not too often). Once a month seems to be the sweet spot for most of the companies that I know who do this with regularity. Second Important Note: When using this tactic, you must also let everyone know that you sold out. That is part of what makes it work so well.
Fun fact: Chanel, a brand that has maintained insane margins and pricing for over a century, is a master of scarcity. They send only 1-2 of each piece to each store so every store has a different selection and every item is the last or second to last item in stock. This allows them to price far above market and turn buying impulses into purchases.
Total Business Cap - Only accepting….X Clients.
You create a waiting list for new prospects. The moment the door opens, they jump right in and price resistance disappears. Periodically, you can increase capacity by 10-20% then cap it again. This works well for your highest tiers or service levels. a) This is like saying “My agency only will service twenty-five customers total. Period.” Over time you can increase your prices and squeeze the lower performing accounts out and bring in new more profitable accounts, or, you can periodically ‘open slots’ as your capacity allows (always leaving some demand unmet).
Growth Rate Cap - Only accepting X clients per week (on-going)
“We only accept 5 new clients per week and we already have the first 3 spots taken. I have 6 more calls this week, so you can
and simply chose to let our prospects know how many openings we had left. This banks on the fact that you can only handle a certain amount of new clients anyways, on a regular basis, so you might as well let them know it.
Cohort Cap - Only accepting….X clients per class or cohort.
Imagine you only start clients monthly or quarterly. This helps you get some cadences in place in your business operationally while also allowing your sales team some legitimate scarcity. Example: “We take on 100 clients 4 times a year. We open the doors then close them.”
If I were to tell you right now that I have a checklist that you can download for free that has all these materials for you in this book in bulleted format, you might be inclined to put this book down and go there to download it now. But, if I told you I have it set so that every week the page only allows twenty new people to download it, you’d be far more likely to go see if you can grab it. And even more so if when you try it, you see that it has already run out for the week. Result? You join a list that notifies you the next time twenty more checklists become available for download. What happens next? When you get that notification, you’ll hit the link on your phone and go to the page because you don’t want to miss out again. By employing scarcity, we make what would otherwise be a “neat free download” into a desirable thing not everyone has access to. You also, by extension, would be far more likely to consume it when you do get your hands on it . . . all because of how we controlled supply. Cool, right?
Honest Scarcity (The Most Ethical Scarcity)
you might as well define a number that you are willing to take on in a given time period, then advertise that. Simply letting people know that you are three-fourths of the way to capacity this week will move people over the edge to buying from you. Or letting people know that you are 81% to capacity in your total business, will make people more likely to sign up with you “before they lose the chance.” Scarcity also implies within it, social proof. If you are 81% to capacity then a decent amount of people made the decision to work with you, and the closer you get to your arbitrary fullness, the faster the spots will disappear. But only you get to draw where that line is “full.”
Enhancing The Offer: Urgency
Scarcity is a function of quantity. Urgency is a function of time.
I’m going to show you my four favorite ways of using urgency on a consistent basis, ethically: 1) Rolling Cohorts, 2) Rolling Seasonal Urgency, and 3) Promotional or Pricing Urgency 4) Exploding Opportunity. They will employ urgency in your business without being phony. My favorite way of doing this is having cohorts of clients start on a regular cadence. This has the added operational benefit of helping you create a choreographed onboarding experience for new clients. As you scale, this will become increasingly important.
1) Cohort-Based Rolling Urgency
“If you sign up today, I can get you in with our next group that kicks off on Monday, otherwise you’ll have to wait until our next kickoff date.”
“I actually had a client who signed up a few weeks ago drop out, so I have an opening for our next cohort that kicks off on Monday. If you are pretty sure you’re gonna do this sooner or later, might as well get in on it now so you can start reaping the rewards sooner rather than paying the same and waiting.”
Obviously the less frequently you kick off new customers, the more powerful this is. For example, if you only start clients two times a year, people will be very inclined to sign up, especially as the date approaches. Even starting new clients every other week can confer this urgency nudge.
2) Rolling Seasonal Urgency
The nice thing is that you can always fire up another ad campaign and a new landing page with new dates and be right as rain. You will see your conversions go through the roof, and it takes maybe five minutes of editing — well worth the time investment. Example: Our New Year Promotion ends Jan 30! Next Month: Our Valentines Lovers Promo Ends Feb 30! Next Month: Our Sexy By Spring Special Ends March 31! Next Month: Our Fools in Love April Promo Ends April 30! The actual promotion may be the same, but naming it something different “by season” gives you a “real” differentiator that gives you a start and a finish. Deadlines drive decisions. By simply having these, you can point to them and let human beings push themselves over the edge so as not to miss out.
3) Pricing or Bonus-Based Urgency
“Yes, let’s get you started today so you can take advantage of the discount you came in for. I’m not sure how long we will be running it as we change them every 4 weeks or so, and this is one of the better ones we have run in a while.”
4) Exploding Opportunity
Adding a deadline and incorporating one or multiple forms of urgency will get more people to take action than would otherwise. I have employed all four of these methods with great effectiveness.
Enhancing The Offer: Bonuses
You’ll also notice that if you watch those old infomercials, they would sell one knife for $38.95 then include 37 other knives, sharpeners, pans, and guarantees to beat the prospect into submission. They establish the price, then they expand upon it until you feel it’s such a good deal it would be stupid to pass it up.
The reason this works is we are increasing the prospect’s price-to-value discrepancy by increasing the value delivered instead of cutting the price. We anchor the price we tell them to the core offer. Then with each increasingly valuable bonus, that discrepancy grows wider and wider until it's too big to bear and we snap the rubber band in their mind that is holding their wallet in their pocket.
When selling one on one, you ask for the sale first, before offering the bonuses. If they say yes, then after they have signed up, you let them know the additional bonuses they're going to get. This creates a wow experience and reinforces their decision to buy.
On the other hand, if the person does not buy after the first ask, then you present a bonus that matches their perceived obstacle, then ask again. Don’t feel weird about asking again. You simply agree with the prospect, add the bonus, and ask if this consolation was “Fair enough.” People have a hard time rejecting reciprocity, so adding a bonus to accommodate, then another, then another, and people will feel almost obligated to buy from you. If you recall from our “Trim and Stack” chapter, each of those deliverables is now being weaponized and presented at the perfect time. We’re going to provide all these bonuses to them anyways, but it increases the perception of our offer’s value by layering these bonuses one at a time.
there are a few key things to remember when offering bonuses:
1) Always offer them
2) Give them a special name that has a benefit in the title
5) Paint a vivid mental image of what their life will be like assuming they have already used it and are experiencing the benefits
6) Always ascribe a price tag to them and justify it
7) Tools & checklists are better than additional trainings (as the effort & time are lower with the former, so the value is higher. The value equation still reigns supreme).
9) This can also be what they would logically realize they will need next. You want to solve their next problem before they even encounter it.
10) The value of the bonuses should eclipse the value of the core offer. Psychologically as you continue to add offers, it continues to expand the price to value discrepancy. It also, subconsciously communicates that the core offer must be valuable because if these are the bonuses, the main thing has to be more valuable than the bonuses right? (No, but you can use this psychological bias to make your offer seem wildly compelling).
11) You can further enhance the value of your bonuses by adding scarcity and urgency to the bonus themselves (which takes this technique and puts it on steroids). a) Bonuses With Scarcity Version 1: Only people who sign up for XZY program will have access to my Bonus #1, 2, 3 that are never for sale or available anywhere else other than through this program. Version 2: I have 3 tickets left to my $5,000 virtual event. If you buy this program you can get one of the last 3 tickets as a bonus. b) Bonuses With Urgency Version 1: If you buy today, I will add in XYZ bonus that normally costs $1,000, for free. And I’ll do that because I want to reward action takers. c) With hope, you can see the subtle differences. The first two examples aren’t constrained by time. They state that if you buy the program you will get things you normally would not be able to. The bonus with urgency is about them buying today, and if they do not buy today, they lose those bonuses. Minor difference, but worth noting.
12) You can also make a guarantee itself a bonus. Ex: “I want to remove any fear you have about making the decision today. So, if you decide to move forward today, I’ll also give you a 30 day money back guarantee, which I do not normally offer.”
Businesses will do this because you are going to give their business exposure for free to the highest quality prospects, your customers. As long as they are not direct competitors, you can get some brownie points, secure some future referral IOUs, and make your offer more valuable at the same time. If you secure enough of these relationships, you can literally justify your entire price in the savings and additional true-to-price bonuses.
For example - if I owned a pain clinic, I might get a massage therapist to give me 1-2 free massages to incorporate into my offer. On top of that, I might get: ...a chiropractor to give me two free adjustments. (Value: $100) ...a low inflammation food company to give me discounts for their products ($50 savings) ...discounts for braces and orthotics ($150 savings) ...a local health club down the street to give me a personal training session for free and a free month of membership to their pool ($100 Value) ...discounts on pharmaceutical drugs from the local pharmacist ($100/mo in savings) ...repeat the above for multiple service providers (so perhaps I get ten chiropractors to all give me a free adjustment, now I have ten free adjustments in my bundle. ...Etc. Now if my offer was $400, then the value of these free bonuses ALONE is worth more than the $400. As if that weren’t already awesome enough, if you really want to be a jedi, negotiate a group discount and a commission to yourself.
If you are following along, each of these bonuses can become revenue streams for you indirectly by getting clients to say YES more easily, and directly because you can negotiate that each of these businesses can pay you for the people you send their way. So let’s also say we negotiated the following “affiliate commissions” for making the introduction to these businesses. ...the chiro gives you $100 per person who comes into their office ...the food company gives you free food (yum!) ...orthotics company gives you $100 per person referred ...health club gives you a free membership OR $50 per person who signs up ...pharmacy gives you $100 per person Now let’s look at how much money we made...our $400 offer now has the possibility of making us an extra $350...pure profit! That’s the beauty of these relationships. The other businesses will pay you and you don't have to do anything but refer customers to them that you have already spent the money to acquire.
And if you really want to get crazy, come up with a grand slam offer with these partner businesses by using the same concepts in the book so that each of the bonuses themselves becomes even more valuable than a simple commoditized service.
We want to employ bonuses because they expand the price to value discrepancy and get people to purchase who otherwise wouldn’t.
1) Create checklists, tools, swipe files, scripts, templates, and anything else that would take lots of time and effort to create on one’s own, but is easy to use once created. Anything that you can invest in one time that clearly costs time or money to create but can be given away endless times is a perfect fit for a bonus.
2) Beyond that, make a habit to record every workshop, every webinar, every event, every interview and use them as additional bonuses (as needed to crush a perceived obstacle).
3) Proactively negotiate group discounts and a referral commission with adjacent businesses that solve needs your customer will have as a result of beginning this process with you. What’s the next natural thing they might want? Go to those businesses, get a deal for them they could never get for themselves (because you are negotiating with the purchasing power of all your customers at once, very powerful).
Enhancing The Offer: Guarantees
“You’re gonna like the way you look...I guarantee it.” - Men’s Warehouse ad that ran forever.
From an overarching perspective there are four types of guarantees: 1) Unconditional 2) Conditional 3) Anti-Guarantee 4) Implied Guarantees.
You must always hit your guarantee hard, even if you don't have one. Say it boldly and give the reason why.
But won’t people take advantage of a crazy guarantee?
you must understand the math. If you close 130 percent as many people, and your refund percentage doubles from 5 percent to 10 percent, you’ve still made 1.23x the money, or 23 percent more, and that all goes to the bottom line. Ex: 100 sales, 5 refunds (5%) = 95 Net Sales Guarantee Offer 130 sales, 13 refunds (10%)= 117 Net sales 117/95 = 1.23x (23% increase) Don't be emotional, just do the math.
Warning: While guarantees can be effective sellers, people who buy because of guarantees can become very shitty customers. A person who only buys because of a guarantee is a person who may not be willing to put in the work necessary to see success with your product or service. In a world where you want to reverse risk and get customers the best outcome possible, tying your guarantee to the things they need to do to be successful can help all parties.
Without the “or what” portion of the guarantee, it sounds weak and diluted. Note: This is what most marketers do. Bad Example: We will get you 20 clients guaranteed. Better example: You will get 20 clients in your first 30 days, or we give you your money back + your advertising dollars spent with us.
1) Unconditional Guarantees
They're basically a trial where they pay first then see if they like it. This gets a LOT more people to buy, but you will have some people refund, especially as consumer culture continues to…
Conditional guarantees include “terms and conditions” to the guarantee. These are the ones you can get VERY creative on. In general, you want these to be “better than money back” guarantees. Because if they are going to make an investment, you want to match their investment psychologically with an equal or higher perceived commitment. These also can have a very powerful effect on getting clients results. If you know…
And just FYI - if given the option of getting a refund or getting the outcome they were promised the vast majority of…
when you explicitly state “all sales are final.” You will want to own this position. You must come up with a creative “…
These types of guarantees are especially important with items that are consumable or massively…
Implied guarantees are any offer that is a performance-based offer. This comes in many different forms. Revshare, profitshare, triggers, ratchets, monetary bonuses, etc are all examples. The end all concept is the same, if I don't perform, I don’t get paid. Unique to this particular structure, it also…
These only work in situations where you have transparency for measuring the outcome and trust (or control) that you will get…
like bonuses, you can actually stack guarantees. For example, you could give an unconditional 30 day no questions asked guarantee then on top of that give a conditional triple your money back 90 day guarantee. That would be an…
You can also stack two conditional guarantees around different (or sequential) outcomes. For example, you’ll make $10,000 by 60 days, $30,000 by 90 days as long as you do things 1, 2, and 3. This future paces the prospect into an outcome they now believe is far more likely (since you will be deliberately spelling it out in a conditional guarantee with a timeline for achievement). Doing this shows the prospect you are serious about getting them results and convinced…
“I’m not asking you to decide yes or no today...I'm asking you to make a fully informed decision, that is all. The only way you can make a fully informed decision is on the inside, not the outside. So you get on the inside and see if everything we say on this webinar is true and valuable to you. Then, if it is, that’s when you decide to keep it. If it’s not for you, no hard feelings. You will then, after signing up at URL be able to make a fully informed decision that this isn’t for you. But you can’t make this decision right now for the same reason you don't buy a house without first looking at the inside of it. And know this...whether it’s 29 min or 29 days from now...if you ain’t happy, I ain’t happy. For any reason whatsoever, if you want your money back you can get it because I only want to keep your money if you’re happy. All you have to do is go to support@xyz.com and tell us “gimme my money” and you got it, and in short order - our response times to any support request average 61 min over a 24/7 time period. You can only make such a guarantee when you're confident that what you have is the real deal and I'm fairly confident that when you sign up at URL you’re getting exactly what you need to BENEFIT.”
“Do you think I'd still be in business if I gave a crazy guarantee like that and wasn't good at what I did? Now I'm not guaranteeing you’re going to hit this goal in six weeks, after all, because I can't eat the food for you. But I am guaranteeing that you will get $500 worth of value and service from us to support you. If you don't feel like we gave you that level of service, I’ll write you a check the day you tell me we suck.”
“Best case you get the body of your dreams and we give you all your money towards staying with us to hit your long-term goal. Worst case you tell me I suck, I write you a check, and you get six weeks of free training. Both options are risk free. But, the only thing guaranteed not to help you is walking out of here today.”
Satisfaction/No questions asked is the highest form of guarantee. It means we could do everything right and you could still ask for your money back. As long as you know the math, you will typically make up for the refunds in spaces with higher and faster closing on the sales side. But you have to be good at fulfilling your promises. If not, steer clear. I believe this offer works much better in lower-ticket situations. It becomes very risky as you go into higher-ticket services with higher costs of fulfillment.
[Conditional] Outsized Refund Guarantee What the Client Gets: Double or Triple their money back, or a no-strings-attached payment of $X,XXX (or another amount that’s far more than what they paid).
In general, a very strong guarantee like this will definitely drive more sales. This really serves the purpose when you need a lot of stuff to be done by your prospect, and, assuming those things are done, there’s a low chance of the result not being achieved. Sometimes a guarantee like this can actually get clients better results on top. This guarantee will typically outperform a traditional 30-day money back guarantee in terms of net conversions (sales minus refunds).
[Conditional] Service Guarantee What the Client Gets: You keep working for them free of charge until X is achieved.
This is probably my personal favorite guarantee of all time. It essentially guarantees they will achieve their goal, but it eliminates the element of time. You are never at risk for losing the money. The guarantee is around the outcome. To add further flavor to it, you can make this guarantee conditional on them doing key actions linked with success: setting up a web page, attending calls, showing up to workouts, weighing in, reporting data, etc.
Real Talk: Since I have been advising businesses to use this particular guarantee, I have yet to have a single person say a client took them up on it.
[Conditional] Credit-based Guarantee What the Client Gets: You give them back what they paid but in a credit toward any service you offer.
My Take: This is best used during an upsell process to seal the deal on a service they are unsure they will like. They already like what they have, you are trying to sell them more of that. Worst case, they can apply it to the thing they already like. So it maintains goodwill with the customer.
[Conditional] Wage-Payment Guarantee What the Client Gets: You offer to pay their hourly rate, whatever that may be, if they don’t find your call/session with them valuable.
My Take: This is also an ancillary cost guarantee, just a very original one. If someone ever actually asks for the wage payment, just ask them for their tax return and divide it by 1,960 (number of working hours at 40 hrs/wk for a year). But no one asking for a refund will actually do that, so you will never actually have to give one of these out. Like ever.
[Conditional] Delayed Second Payment Guarantee What the Client Gets: You won’t bill them again until after they make or get their first outcome. Ex: Lose your first five pounds . . . make your first sale . . . get your website live,
My Take: I like this a lot, especially if you have a very systematized process for getting the first result. It gets the prospect thinking in fast action terms and gets them moving. It will also focus your team on activating your client. This is a great one when you know what metric or action drives activation (predicting indicator of long term retention) of a client. I’ve successfully used this guarantee loads of times.
[Anti-Guarantee] All Sales Are Final What the Client Gets: Access to super exclusive very valuable service/product. Likely, this is a very powerful thing that once seen cannot be unseen, or once used cannot be taken away. Example: a line of code to improve your checkout experience on a website. Once someone received this code, they could try and use it without paying you. Or a series of opening messages for picking up girls or opening sentences for messaging cold prospects. Things that are very valuable but incredibly easy to steal after they’ve been seen/understood.
“We are going to show you our proprietary process that we are using right now to generate leads in our business. Our funnels, ads, and metrics. We’re going to be exposing the inner workings of our business, as a result, all sales are final.” Note: strong reason why is needed here. Just make one up that sounds compelling. The more you can show real exposure, the more effective this will be.
“If you're the type of customer who needs a guarantee before taking a jump, then you are not the type of person we want to work with. We want motivated self-starters who can follow instructions and are not looking for a way out before they even begin. If you are not serious, don’t buy it. But if you are, boy are you going to make a killing.
Implied Guarantees: Performance Models, Revshares, and Profit-Sharing Performance: A) ...Only pay me $XXX per sale/ $XXX per show B) $XX per Lb Lost Revshare: A) 10% of top line revenue B) 20% profit share C) 25% of revenue growth from baseline Profit-Share: A) X% of profit B) X% of Gross Profit Ratchets: 10% if over X, 20% if over Y, 30% if over Z Bonuses/Triggers: I get X when Y occurs. What The Client Gets: If you do not perform, they do not have to pay. If you perform, your compensation has been determined based on an agreement decided upon before you begin working.
In my opinion, this is one of, if not THE most desirable setup. First because it makes you accountable to your clients' results. Second it weeds out low performers. Perfect alignment between client and service provider fosters collaboration and a long-term relationship. I'm a big fan. The drawbacks are tracking and collection. So if you can find a way around that...you’ve hit a gold mine. This is a part of the offer we teach our agencies who use our software. We help them switch from a retainer model to a performance model and wrap that into the Grand Slam Offer I walked through earlier. I've seen countless agencies go from $20k/mo to $200k+/mo in a matter of a few months.
You can also pair a revshare or performance setup with a minimum. It would be like saying “we get the greater of $1000 or 10% of revenue generated.” So if the client doesn’t generate money because of whatever reason this at least covers your costs of services etc.
Or saying we get $1000/mo for the first 3 months, then after that, it switches to 100% performance. This would be ideal for a setup that takes a lot of time to get going. These types of offers work well when you have quantifiable outcomes. The stronger, of course, is no guaranteed payment without performance.
you can come up with your own! The key is to identify a client’s biggest fears, pain, and perceived obstacles. “What do they not want to have happen if they pay you? What are they most afraid of?” Reverse their fears into a guarantee. Think of the time, emotion, and outside costs associated with any program or service. The more specific and creative the guarantee is, the better.
That being said, guarantees are enhancers. They can enhance the magnetism or attraction of any offer, but they cannot make a business. If a guarantee is used to cover up a poor sales team or a poor product, it will backfire into lots of refunds. No bueno.
My advice: Start selling service-based guarantees or setting up performance partnerships. This will make all sales final (so no fear from refunds). Most importantly, it will commit you to your customers’ results and keep you honest. From there, either keep that guarantee and scale (perfectly fine), or move up the food chain to less restrictive guarantees to increase volume.
Enhancing The Offer: Naming
Implicit-egotism effect: we are generally drawn to the things and people that most resemble us.
Here’s an example. Say you see a “Free Six-Week Stress Release Challenge” and a “Float Tank Center Session.” While they may be the same thing, just named differently, you’re much more likely to respond to the first.
Now here’s the rub: over time, offers fatigue. And in local markets, they fatigue even faster. Why? In a local market, it costs relatively little to reach an entire population. On most platforms you can reach 1,000 people for about $20. So, if there are 200,000 people in your addressable area, then it would only cost you $10,000 to reach all of them one time.
Important disclaimer: reaching an audience one time in no way means an offer is fatigued. Most people don’t even notice an offer on the first mention. That’s why you need to create new creative (videos, images) and new hooks, stories, and copy around the same offers. You can still use offers for a long time. But when we’re talking about years of use, not months, offers can eventually fatigue.
Over time you can rename the offer to refresh it. This one concept will get you leads forever. I mean it.
The work you do, services you provide, and products you offer will remain unchanged as the name shifts. Again, we’re simply changing the wrapper. Here’s the simplest formula I’ve come up with for this process: Important Note: Not all these components are mandatory. You will typically use three to five of them in naming a program or service. If you can fit them all in, great, but it’s likely the name will become too long.
Make a Magnetic “Reason Why”
I say this to say. . .the “reason why” can literally be anything. It really doesn't matter so long as you believe it. And you can even make a joke of it like the fraternity example. But this should answer one or both of the following questions: Why are they making this great offer? or Why should I respond to this offer?/What’s in it for me? Examples: Free, 88% off, Giveaway; 88% off, Spring, Summer, Back To School; Grand Opening; New Management; New Building; Anniversary; Halloween; New Year. Note: I will discuss how to monetize free and discounted offers in Volume III: Money Models.
Announce Your Avatar
You want to be as specific as possible, but no more. When in a local area, the more local you can make your headline, the more it will convert. So don't do a city, try and go to the sub market, or hyper local area. Not Baltimore but Towson, MD. Not Chicago, but Hinsdale, Etc.
Examples: Bee Cave Dentists, Rolling Hills Moms, Brick & Mortar Businesses, Salon Owners, Retired Athletes, Brooklyn Busy Executives
Give Them A Goal
This is where you articulate your prospect’s dream outcome.
Examples: Pain Free, Celebrity Smile, 1st Place, Never Out Of Breath, Perfect Product, Grand Slam Offer, Little Black Dress, Double Your Profit, First Client, High Ticket, 7 Figure, 100k, Etc.
Indicate a Time Interval
You’re just letting people know the duration to expect here. This gives an example of how long your results will take to achieve.
“$10,000 in 10 days” vs “Make Your First Sale in 10 Days.”
Examples: AA Minutes, BB Hours, CC Days, DD Weeks, Z Months. “4 Hour” “21 Day” “6 Week” “3 Month”
Complete With A Container Word
The container word denotes that this offer is a bundle of lots of things put together. It’s a system. It’s something that can’t be held up to a commoditized alternative.
Examples: Challenge, Blueprint, Bootcamp, Intensive, Incubator, Masterclass, Program, Detox, Experience, Summit, Accelerator, Fast Track, Shortcut, Sprint, Launch, Slingshot, Catapult, Explosion, System, Getaway, Meetup, Transformation, Mastermind, Launch, Game Plan, Deep Dive, Workshop, Comeback, Rebirth, Attack, Assault, Reset, Solution, Hack, Cheatcode, Liftoff, Etc.
Coaching 5 Clients in 5 Days Blueprint 7F Agency 12 Week Intensive 14 Day Find Your Perfect Product Launch Fill Your Gym in 30 Days (Free!)
Now that you have several working names for your offer, you can use two to three of your best names in your advertising campaign. Quickly note the winner, then use that as a control to test against with new names. That is how you promote.
What Happens When Offers Fatigue
As you market offers, you will need to create variations over time as the tastes of the market change over time. Here’s the order in which you will change things to keep lead flow consistent. 1) Change the creative (the images and pictures in your ads) 2) Change the body copy in your ads 3) Change the headline - the “wrapper” of your offer a) Free 6 Week Lean Challenge to Free 6 Week Tone Challenge b) Holiday Hangover to New Year New You 4) Change the duration of your offer 5) Change the enhancer of your offer (your free/discount component) 6) Change the monetization structure, the series of offers you give prospects, and the price points associated with them (Book II)
For example, when ads fatigue, we don’t change our entire business; we just run the same ad again with a different video or image. Once that stops working, we change it again. Eventually you need to change the words in your ads. And repeat the process. Then, and only then, would you change the wrapper.
Once you’ve monetized an offer, rarely should you change it. Just rinse and repeat over and over and over again. This can be hard because we are entrepreneurs and love change. Change here usually just creates inefficiency and operational drag, costing you money. No bueno.
So use your entrepreneurial ADD on the “wrapper” first - the “look and feel” of the offer (copy, creative, headlines). Then change the seasonality of the offer. Then change the duration. If you’re still stuck, change what you are giving away for free or discount. Change the entire machine behind it only as a last resort and for a darn good reason,
But how do you get initial traction? Good question. Try the offer structure and headline that you think has the highest likelihood of working. Then stick with it.
Enhancing Your Offer Section Recap
Congrats! You figured out how to make your offer valuable, how to break your services into component parts, and how to rebundle them into a more valuable whole. You added a guarantee to get more people to buy your offer and actually consume it so they could be more successful. You presented it with urgency and scarcity to get more people to desire it. And now you’ve named your offer so it attracts the right prospects and repels the bad ones, all while containing a big promise everyone can understand. But we covered a lot, so I want to give you a quick breather before we forge into Book II to help you attract clients and monetize your offer.
Your First $100,000
“The first $100,000 is a bitch, but you gotta do it. I don't care what you have to do—if it means walking everywhere and not eating anything that wasn't purchased with a coupon, find a way to get your hands on $100,000. After that, you can ease off the gas a little bit.” - Charlie Munger, Vice Chairman Berkshire Hathaway
Years of ups and downs. Years of ploughing money into my business(es) only to watch it vanish in overhead, payroll, and mistakes. Years of seminars, courses, workshops, coaching programs, masterminds . . . had F-I-N-A-L-L-Y turned into wealth. It felt like I had broken into a new plane. The relative increase in wealth was more than I ever felt.
Tens of millions of dollars in the bank later, it was, and still is, the richest I have ever felt in my life. It was the beginning of the next chapter in my life as a business person and entrepreneur.
Some people get there fast. Some people get there slowly. But everyone gets there eventually, as long as you don’t give up. Keep moving forward. Keep getting up. Keep believing it can happen. And, it will.