Hey, what’s going on you guys. This is Alex Branning, your marketing coach. I want to talk to you today about why what you’re selling online, isn’t actually selling. Here we go.
All right, so I was talking to a client today, and we were going over her campaign that she had before. She was putting together a promotion for a live event. Now live events in general, they’re just hard to market because we’re getting lazier and we’re getting more introverted as a society. People don’t go to live events that much anymore. Live events in general are hard, but she was like, “Alex, my offer just is not doing that well.” Whether you have a live event or not, what I’m about to teach you could change the game for you because a lot of times, our marketing drops when it comes to the offer.Here’s what I mean.
There’s a couple different ways to think about making the sale. You’re either selling a service,like for me at the Branning Group, we’re a marketing agency. We want to sell you building a website, for example. There’s selling a service, and then there’s selling a product. You don’t want to get into the product/commodity game because then, if I can buy a box of Lucky Charms at Vons, or a box of Lucky Charms at Walmart, the only thing that’s different between the two of those is the price. It becomes a race to the bottom. You see a lot of people doing that, no matter what type of product it is, you see them on this race to the bottom like, “We’re the cheapest. We’re the best.” It’s hard to make a profit when you keep having to cut your prices to get new customers.
Back to the offer. Her entire thing was, “I’m going to teach you this one aspect of real estate investing over a three day workshop, and it’s going to cost you $700.” That was the offer. She was listing out what they would learn, but basically her offer was, I’ll sum it up, “Come to my event. Take notes. Take action. Good luck.” That was the offer. Quite honestly, if you’re an investor right now and you’re looking at that going, “Well my investing is not working right now,” that’s not an attractive offer because she’s just giving you information. There are some people who want that, but the best type of offer to make is one that combines product, service and support.Product, service and support. So I worked with her.
Now we’re working on creating a live work event funnel where the offer is still a ticket. That’s the actual product. It’s like an information product, basically. The offer is still a ticket, but when you go there, you are also going to get a notebook with everything, plus there’s going to be a Mastermind, so you can ask question, and get whatever is keeping you back, get that finished, and she’s going to be bring in some friends in there, so you’ll be able to meet people that will help you, whether it’s a lender or other people in the real estate investing game. If you upgrade your ticket, then she will provide, I think it’s a half hour call once a month for the next three months. You can chat with her three more times after the event.
Now that offer, whether you have begun investing in real estate or are already investing in real estate and just hit a snag, that’s a much better offer. Do you see the difference? Here is the thing, all she did was she said, “I’m going to take what I have, I’m going to take my slides, I’m going to print it off at Staples and slap it in a binder.” That’s the notebook. Then those people, they’re already coming to her event, but she didn’t see it as a benefit. She just saw it as, “I want these people there so I can meet the people I’m hoping will come inside my investing circle.”
I said, “That is a huge benefit, because now, the people that are coming to this event are going to meet all these big players in the game.” We were able to position it like that. Then I said, “Would you mind talking to some of these people if they have questions?” She said, “Absolutely,” because then it puts her in a position to win their business. I said, “Well then let’s put that in there.” Now we’re creating a much better offer. I think that this thing is going to really sell better than just a standard ticket would. Very excited to see how well this does. But it brings me back to the offer.
For a while, the Branning group was just web development. That’s all we did. We were strictly a web development house. We had a ton of fun doing it, but people would take the quotes that we would give them to build a website, then they would compare it to the quotes the Indian developers would get, and we simply could not compete with those prices, so they’d go for that cheaper option. That’s just business. It’s the way it works. We were losing out on a lot of projects that at the time were right in our wheelhouse.
Now if you come to me for a website, I have changed my offer. I have changed my offer. We don’t just build you a website, that’s the product that you’re looking for. We also provide support for you, so we provide 24/7 support. We’ll actually make changes for you if we host your site. Now I’m providing a service and support,plus based on … I also give you an offer to join my Level 10 group so you can jump on a marketing Mastermind call every Friday, and you get that at a severely discounted rate if I am also hosting your site. Now I’m providing you marketing ideas and support, and then we always include some other things in there that they could add in while they’re getting a new website built. It could be, we’ll build your messenger bot, or we’ll do your Facebook page, etc. Some of those are free, some of them cost a little bit of money, but what am I doing now?
Now if they take mine and they look at my offer for a website … Let’s say they’re the same price. Let’s say the Branning Group site is $2,000, and this other guy’s site, the same thing, $2,000. Well if they look at mine and his, they’re going to go, “Wait a second. The Branning Group, Alex Branning is not only building my website,” I have to do good work to earn the business, “but not only is he building my website, but he’s also refreshing my Facebook page, creating a messenger bot for me, hosting my site, giving me marketing advice every Friday morning, and this other guy is just going to build my site and host it.” I’m putting myself in a position to win by putting together a much better offer. You see the difference there?
A lot of times I’ll also include things like a digital course, that I think would help them. Because it didn’t cost me anything, and they see the value in it, because they can look at this and go, “Okay, I see that Alex normally charges $197 for this course, but I’m getting it for free.” Now they feel like the offer is even better. It allows me to pad the heck out of my offer and make it something really valuable. Look at how you’re positioning yourself. Even if your offer, your service, your product is insurance, even if it’s something like real estate, look at the offer that you’re putting together. How can you improve it? How can you get the business? Do what it takes.
I had a real estate agent who said, because they have to be careful. You can’t position yourself as bribing the person to use you, so you have to be very careful as to how you present yourself. This goes for financial services and other industries that are highly regulated. You have to be cautious with your offer to make sure that it doesn’t cross any lines. What he was doing was not only would he say, “Okay, I’m going to help you list your house, but I’m also going to give you,” he had this e-book that he would provide them, that he would print out and deliver. That would help them determine how to price their home, how to stage it, so now they know for the next time. Then he would also come by, he’d have a book of coupons and other resources for them as they’re prettying up their house. He would come with all of that stuff.
It was a really well done presentation. He added a lot of value to it beyond just, “Hey, I’ll just sell your house for you.” because in a sellers’ market, there’s so many people. All you got to do is put a sign in front of the yard. In the right market, that house is going to go no matter what. He had to make it a unique offer. He had to put something together that separated him from the rest.That’s really been working well for him, and people really dig that coupon book, and they like that fact that he’s educating them. It’s a way for him to stand out in the crowd.
I have one more note on an offer and then I want to dive into upsells, because that’s really where a lot of money is made. When it comes to the offers as well, really think about creating a situation, setting it up so that you are putting yourself in a position to win, not just the business this time, but also in the future. I gave the example for my website client who comes to me for a new website. They want me to build it out. I’m hosting it, I’m providing support, I’m talking to them every Friday morning with marketing ideas. Wait, I’m talking to them every Friday morning with marketing ideas. I’m putting myself in a position so that they look to me to help implement some of the ideas that I’m giving them. See how I’m setting myself up to win?
Look at ways of doing that because it’s so much easier to sell somebody on the second or third product or service than it is the first one. If you have the opportunity to do that, to set yourself up for future business, do it, be creative. Sometimes it’s a matter of, like for me, offering these Mastermind calls where I’m able to talk to my prospects, and clients, and help them close the deal. Sometimes I know for some, they say, “I do a clients only lunch,” where they take all the clients that can come, he’ll take them out to lunch. What does that do? It puts him right back in the position where he can earn their business again. It’s a very creative way, very unique way, to see his clients, and be able to shake their hand every single month. How can you set yourself up for success, not only for this business, but also the future.
I want to talk about upsells and one-time offers. Those are keywords that are used a lot in funnel building. Order bumps, so to speak. I want to talk about that because that could really change the game when you’re talking about your offers. A lot of times when I talk to service providers specifically, I’m able to identify many different ways where they can increase the revenue that they generate from each customer. I want to give you some ideas. If you’re listening right now, you provide a service, whether you’re a website developer, whether you’re in the HVAC business, or carpet cleaning, whatever it is, think about these order bumps and one-time offers.
Things I like to add on to the offers that I’m making are additional service or support after the sale, after the product is done.I like to provide additional opportunities for them to get something else similar done. For example for me, if they come to me for a website, I also do their Facebook page. If you’re in the carpet cleaning business, then also offer to clean their upholstery because the way to look at it is how can I spend a similar amount of time but walk out with double the profit.
Websites for me are not a very profitable service. They are very expensive for me to produce because of all the labor involved. But if I can upsell them to a Facebook page refresh, or things like that, those are a little bit higher of a profit, and it just makes sense for us to do it because we’re already in there creating a whole new brand. When the client sees that and goes, “Oh, cool. It’s an extra $100 for a Facebook page refresh. Sure, you’re in there creating the website already, you might as well just go in there, make a new cover photo while we’re at it, and slap it in there no problem.” For us, that increases the revenue, increases the profit. We’re already creating graphics for the website, so now we can just switch over and create those graphics for the Facebook page.
Other things that I look at providing are, is there another product or service that I’m a part of as an affiliate that I can include in this deal?For those of you that are in the service provider business, really look at this. Look at either affiliate offers, or as I talked about on my last Fire Up Friday that I did on July 6th, I talked about integration marketing, where you’re integrating yourself into your partner’s business, or your partner to your business.
I gave the example of the chiropractor who would give a voucher for a free tooth whitening, and then the dentist would turn around to all of his clients and give a voucher for a free chiropractic treatment. It’s integration marketing. They’re both sending each other clients, they’re both rising to the top, serving more people, helping themselves out. It’s just an awesome symbiotic relationship.
I have those as well with many people in different industries. It’s a great relationship. We’re both building each other’s businesses, and more importantly, we’re both serving our clients at the highest level possible. It’s not just about the revenue guys, it’s about the client walks through the door, and then after they’re done working with me, they not only feel like they got what they were expecting, whether it’s a website or Facebook Ad campaign. They didn’t just get what they were expecting. They also got a lot more. They either got a connection they weren’t expecting, they got education they weren’t expecting, they got a service done that they had planned to do in the future, but I was able to give them a great opportunity to get it done now.
I want my clients to walk out the door when they’re done working with me going, “Wow, I just got blown away by what Alex and the Branning Group were able to do.”I want them to walk away from you with that same feeling of going, “Wow, I cannot believe I got so much out of this. This was so valuable to me.” Some of that is like the upsells, where it’s you’re providing services in the parallel to what you are doing. Some of it is being able to offer affiliate products. Just say, “Look, I have this other thing that I can introduce to you.” For me, I have many different people that I can refer, depending on their needs. I have a sales trainer, I have software, etc. that I can hook them up with. I also have, if they mention to me that they want a book done, or I they want a mobile app created, or if they’re looking for business cards, I have people that can help serve all of those needs. I do what I can to help them out.
You guys, look at your offer, really analyze it. A lot of marketing drops, people don’t convert because their offer sucks. There’s absolutely no excuse to just continue making the same offer that everyone else is making. It doesn’t matter what service you’re in, what product. Be creative, look at this from your customer’s point of view and go, “How can I better serve my customer? How can I stand out amongst the crowd? What can I do to make what I have, what can I do to make that the best thing out there.” Just watch what happens. Watch your customers become more satisfied, watch the referrals come in, watch your profit go up on each deal. It’s going to be amazing. If you need help coming up with an offer, I’m here for you. Let’s jump on a call. Go to alexbranning.com/call for a free strategy session. We can work one out together.
You guys, have a great day.
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