Section IV: Enhancing Your Offer

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Scarcity, Urgency, Bonuses, Guarantees, and Naming

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Enhancing The Offer: Scarcity, Urgency, Bonuses, Guarantees, and Naming

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::: title-page-contributor-primary-block “But wait . . . there’s more, if you order today . . . “

Every infomercial in the 90s

:::: alignment-block ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block May 2019. Arnold Scwarzenegger’s home.

[A]fter School All Stars Fundraiser. The line of cars outside Arnold’s house was around the corner . . . and we were in one of them. We were sitting in our Uber when a security guard with an earpiece, black suit, and black sunglasses knocked on the driver’s window. It was like straight out of a movie.

The driver rolled down the window. “Name?” “Alex and Leila Hormozi.”

He scanned the list on his clipboard, nodded, then checked off our names. “Great,” he said. His demeanor transformed from stern to inviting. “Welcome to the fundraiser. Stay in this line. You’ll make a left, then security will escort you the rest of the way.”

The security guard talked into his walkie talkie to the next post down the road, signaling our car was approved.

Pulling up to the front of the estate was like entering into a Bond movie. Lamborghinis, Bugattis, Ferraris, and brands of cars that are too expensive to even speak of. Old guys with young, scantily-clad girls. A-List Actors. Celebrities with millions of followers who were recording themselves as they arrived, talking through their iphones to their audiences. And us.

The fundraiser was $25,000 per ticket to attend, with an invite list of only 100. There was a red carpet and all. Every year, the fundraiser culminated in a big auction for memorabilia and items some of the business owners in the audience gave away for charity.

We walked around looking at the entertainment stations purposely devised to get donors in the “giving mood.” We saw $10,000 scotches . . . $500 cigars . . . pre-released items from major brands that wouldn’t be available to the public until months later. And, of course, the most expensive cuisine you could imagine. Leila and I were just soaking it all in. It was a wonderful night. We definitely felt like cool kids.

Ben, the CEO of the charity, saw us looking lost and walked over. He took me by the arm to introduce me to some of the other donors. These were all men who were older than me and donating $100,000 and up without a second thought.

The man he introduced me to was one of the charity’s biggest donors. He had built an ultra-high end jewelry and watch business. I’m talking $100,000, $500,000, $2,000,000+ rare status symbols that people buy only so other .001 percenters know they belong. He had donated upwards of $700,000 in merchandise as prizes for the fundraiser that evening.

“Alex and Leila, meet George,” Ben said. “He’s been very generous with his time and money to the cause. George, this is Alex and Leila Hormozi. They’re donating $1,000,000 tonight to ASAS. I figured you are both good people and wanted to connect you two.”

“Nice to meet you both,” George said with calm, weathered eyes. He was in his late sixties, tall and sturdily built. You could hear his eastern block origins in his accent. He sounded like a man who had fought tooth and nail to be here, but had softened his demeanor for gatherings such as these. But the tiger with teeth and claws remained under the surface, ready to be called upon at a moment’s notice. I felt like I understood this guy.

Ben broke the ice. “So….George was the one who got me to raise the price from $15,000 per ticket to $25,000. We had more demand than ever this year. But I took his advice. I cut the amount of tickets we sold and raised the prices.”

“That’s right,” said George, content that his sage business advice had been followed.

“When demand increases, cut supply.” He perked up slightly as we talked about money.

This man had built his business from nothing and had found ways to sell things for extraordinary profits by understanding human psychology. I had long learned about supply and demand, but this guy was using its psychological underpinnings to fuel a fundraising. You could take the tiger out of the jungle, but not the jungle out of the tiger.

People want what they can’t have. People want what other people want. People want things only a select few have access to. He was dead right. They had raised an extra one million dollars that night before the event had even started by cutting the supply of tickets and raising the prices. On top of that, all the people were more qualified than ever to be big donors. The night ended up being the most successful night in the charity’s history, raising nearly $5,400,000 from only 100 people (that’s $54,000 per head!). Each of the items was auctioned off as a one-of-a-kind item. And if you missed it, you would never have a chance again to buy it. Arnold even threw in some bonuses when two people would get high enough in the bidding, allowing the charity to get both donations.

It was a masterful display of human psychology at work in a setting where people were knowingly over-paying for products. The products remained unchanged, yet within this setting, an item that wouldn’t sell at a different venue for $10,000 sold for $100,000. That’s how powerful scarcity, urgency, and bonuses are. And breaking down how to use them to further increase demand for your offer, without changing your offer, is the purpose of this section.

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Author Note - Other Persuasion Powers At Play

Scarcity, urgency, bonuses, and guarantees were not the only persuasion tools being employed to get egregious prices at the fundraiser. They also used commitment and consistency, status, peer pressure, goodwill, celebrity endorsements, competition, etc. However, scarcity, urgency, and bonuses are the only three I will be breaking down in this book as I believe they belong more with the “offer” and less with the actual “selling,” which I will talk about in depth in Acquisition: Volume IV $100M Sales.

The Delicate Dance of Desire

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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).

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Author Note:

This assumes a regular business who is not trying to gain mass market penetration for some other strategic advantage.

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 workshop that is 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)

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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).

In the example, 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? It would increase it, of course.

On top of that, if people see that others who ‘were able to get in’ are loving it, it would further increase their desire. And the next time, they would act with more urgency, and be willing to pay more for the same thing than they originally did. So now, in the aftermath of our second scenario, we still have eight people who have unsatisfied desire. 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.

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The next time we promote scenario two, we then open three spots at the same price and sell them all (still leaving some prospects with pent up demand!). This is a continuous theme.

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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.

Summary Points

The reason I titled this sub-section “Delicate Dance of Desire” is that supply and demand are inversely correlated (in theory). If you satisfy zero desire (provide zero supply), you will not make money, and eventually leave people feeling rejected (Note: it takes much longer than you think).

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. We want the ravenous prospect, not merely the aroused.

Therefore, understanding the interplay between these variables is key to enhancing your offer and the amount of profits you will make [over time]. Up to this point, we have covered all the things inside of your offer that can make it immune to price comparison and transform regular services and products into things that people will find a way to pay for. It would follow that the next variable that can make your offer more desirable is how it is presented. In other words, the outside variables that position the product in your prospect’s mind. These forces are often more powerful than your core offer. In this next section Enhancing Your Offer, I will show you how I:

Use scarcity to decrease supply to raise prices (and indirectly increase demand through perceived exclusiveness)
Use urgency to increase demand by decreasing the action threshold of a prospect.
Use bonuses to increase demand (and increase perceived exclusivity).
Use guarantees to increase demand by reversing risk.
Use names to re-stimulate demand and expand awareness of my offer to my target audience.

I will define each, then give you examples of how to use them. We will use all these variables to enhance our offer and shift the demand curve in our favor, leaving our customers always wanting for more. We will start by tactically stimulating “fear of missing out” aka FOMO through scarcity.

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Enhancing The Offer: Scarcity

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“Sold out.”

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[S]carcity is one of the most powerful and least understood forces to unlock unlimited pricing power. If you want to learn how to sell air for millions of dollars, then pay attention.

The reason an authority (like a doctor), a celebrity (like Oprah), or a celebrity authority (like Dr.Oz or Dr.Phil) can charge egregious rates is because of implied demand. People assume that there is a lot of demand for their time, and, therefore, not a big supply of it. As a result, it must be expensive.

That being said, it’s hard for most businesses to understand what it’s really like to have an uneven supply-demand curve until you’ve experienced it. I’m going to try and walk you through what it felt like for me the first time I experienced it in order to give you a taste of the power.

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.

[I’ll start with the buyer]. If I have a rare problem, and I must solve this problem for my own pursuit of happiness, it will consume all of my attention. By the nature of my problem being specialized, there will be very few people who can solve it. This means there is not a large supply of solvers. In many cases, I will perceive only one possible “solver” (Supply = 1).

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Real Life Value Case Study

There are many people who can solve the problem: how do I make $10,000 per month?

But far fewer who can solve: How can I add $5M in profit without adding any extra product lines to my business? (This was a real project that took me 60min and resulted in exactly $5M in bottom line profit by slightly altering the pricing model of the business). You could say the business owner was… “very happy” with the result of the engagement.

Beyond that, if solving this problem speeds up my achievement of a goal by a year or two, or immediately results in me making hundreds of thousands of dollars, or millions of dollars, that solution becomes far more valuable, does it not? Of course it does. And so, it would follow, if I can pay someone $50,000 for a day of their time, and see an increase of $500,000 per month in revenue within three months because of the insights and strategies revealed, that would be a helluva return on investment, right?

So there are two components to the value: first, how rare the sources are; second, the actual value being provided. The value and rarity compound to create some truly breathtaking profits.

Specialized consultants are paid millions of dollars to solve problems worth tens of millions to clients. The client pays for all the experience and expertise the expert has and avoids the cost of errors (time and money). In short, they skip the bad stuff and go straight to the good stuff more quickly and for less money than it would cost to figure it out on their own . . . a beautiful economic exchange.

I personally experienced this for the first time when I had two different people offer me $50,000 for a day of my time after speaking at an event. They were scaling an education business in a niche (not too dissimilar from my own) and could not get past the $1M per month mark. As someone who was doing $1M per week in the same business type (at the time), I was a very specific type of person with the keys to their problem.

So what happened, you ask? Drum roll . . . I didn’t accept their offers. Why? Because I was making more than $50,000 per day in profit from my business and didn’t want the distraction.

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Author Note:

It was years later that I started Acquisition.com to help these very people. But instead of charging a day rate, I simply become an equity holder in the company to completely align interests for short and long term (and so I can see the implementations through). And as my time is limited by the laws of physics, for everyone else below that $3M-$10M per year mark, I make all these materials for free :)

After the event concluded and I was speaking with Leila, I realized how I had somehow become ‘one of those people I had always wondered about’. It was a very surreal experience for me. I finally understood how premium prices were truly made . . . simple supply and demand. There is little that substitutes for incredible demand. You can try and fake it, but there is a special type of “0 fucks given” vibe that’s hard to replicate when you truly do not need a person’s money (or even want it).

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.

“But Alex, how are you going to show me how to use scarcity to increase the amount of people who want my offer when currently no one does?” Great question. Let’s attack some real-world, in-the-trenches strategies to reliably create scarcity .

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.

For example, if a musician drops a limited edition hoodie and says he only made 100 and they will never be made again, are you more or less likely to buy it than one that is always available? More likely, naturally. The idea that you can never get it again makes it more desirable.

This is an example of scarcity. It is the fear of missing out on something. It pulls on our psychological fear of loss to get us to take action. 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. We will wield this psychological lever to get your clients to buy in a frenzy, all at once, until you are sold out.

Three Types of Scarcity

Limited Supply of Seats/Slots: in general or over X period of time.
Limited Supply of Bonuses
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. This way, even people who were on the fence, when they see that it was sold out, it gives social proof that other people thought it was worth it. And now that the choice has been made for them, they desire it more because there is no way they can get it. So the next time you make the offer they will be far more likely to take you up on it.

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.

[Services]

With services, especially if you want to consistently get customers, it can be a little trickier to use scarcity. But I will show you a few simple ways to employ scarcity ethically to increase your take rates on offers. These all have similar elements with very slight tweaks. I'm enumerating these because one of these might mentally fit your business model more than others.

1. Total Business Cap - Only accepting….X Clients. Only accepting X clients at this level of service (on-going). This puts a cap on how many clients you service but also keeps them in it. 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.

:::: prose1 ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block 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).

2. 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 take the spot or one of my next calls and you can wait until we reopen.” I have used this method since the beginning of my business. I always knew what my capacity was per week, 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.

3. Cohort Cap - Only accepting….X clients [per class or cohort]. Similar to the above, except done on whatever cadence you desire. Only accepting X amount per class or cohort over a given period is another way of thinking about it. 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.” Etc.

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Pro Tip - Provide Limited Access For Higher Ticket Services

These scarcity tactics work especially well for higher ticket upsells. If you want to create one off workshops, trainings, events, seminars, consulting, etc. These are things that by their nature take time and provide more access. Paring them with clear scarcity or fixed amounts, seats, or spots will rapidly drive up the demand. But always remember have less spots available than you think you can sell . . . so that when you want to do it again in the future, everyone will remember you sold out . . . fast. This is a compounding strategy that increases in effectiveness over time. One of the few in the marketing arsenal.

Let me give you a real example of scarcity to enhance the value of a free lead magnet. 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)

The easiest scarcity strategy is [honesty]. Wait, what? Let me explain.

I'm sure right now, you probably couldn't handle 1,000 clients tomorrow right? But how many could you handle? 5? 10? 25? Well, 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.” Neat right?

Summary Points

Employ one or multiple methods of scarcity in your business. You will drive a faster purchasing decision from your prospects, and at higher prices. Just let them know your limits and let psychology do the rest.

Now that we’ve covered some of my favorite scarcity tactics that you can use year round, what else could you do to increase demand without changing anything about your offer? Increase urgency. We will cover that next.

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Pro Tip - Extreme Scarcity

If you don’t hate money, sell a very limited supply of 1-on-1 access. You can do that via any of the mediums described in “Delivery Cube.” Direct message access. Email Access. Phone access. Voice memo access. Zoom access. Etc. There are lots of ways you can do this. But I promise you this - if you want to immediately make a lot of money, create a very exclusive service level based on access to you (yes, unscalable), that you cap at a tiny number. Price it very high. Then, tell people. You will make more money than you thought possible. These also tend to be some of the best clients. And limit your delivery to something that you don’t hate. For me, I hate emails and messages but dont mind zoom calls. Make it work for your working style. The cream of the crop (the 1% of 1% will adjust and take action).

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Pro Tip - Once You’re Out, You Can Never Come Back

You can create scarcity by also capping your service level and saying that if they leave than can never return. This type of scarcity makes people think extra hard about leaving. I started doing this with my gyms early on. Then I was in a mastermind that employed this. Then I started using it in my higher level of Gym Lords. This works best with small groups (like the above example). As groups become much bigger, the tactic loses some teeth (speaking from experience).

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Enhancing The Offer: Urgency

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::: title-page-contributor-primary-block “Deadlines. Drive. Decisions.”

Me

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[S]carcity is a function of quantity. Urgency is a function of time.

This is where you only limit when people can sign up, rather than how many. Having a defined deadline or cut off for a purchase or action to occur creates urgency. Frequently, scarcity and urgency are used together, but I will separate them out for you to illustrate the concepts.

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

For example, if you start clients every week (even in unlimited amounts), you can say:

:::: prose1 ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block “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.”

If you wanted to juice it up a little bit, you could say:

:::: prose1 ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block “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.”

Those two tweaks above have pushed so many sales over the edge by just reminding a potential customer that if they sign up, they will be starting on Monday, and if they do not, they will have to wait a week. It’s small things like this that nudge people to take the action they know they should take anyways.

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.

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What if I lose sales by turning business away?

Just like guarantees, there is always a fear that you will make less money by employing this strategy. We are afraid that we will lose sales we would have otherwise made. Every experienced marketer on the planet will tell you - it is a fear, and it is unfounded. The biggest sales on a week long campaign or launch happen in the last 4 hours of the last day (up to 50-60%). That means that the last 3% of the time allotted creates 50-60% of the sales...that’s completely illogical, but also unmistakably human. So, just like a guarantee, you will make more money from the many people who decided to take action than people who actually missed out because in reality, those people were never going to buy (heck, they didn't even buy when they had their fee to the fire, so why would they without?) Good to remember.

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What to do if you just started a cohort and someone wants to buy….

You have two options: 1) you can offer them a speedy personalized onboarding to get them up to speed as a “bonus” for signing up today and still get them in. Or, my preference, 2) You can explain to them that since the next group starts in a little, they will have the advantage of having more time to review the materials, talk to their employees (for b2b products) or family members ( for b2c products). On top of that, they can have a more extended payment plan that you can only make available to them since the start date is so far out . . . an advantage that most clients do not get. In the end, remember, you always have the advantage because you are the one who calls the shots.

2) Rolling Seasonal Urgency

In a digital setting, having actual sign up date countdowns is very useful. But make sure they are real. If they aren’t, you’ll lose credibility and just look like every other wannabe marketer. This is very common with internet businesses that use “launch” models. I personally love having the dates that I am running a promotion through on my landing pages and in my copy. I want it to be visible everywhere. 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.

:::: prose1 ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block 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.

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Pro Tip - Local Businesses: This is my number one strategy for local businesses. They must vary their marketing more frequently than national advertisers. Putting a new wrapper with a date on the same core service gives you urgency and novelty that will consistently outperform the “same old” campaigns.

3) Pricing or Bonus-Based Urgency

This is another way of creating urgency using your actual offer or promotion/pricing structure as the thing they could miss out on (kind of brilliant!). It allows businesses that sell clients year round to still use urgency. For example, “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.”

This creates some fear of missing out on the promotion (or discount or bonuses), rather than your actual service. It would be a lie to say that if you own a roofing business you won’t service them if they buy after the date. But, if you talk specifically about the promotion you can often elicit the same urgency on buying in the prospect while maintaining your integrity — win-win. You can interchange a pricing promotion, discount, or added bonuses like free install or free onboarding or an extra workshop (valued at $1,000) if they buy now. These are all things you can swap around your core offer to create urgency.

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Pro Tip - Clean Your Pipeline With Every Price Change: If you ever really are planning on raising your prices (hopefully soon if you are reading this book!) then you can always clean out your pipeline by letting people know “The price is going up! So get in now!” Never raise your prices without letting people know. It shows a position of strength and will give you a nice little influx of cash from the people in the pipeline who were on the fence.

4) Exploding Opportunity

On occasion you will be exposing the prospect to an arbitrage opportunity. The opportunity itself has a ticking time clock, as all great opportunities do. Every second someone delays, they miss out on disproportionate gains.

Example: If I was explaining an arbitrage opportunity between buying products on ebay and selling them on amazon, this market inefficiency would over time correct itself. The sooner someone acts the better it will be for them. This could be true for selling someone on the opportunity of trading crypto currencies, buying a stock, getting into a new platform to advertise before competitors jump on the bandwagon. Highly competitive job environments often get job offers that are “exploding offers” everyday they wait to take the job, their pay or bonuses decrease. This forces prospects to make fast decisions rather than try and “wait it out” to see if they get a better offer.

All of these examples show opportunities that decay with time, so if you find yourself in front of an opportunity like this, make sure to emphasize it!

Summary Points

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. I suggest you do the same. Next up….Bonuses!

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Free Gift #7: Bonus Tutorial: How to Ethically Use Scarcity & Urgency

If you want to walk through some live (ethical) examples of scarcity & urgency with me, go to [Acquisition.com/training/offers] and select “Scarcity & Urgency” to watch a short video tutorial. You’ll also be able to grab my [Scarcity] [Urgency Checklist] I use when creating offers. As always, it’s absolutely free. Enjoy.

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Enhancing The Offer: Bonuses

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::: title-page-contributor-primary-block “It’s all gravy baby”

Play on an old English saying.

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[I] have to give special thanks to Jason Fladlien for my renewed appreciation for bonuses. They are so powerful that they earned an entire chapter. In this chapter, I’m going to cover: what to offer, how to pick them, how to value them, how to present them, how to price them.

The main point I want you to take away from this is that a single offer is less valuable than the same offer broken into its component parts and stacked as bonuses (see image). The entirety of our offer we came up with at the end of the last section. This section is about how to present those pieces in what order. For example, I may in fact do lots of things in my service, but until I enumerate them, they are unknown. This is why every infomercial of all time continues on with “but wait….there’s more!”

They would not use these techniques unless they were effective, as every second of air time costs money and must be justified with ROI. 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.

We are now going to present that “stack” of deliverables that we assembled earlier in a way that makes them irresistible.

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Pro Tip: Add Bonuses Instead of Discounting Whenever Possible on Core Offers

Whenever trying to close a deal, never discount the main offer. It teaches your customers that your prices are negotiable (which is terrible). Adding bonuses to increase value to close the deal is far superior to cutting prices. It puts you in a position of strength and goodwill rather than weakness.

Presenting Bonuses 1-on-1 vs Group Selling

There are key differences between pitching to a group versus a single person. Group selling is beyond the scope of this book. But I want to at least address when a bonus would be brought up in a 1-1 selling scenario. 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.

Bonus Bullets

That being said, there are a few key things to remember when offering bonuses:

1. Always offer them (you can use the bulleted bundle we came up with at the end of Section III)

2. Give them a special name that has a benefit in the title

3. Tell them:

:::: alignment-block ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block a) How it relates to their issue

b) What it is

c) How you discovered it, or what you had to do to create it

d) How it will specifically improve their lives or make their experience

:::: prose1 ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block i) Faster, easier or less effort/sacrifice (value equation)

4. Provide some proof (this can be a stat, a past client, or personal experience) to prove that this thing is valuable

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).

8. They should each address a specific concern/obstacle in the prospects mind about why they can’t or won’t be successful (bonus should prove their belief incorrect)

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).

:::: alignment-block ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block a) [Bonuses With Scarcity]

:::: prose1 ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block [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.

:::: alignment-block ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block [b) Bonuses With Urgency]

:::: prose1 ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block [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.

:::: alignment-block ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block 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.

Advanced Level Bonuses - Other People’s Products and Services

You can get other businesses to give you their services and products as a part of your bonuses in exchange for exposure to your clients for free. This is free marketing for them, and high value products for you at no cost. 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:

:::: prose1 ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block ...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. This is exactly what we did with our supplement company. Our gym owner clients who use our sister supplement company Prestige Labs sponsored athletes get a 30% discount on our products, on top of that, the sponsored athlete gets paid 40% of all sales netted after the applied discount.

So it’s a win-win for everyone. Their clients get it for 30% less than our main site. They get paid for giving away exclusive discounts. And we get customers in exchange for the commission paid. Everyone wins.

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.

:::: prose1 ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block ...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.

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Free Gift #8: BONUS...on...BONUSES

There are a million and one ways to use bonuses in your offers. You can get people to act faster. You can price anchor and product anchor (little known). You can get more people to say yes than you otherwise would. If you want to a live deep dive with me on this, go to [Acquisition.com/training/offers] and select “Bonus Creation” to watch a short video tutorial. I also have a [Free Bonus Checklist] I use when creating offers. Swipe it for your own business on the house!

Summary

We want to employ bonuses because they expand the price to value discrepancy and get people to purchase who otherwise wouldn’t. They massively increase the prospects' perception of the value of our offer. So here’s what to do:

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 cost time or money to create, but can be given away endless time is a perfect fit for a bonus.
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).
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).

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Author Note: The longer you are in business the more of these bonus assets you will have at your disposal. All of these things are valuable. Put them in a vault and keep them in your back pocket to sprinkle into an offer to get the deal closed. Information products work very well here because they have high perceived value, low cost, and zero operational effort besides giving an additional login. Tickets to virtual experiences or events work too. Same goes for a higher level of service that has a fixed cost like giving someone VIP service for a month (which also doubles as a way of upselling them into that level of service to keep them on it . . . more on that in Book II.)

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What should be a bonus vs part of the core offer if I am the one fulfilling it?

Short answer: Wow Factor - in other words - something you wouldn’t want someone to miss. Many times you have so much “stuff” you will be providing your customers (good thing) that valuable nuggets can get lost in the mix. You want to take the most distinct ones that can almost stand on their own and pull those out to highlight them. This is especially true for things that are short in length but high in quality or value. Checklists or infographics can condense a lot of information into a small space. Someone might not feel justified paying lots of money for a product launch map (for example) but as a bonus would be perceived as very valuable.

Next Up . . .

We have our core offer. We are presenting it in a way to increase scarcity and urgency to increase the likelihood they want it even more. We stacked the bonuses of our offer to make the price to value discrepancy out of this world and break our prospects' minds. Next on our magical journey will be addressing the big elephant in the room...risk. We will completely obliterate it using a combination of guarantees so they have no reason not to buy.

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Enhancing The Offer: Guarantees

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::: title-page-contributor-primary-block “You’re gonna like the way you look...I guarantee it.”

Men’s Warehouse ad that ran forever.

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[T]he single greatest objection for any product or service being sold is...drum roll...risk. Risk that it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do for them. Therefore, reversing risk is an immediate way to make any offer more attractive. You will want to spend a disproportionate amount of time figuring out how you want to reverse it. That being said, how much more attractive can a guarantee make an offer?

Jason Fladlien, who I referenced earlier, once stated that he had seen the conversion on an offer 2-4x simply by changing the quality of the guarantee. It’s that important.

From an overarching perspective there are four types of guarantees:

Unconditional
Conditional
Anti-Guarantee
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?

Sometimes, but not usually. That being said, 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.

:::: prose1 ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block 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. For a guarantee to not be worth it, the increase in sales would have to be 100 percent offset by people who refunded. So an absolute increase in sales of 5 percent would need to be offset by an absolute increase in refunds of 5 percent (but that might be a doubling of refunds, which is unlikely). So, for the most part, the stronger the guarantee, the higher the net increase in total purchases, even if the refund rate increases alongside it.

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Pro Tip: High Cost Services Warning

If you have a tremendous amount of cost associated with your product or service, you will likely want to employ a conditional guarantee or an ANTI guarantee, as you will have to eat the cost of the refund AND the cost of fulfilling.

Types of Guarantees

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What makes a guarantee have power is a conditional statement: If you do not get X result in Y time period, we will Z.

To give a guarantee teeth you have to decide what you’ll do if they don’t get the result.

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. This is a simple, but strong guarantee.

Here are the four types of guarantees. I’ll go over them in theory then we will apply them.

[1) Unconditional Guarantees]

As I stated earlier, there are unconditional, conditional, and “anti-“ guarantees. Unconditional are the strongest 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 shift towards entitlement and zero accountability.

[2) Conditional Guarantees]

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 the key actions someone must take in order to be successful, make those part of the conditional guarantee. In a perfect world, 100% of your customers would qualify for a conditional guarantee, but will have achieved their result, and therefore will not want to take it. That is an ideal we can all aspire towards. And just fyi - if given the option of getting a refund or getting the outcome they were promised the vast majority of people will take the outcome.

[3) Anti-Guarantees]

Anti-guarantees are when you explicitly state “all sales are final.” You will want to own this position. You must come up with a creative “reason why” the sales are final. Typically, you’ll want to show a massive exposure or vulnerability on your part that a consumer could immediately understand and think “Yes, that makes sense.” These types of guarantees are especially important with items that are consumable or massively diminish in value once given.

[4) Implied Guarantees]

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 confers the upside of “If I do a great job, I will be very well compensated.” These only work in situations where you have transparency for measuring the outcome and trust (or control) that you will get compensated when you do perform.

Stacking Guarantees

An experienced salesman understands that, 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 example of stacking an unconditional with a conditional guarantee.

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 thing 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 that they will achieve what they want. This shifts the burden of risk back from them onto us...a very powerful strategy.

Let’s go through some different guarantee examples:

::::: alignment-block ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block Guarantee: If you don’t achieve X, in Y time, we will [insert offer] . . .

::: title-page-contributor-primary-block [Unconditional] “No Questions Asked” Refund Guarantee

[What the Client Gets]: A) a full refund, B) a 50 percent refund, C) a refund of their ad spend and any ancillary costs incurred, D) you pay for a competitors program instead, E) you return their money plus an additional $1,000 (or other applicable amount)

[My Take:] This is about as simple as it gets. It’s also very risky. You put yourself in a situation where if someone does not achieve the results, whether because of your fault or not, you will still be held accountable. Obviously this is a strong, but unoriginal guarantee. You can add conditions, but the more conditions you add, the faster this guarantee loses its teeth.

[Wording]: I heard Jason Fladlien, who I referenced earlier, pitch his unconditional guarantee on a webinar and I thought it was unbelievable. These are 100% his words and not my own. I take no credit for this but have included it for completeness.

“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 [email protected] and tell use “gimme my money” and you got it, and in short order - our response times to any support request average 61min 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.”

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Pro Tip: Name Your Guarantee Something Cool

If you are going to give a guarantee, spice it up. Instead of using “satisfaction” or some other “vanilla” word, describe it more strongly.

[Generic Example] (Bad): 30 Day Money Back Satisfaction Guarantee.

[Creative Imagery Example #1] (Good): In 30 days, if you wouldn’t jump into shark infested waters to get our product back, we will return every dollar you paid.

[Creative Imagery Example #2] (Great): You’ll get our famous “Club a Baby Seal Guarantee”After 30 days of using our services, if you wouldn’t club a baby seal to stay on as a customer, you don’t have to pay a penny.

:::: alignment-block ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block [Unconditional] Satisfaction-Based Refund Guarantee (Expanded from above):

[What the Client Gets:] If at any time they're not satisfied with the level of service they're receiving from you, they can request a refund (at any time) for the program.

[My Take:] Believe it or not, this was my guarantee when I sold weight-loss programs. Besides being an irresistible offer, I guaranteed satisfaction. I used the strength of my guarantee to close a lot of deals. “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.”

It works perfectly with a best-case/worst-case close. “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.” If you are good at what you do, you can use a guarantee like this to push a lot of people over the edge. That line made me a lot of money. I had two people take me up on it out of 4,000 sales in three and a half years.

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.

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Pro Tip: Unconditional vs Conditional Based on Business Type

Bigger broader guarantees work better with lower ticket B2C businesses (many people just won't bother taking the time). The higher the ticket, and the more business oriented it is, the more you want to steer towards specific guarantees. That may or may not include refunds, and may or may not have conditions.

:::: alignment-block ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block [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).

[My Take:] This is for when you sell something with high margins. And this is a guarantee to add with a consumption condition. That means they must do a variety of things to qualify for this guarantee. A world class affiliate marketer Jason Fladlien (who did $27M in a single day) recently used an amazing guarantee for a course he sold. He said “if you buy this course and spend $X on advertising your ecommerce store using the methods herein, and don't make money, I will buy your store from you for $25,000 no questions asked.” He claimed that an additional $3M in sales came from this crazy guarantee on a $2997 course. What’s more, he only gave 10 of these $25,000 refunds out. So the refund generated $2.75M in extra sales. That’s what a crazy guarantee does for you.

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).

:::: alignment-block ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block [Conditional] Service Guarantee

[What the Client Gets:] You keep working for them free of charge until X is achieved.

[My Take:] 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. Realistically, if someone actually does everything you asked them to do and doesn’t achieve the result by the time you had said, one of two things usually happens:

Seeing your client’s commitment, you happily keep working with them until they achieve the desired result
It gets dropped. Your client is likely very close to the goal, which means satisfied.

Also, it’s likely the sales conversation with the guarantee was months earlier. What may have been important in the sales conversation is a distant memory now, replaced by their affection towards you/your business.

:::: alignment-block ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block [Conditional] Modified Service Guarantee

[What the Client Gets:] You give them another Y-long period of service or access to your product/services free of charge. Generally, Y should give them at least twice the duration.

[My Take:] This is like the service guarantee, but it ties a specific duration to your extended work/involvement. So instead of being on the hook “forever,” you’re only on the hook for an additional Y period of time. I’ve seen it work magically and keep the business on the hook for a more finite period of time which may be an easier place for you to start before doing the “all out” Service Guarantee above.

:::: alignment-block ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block [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.

:::: alignment-block ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block [Conditional] Personal Service Guarantee

[What the Client Gets:] You work with them one-on-one, free of charge, until they reach X objective or result.

[My Take:] This is absolutely one of the strongest guarantees in existence. It’s like a service guarantee on crack. You will definitely want to add conditions, though: they must respond back in twenty-four hours, they must use the products you tell them to, they must XYZ. Only if they do that, will you keep working with them one-on-one.

This is especially powerful as you scale and become more edified as a business owner. Can you imagine one of my sales people saying, “Alex will personally work with you until your offer converts”? Right. It would work. It would also be a nightmare. So I would probably put contingencies like, “Provided you've already spent $10,000 on your existing offer using our structure, the offer you ran was for lead generation, and it was a free offer. These are things that would make it unlikely they would not succeed. If for some reason they hadn’t with those stipulations in place, I could probably fix their problem in ten minutes just looking at it.

:::: alignment-block ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block [Conditional] Hotel + Airfare Perks Guarantee

[What the Client Gets:] If you don't receive value, we will reimburse your product and your hotel + airfare.

[My Take:] This is technically a “refund of ancillary costs” from our first example. I just love it a lot for workshops and in-person experiences. Normally the event would cost more than the hotel and airfare, so it's like adding an extra $1000 to a guarantee but way more tangible. It’s original enough that people like it.

:::: alignment-block ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block [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 40hrs/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.

:::: alignment-block ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block [Conditional] Release of Service Guarantee

[What the Client Gets:] You let them out of their contract free of charge.

[My Take:] This voids a commitment or cancellation fee. If you have a business that has enforceable commitments, contracts or clauses, this can be a powerful guarantee. Better yet, if you are in a business that does not enforce your contracts, then you have nothing to lose by adding the guarantee.

:::: alignment-block ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block [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, etc.

[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.

:::: alignment-block ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block [Conditional] First Outcome Guarantee

[What the Client Gets:] You continue to pay their ancillary costs (ad spend, hotel, etc) until they reach their first outcome. Example: If you don’t make your first sale in 14 days, we will pay for your ad spend until you do.

[My Take:] Just like the delayed second payment, just centered around a different cost. I personally like this setup a lot. It keeps everyone focused on getting that first dollar over the bridge. Once that one comes across, the second comes soon after.

:::: alignment-block ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block [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.

[My Take:] This can enhance the persuasiveness of the sale and the value of the product or service. It essentially implies that the client is going to use it and see an immense benefit thereby exposing the business to vulnerability. It acts as a damaging admission. We have an “all sales are final” policy, but that is because our product is so exclusive and so powerful that once used it cannot be unused.” Since it is so standard to have some sort of guarantee, not having one is attention-worthy.

So instead of being wishy-washy, lean into the fact this thing works so well, and is so easy to copy, you must make all sales final. They’ll believe you even more if you take this position. “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.

Anti-guarantees can also work very well with high ticket products and services that require a lot of work or customization. “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. “ From these examples, you should get the idea.

::::: prose1 ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block Implied Guarantees: Performance Models, Revshares, and Profit-Sharing

::: title-page-contributor-primary-block 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.

[My Take]: Performance, Revshare, and Profit-shares aren’t guarantees “per se”, but for all intents and purposes, they are. There is an implied guarantee whenever you enter into a revshare or performance partnership: if you dont make money, you don't have to pay me. 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.

Create Your Own Winning Guarantee

Reversing risk is the number one way to increase the conversion of an offer. Experienced marketers spend as much time crafting their guarantees as the deliverables themselves. It’s that important.

I have personally used all the guarantees listed above (except for the hotel and phone call one, which I just saw and liked). But 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.

We now have a core offer built and guarantees chosen.

Next Up...

Now all we have to do is put a bow on this puppy and actually name it. Naming an offer correctly determines how well your advertising converts, how big of a response you get from outbound emails/cold calls/texts, and how many inbound responses you get from organic comments.

It matters.

That being said, I will show you how to generate unlimited names or “wrapping paper” for your offer. That way it never fatigues, no matter how small your market may be. This is the key to evergreen lead generation.

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Free Gift # 9 BONUS: Create A Winning Guarantee With Me

Guarantees can make or break businesses. They are like dynamite, they can be incredibly powerful if in the hands of an expert. Go to [Acquisition.com/training/offers] and select “Creating Guarantees” to watch a short video tutorial so you can start using this in your business to make more sales ASAP. I also made a [Free Guarantee Checklist] for you to use when thinking through all the variables. As always, it’s absolutely free. Enjoy.

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Enhancing The Offer: Naming

:::: alignment-block ::: title-page-contributor-primary-block Implicit-egotism effect: we are generally drawn to the things and people that most resemble us.

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[L]ike the tree that falls in the forest that no one hears, having a Grand Slam Offer will not make you money if no one finds out about it. The goal must be that upon hearing about your offer, your ideal prospects are interested enough to take action. Naming it properly is an integral part of this process.

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.

Over time you can rename the offer to refresh it. This one concept will get you leads forever. I mean it. So pay attention. We are not changing the actual offer. We are only changing the wrapping paper.

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If you’ve put together a bundled offering, you’re still ultimately going to be doing the same things. 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:

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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.

The shorter and punchier the better. So it's a balance between brevity and specificity.

The only way to really know what works is to write the names out and test them.

Let’s run through the components now.

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Author Note: Marketing Theory

If you like understanding the concepts behind my chosen M-A-G-I-C formula. Each roughly translates to: Attention (M-Magnet), Discrimination (A-Avatar), Purpose (G-Goal), Timeline (I-Interval), and Method (C-Container).

Make a Magnetic “Reason Why”

We start the name with a word or phrase that tells people the “reason why” we are running our promotion.

I like to tell people to think like a fraternity party planner. When I was in college, we had a party once because a guy got his wisdom teeth removed. 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

This component calls out your ideal avatar: who you are looking for and who you are not looking for as a client. 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. It can be a single word or a phrase. It can be an event, a feeling, an experience, or an outcome, anything that would excite them. The more specific and tangible, the better.

[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.

Note: If you’re making any sort of quantifiable claim (like income gain or weight loss) most platforms will not approve this type of messaging with a stated duration to achievement because it implies a guarantee. It implies they are going to get this outcome in a period of time, which goes against many platform rules. So dont give a quantifiable outcome with the duration unless your platform allows it. That being said, duration is a powerful component of a Grand Slam Offer and you should definitely use it anywhere you don't need to deal with compliance. Alternatively, if the goal you help them with is not a “claim” per se, then absolutely use a time interval. “$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.

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Pro Tip: Find Time To Rhyme

Good rhymes stick in people’s minds. Rhyme your program name to win the game.

Google “rhyming dictionary” for an easy shortcut. Note - Don’t try and force it. It’s not a requirement, it’s just a “nice-to-have”.

Ex: Six-Pack Fast Track, 5-Day Book Print Sprint, Marriage Thrive Deep Dive, 12-Week 2-Putt Shortcut, 12-Month No-Debt Reset, Celebrity Butt Shortcut, Get Some Ass Masterclass (just thought it was funny), etc. You get the idea.

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Pro Tip: Alliteration

Alliteration is when you make all (or most) of the words start with the same letter or sound.

An alternative approach to rhyming is to use alliteration when naming your program. This is easier for most people than rhyming. Again, you do not need to rhyme or alliterate. Don’t force it.

Ex: Make Money Masterclass, Change Your Life Challenge, Big Booty Bootcamp, Debt Detox, Real Estate Reset, Life Coach Liftoff, Etc.

I might be weird, but naming offers is one of my favorite parts of this process. What I want to highlight, yet again, is that your actual money model, pricing, and services will remain largely unchanged. Changing the wrapper simply means changing the exterior perception of what your Grand Slam Offer is.

Below you’ll find a few examples of named offers for different industries.

[Wellness]

Free Six-Week Lean-By-Halloween Challenge
88% Off 12-Week Bikini Blueprint
Free 21-Day Mommy Makeover
60-minute Make Your Friends Jealous Model Hair System
Six-Week Stress-Release Challenge
(Free!) Bend Over Pain Free in 42 Days . . . Healing Fast Track

[Doctors]

$2,000-Off Celebrity Smile Transformation
Lakeway Moms - $1,500 Off Your Kids Braces
Lakeway Moms - 12 Months To A Perfect Smile ($1000 off for 15 families)
Back to School Free Braces Giveaway
Grand Opening Free X-Ray & Treatment - Instant Relief
Back Sore No More! 90 Day Rapid Healing Intensive (81% off!)
Tightness? $1 Massage New Client Summer Special

[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!)

I could keep listing these, but hopefully you get the idea. Now it’s time for you to give it a try for your Grand Slam Offer.

Again, you don't necessarily have to use all the power components of the headline. Using three to five will typically create something that is more unique and desirable, allowing you to separate yourself from the competitive field and create an offer that will get clicks and engagement, and ultimately make you money.

Furthermore, you don't need to do them in the M-A-G-I-C order. Do what sounds punchier to you. After doing this for a while, you’ll see that some offers convert better than others. That’s natural. And every once in a while you’ll get a name that takes off like a rocket. I honestly have no idea why some names win and others do not. So, don’t be emotional about it. Keep trying. Keep striking out. Then try more. You’ll get there.

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.

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Pro Tip - Name Sub Items & Bonuses

Use the magic headline formula for each item in your stack and bundle. It will automatically enhance the value of your offerings simply by naming in a way that resonates with your prospects.

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.

Change the creative (the images and pictures in your ads)
Change the body copy in your ads
Change the headline - the “wrapper” of your offer
Free 6 Week Lean Challenge to Free 6 Week Tone Challenge
Holiday Hangover to New Year New You
Change the duration of your offer
Change the enhancer of your offer (your free/discount component)
Change the monetization structure, the series of offers you give prospects, and the price points associated with them (Book II)

I follow this variation framework because most of the time it’s the first handful of items that need to be changed. Typically, they need to be changed again and again without touching anything on the bottom of the list.

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.

Let’s say we change from a Six-Week Stress Release Challenge to a 42-Day Relaxing Holidays Challenge for a massage center. Same core offer, just a different wrapper. Then, of course, you could change the duration of your offer - six weeks to 28 days or eight weeks, etc. The lower on the list you go, the more operationally heavy it is, so really be sure you have exhausted the earlier “lighter” ways of varying your offer.

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, especially once you get traction.

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.

And if they don’t convert at first, don’t worry. You’ll get better. Oftentimes, if you are using these types of models, many of them will work. In that case, stick with the one that gives you the highest return. You can also rotate between offers if it doesn't create lots of operational drag for your type of business. This is the ultimate position of power. You have multiple “aces in the hole” that you can play at any time, which keeps your marketing converting at an even higher level.

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Author Note - Marketing Local Businesses

Ironically, local business marketing is both easier and harder than national level marketing. It’s easier to get to work, but harder to keep working or scale. And the reason is - in local markets, it’s easier because there’ is trust in the familiar. So selling in- person at higher prices in a local market is inherently easier. It means you will convert a much higher percentage of your leads. This makes marketing work most of the time.

The downside of local marketing is that offers fatigue rapidly because there is only a limited radius that a local business can serve. To reference an earlier concept, the TAM (total addressable market) for a brick & mortar is only its immediate radius (most times). So by extension, the smaller the radius, the faster offers fatigue. This is the double-edged sword of local.

Learning to rapidly variate my offers, headlines, and creative when I had my local businesses was a cornerstone skill that made my expansion to national level advertising much easier for me. So if you are in a local market, just remember you aren’t going to change the value stack of your offer. You are just going to change the way it looks to the marketplace in your marketing.

Naming Summary

We must appropriately name our offer to attract the right avatar to our business. True to the moniker, people do judge a book by its cover. Half-ass naming your product or offering can ruin conversions. Don’t fall victim to lazy naming. Follow the steps here to name your product or service offering and watch the same offer get 2x, 3x, or 10x the response rate. You’ll believe it when you see it - I know I did.

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.

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Free Gift # 10 BONUS: Create The Perfect Name For Your Product

Naming your product properly helps your avatar know the product is for them and is valuable and will solve their problems. If you want to do this live with me, go to [Acquisition.com/training/offers] and select “Naming Products” to watch a short video tutorial so you can start using this in your business to make more sales ASAP. I also made a [Free Naming Formula Checklist] for you to use and reuse with your team. It also works for naming promotions. As always, it’s absolutely free. Enjoy.

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