I know everyone says you should relax and enjoy the holidays but here’s one thing I’ve learned about myself; I don’t idle well.
It’s challenging for me to sit still and relax when I have so many ideas bouncing around my head that can help people (including myself) grow their business.
So, here’s the compromise I made with myself. Instead of working in my business over the holidays I worked on my business. This allowed me to maintain productivity while also being present for my family.
Specifically, I read a book that instantly improved one of my core service offerings, $100M Offers by Alex Hormozi. And in the most recent episode of the Launch Your Business podcast I shared how I transformed my offer and – more importantly – how you can make your own irresistible offer.
But, I’m aware of the fact “knowledge, univested in labour, is wasted” so I’m also sharing the sales sheet I developed (which describes my offer in depth) so you can save time by leveraging a similar approach and quickly create your offer.
Craft Your Irresistible Offer with the Value Equation
I’ve never worked in the finance industry but the movie Boiler Room is one of my favourites. I don’t want to ruin it for you but the plot revolves around stockbrokers selling shady stock, one of them finally has a conscience and Vin Diesel yells a lot.
Ben Afflect has a surprisingly small role in it but he delivered one of my favourite lines when discussing how to get a yes out of a prospective buyer.
“If you were drowning and I threw you a life jacket, would you take it?”
That’s an example of an offer so good people would feel stupid saying no. And like I said, that’s what we’re going to talk about today and it’s all based on Alex Hormozi’s book, $100M Offers.
Developing your irresistible offer is important for you because I’ve seen people exhaust themselves – and lose money – trying to sell offers that had small, fundamental flaws. With a good offer, you don’t have to try so hard to sell it and your marketing will be much more impactful.
Ok, so how can you make your irresistible offer? We’re going to walk through that now by breaking down Alex’s Value equation which consists of four parts.
You can see each part below and I’ll share my example to provide context.
Image source: $100m OffersGot all that? Great.
One of my offers is providing LinkedIn training to teams at professional service providers. For example, digital marketing agencies. We’ll continue using this as an example so you can better wrap your head around the entire process.
Step 1: Maximize Dream Outcome
So we’ll start with the dream outcome your audience is searching for. As per the book, “The dream outcome is the expression of the feelings and experiences the prospect has envisioned in their mind.”
Your goal is to accurately depict that dream back to them so they feel understood and explain how you will help them get there.
People and clients generally want the following dream outcomes:
- To be perceived as beautiful
- To be respected
- To be perceived as powerful
- To be loved
- To increase their status
So, back to my LinkedIn training offer. I wrote down several potential dream outcomes.
- Inbound leads
- Increased revenue
- Perceived as thought leader
- Attract top talent
- Increase team knowledge
- Attract qualified candidates
- More press and public appearances
- Build strategic partnerships
- Lower marketing costs
But, saying all that is a mouthful so I decided to focus on clear outcomes that I’m certain I can deliver on and reflect the overarching theme of their dream outcome.
I help teams create LinkedIn content that attracts leads and positions their organization as an industry thought leader.
Your turn.
Jot down the dream outcome for your target audience.
Step 2: Maximize Perceived Likelihood of Achievement
People pay for certainty. In other words “How likely do I believe it is that I will achieve the result I’m looking for if I make this purchase?”
You can increase this perceived likelihood of achievement in a number of ways including:
- Your messaging
- Guarantees
- Testimonials
Your messaging can be as simple as how you describe the offer. For example “so easy even a seven year old can do it.”
Guarantees are helpful since they reduce risk and prove you’re willing to put your money where your mouth is. Testimonials are even better since it involves a past client sharing their experience and outcomes.
Now you might be thinking. “Well all that stuff sounds great but I’m just getting started and don’t have any testimonials yet.” If that’s the case, here’s another way you can increase your prospect’s perceived likelihood of achievement; create content on social media that highlights your expertise and personality. This will allow them to know, like and trust you even if you don’t have an established track record just yet.
So, here’s how I incorporated this part into my offer.
I described how anyone can create content, even if they don’t think they’re creative. And, I also included templates and prompts to help with the content creation process.
I shared testimonials from previous clients who have worked with me on more than one occasion.
And I added a guarantee. If you don’t feel your team is creating content that attracts prospects within 30 days, I’ll continue working with you until you get three qualified leads.
Your turn.
Based on the example and guidelines we just discussed, jot down how you’ll increase this perceived likelihood of achievement for your customers.
Step 3: Minimize Time to Success
The next driver in the value equation we’ll discuss is the time delay. How quickly can you help your clients achieve their goal?
Now in some cases it’s impossible to quickly reach a goal. For example, let’s say you’re setting up some new process at a company that will take months to complete. That’s just how it is, but you can still deliver a quick win. So maybe it’s an audit or a custom roadmap that shows exactly what needs to be addressed in order for the organization to reach their goals.
Here’s what I did for my LinkedIn training offer.
I pre-recorded all the training videos as well as the associated exercises. Any client who signs on with me gets instant access and they can start reviewing the content well ahead of our live training.
As a result they’ll already see signs of real progress before I even meet with them.
Your turn.
How can you reduce the time delay involved with your audience achieving their outcome? Or, what’s one quick win you can deliver?
Step 4: Minimize Effort & Sacrifice
Now let’s discuss the fourth part of the value equation, decreasing the perceived effort and sacrifice involved.
And, this reminds me of a favourite quote by Eric Thomas “Everybody wants to be a beast until it’s time to do what real beasts do.” That sign is hanging at my gym and it reminds us all that we have to put in work to see results.
Unfortunately, many of your clients or customers may not want to put in that work, so you need to develop and describe the process for how you make it easier. One option is a done for your service. And while that may be time consuming, you can also charge much more for it. Another option is to provide customizable templates and tools that make it easier for your customers to make progress on their own.
For my LinkedIn training I provide tools that make it easier for my clients to determine, develop and schedule their content.
There are several options available and they’ll all be unique to your business but do not skip this step.
Your turn.
How can reduce the effort and sacrifice involved with using your service?
Step 5: Tying it all together
So now that we have the core elements of your offer in place we just need to complete one more step, aligning your audience’s problems with your solutions.
Start by listing out all the problems your audience will have before, during and after implementing your services.
For example, here’s one problem companies may run into with my offer.
“Some people on my team aren’t creative. How are they going to create good content?”
I can address that problem and offer a solution as part of my offer.
Rapidly create engaging content that attracts leads and partnerships (even if you’re not creative)
We’ll do one more problem and solution.
“How do I know if this is even working?”
And here’s my solution.
Clearly measure the revenue impact of your content (without complicated tools)
You get the point here. Explain how your offer directly addresses any doubts or hesitations your prospects may have.
Your turn
Write down all the problems your audience may have and describe how your product or service solves these issues.
This should be four to five bullet points and you’ll display them prominently on your website and socials.
Next steps
Look, I’m not going to sugar-coat it. This process is challenging. It took me about six hours and I was doing this while all four of my kids were home for winter recess.
But, I enjoyed it, and it’s clearly paying off! I’ve already booked two deals with this new offer and they closed much faster than usual. The best part? I now charge more than before, my clients are happy and delivering the services requires less time and customization.
And, speaking of less time and customization. I’m going to help you by sharing the assets I’ve developed to describe my offer. You can access the sales sheet I made for my program here. And, you can view the offer on my website here. Of course you’ll want to adjust to fit your specific offer but it will remove a lot of the guesswork. And if you need more help, contact me today.
Entrepreneur Staff. Business Development Expert-in-Residence.
