Part 4: Attraction Offers Continued | $100M Money Models Audiobook | Ep 941

0:00Decoy offer. Which one do you think will get you the best results? June 2014. John, my second mentor, retired early. He spent his retirement raising his girls, playing golf, and hanging out at his lake house. He was a man who had lived. Once in a while, he'd invite me to his lake house, and on those long drives, he taught me things about life and business I use to this day, like the difference between price and value, the pros and cons of low-cost offers, high-volume, low-price business models, differences between recurring subscriptions and one-time transactions, and the art of keeping things simple in business and life.

0:32John was great company. Often wished we would drive forever so I could soak everything in. To him, this was just another story to pass the time. But to me, it was a lesson I would never forget. The five-day,$5 VIP tanning pass. You see, the beauty of the$5 five-day pass is everyone thinks they can get tanned in five days. And they can, but it's never as tanned as they want to get. And if they try to speed things up, they'll burn. So when someone comes in with a pass, we ask them how tan they want to get. And as soon as they say they want to get a few shades darker, we'll give them the turkey talk.

1:02I was like, what's the turkey talk? John smiled and continued. Say a Thanksgiving turkey takes three hours to cook. We all know what happens if you double the temperature to cook it in half the time. You burn it. It takes at least five to ten sessions to get the color you want without burning. And since they got to take some time between sessions, it always takes more than five days. And once they realize that, we say, let's just credit your VIP pass towards your first month. Why buy so many$25 day passes when members get unlimited access for just$19.99 a month? They immediately see the value and take to membership.

1:33Easy as that. Five years later. Hey boss, we've got a problem. Oh boy, what's up? I said. Our fitness leads have gotten way too expensive. The guys who can sell are still making it work, but most of them are barely breaking even. Dang. So it finally happened. I said. I pressed my hands to my forehead. I knew this was coming. The truth is, I was dreading it. I tried for weeks to put a spin on our previous offer, a new or interesting twist that would buy us time, but our tests had failed so far. You got any offers up your sleeve, you asked? I racked my brain, then remembered the$5 VIP tanning pass.

2:05That might just work. Why don't we offer something super cheap to get leads, but when they come in, make them a crazy offer that costs more, but is 100 times better? They can still take the cheap thing, but we'll just explain that they'll get way better results with the extra accountability and nutrition, et cetera. Yeah, I can run something like that, he said. A few weeks later. Alex, I think we cracked it. Awesome, walk me through it. So we give two options. The first option is free. I give one session per week. The second option is an ultimate version for$3.99. It comes with unlimited sessions, one-on-one coaching, more personalized stuff, and a guarantee they'll get results or they repeat the program for free.

2:40Oh man, that guarantee is solid. What's the take rate? We got 70 to 80 % taking the$3.99 option. We're crushing it. Awesome. Let's scale it. John was a brilliant salesman and patient teacher. His philosophy of giving customers what they want now, so you can give them what they need later, shaped many ways I do business. He also inspired the offer that saved my gyms. But the most valuable thing I learned from him was this. You have to know what gets results for customers better than they do. This makes our premium offer the clear solution. And making our premium the clear solution is what Decoy offers are all about.

3:12Description. Decoy offers advertise something free or discounted. Then when the lead asks to learn more, you also present a more valuable premium offer. The premium offer provides more features, benefits, bonuses, guarantees, and so on. By putting your decoy offers and premium offers side by side, leads can see how much more valuable your premium offer is. I like decoy offers because they get more customers overall. They either take the decoy version or the premium version. If they take the premium version, great. If they take the decoy, also great. It gives you time to upgrade them rather than just losing them immediately.

3:44But either way, you can close everyone. This makes it cheap and profitable to get new customers, and any business can do it. Here are the steps to make a decoy offer. Advertise a lesser, smaller, or simpler version of your premium offer as a decoy. Then, when leads engage, offer both options, but emphasize the premium one. Examples. Lemonade stand offer, physical products. Attraction offer, free week of lemonade, or$1 week of lemonade. That would be the attraction offer. Decoy option. You can have this water and powdered lemon and corn syrup or premium option the organic all-natural vegan gluten-free imported italian lemons which are cold-pressed and shipped straight to your door you'll never need to waste time coming to the store again it'll have you feeling like a labrador puppy chasing butterflies all day it also comes with other flavors like our sparkling rosewater lemonade float tank center example service attraction offer free six-week stress release or a$6 six-week stress release.

4:44Decoy option. One float per month with at-home do-it-yourself stress release exercises. Premium option. Two times per week floats for six weeks, one-on-one consulting, journal, sleep routine, satisfaction guaranteed. Gym offer, local business. Attraction offer. Free 21-day transformation or$21 21-day transformation. Decoy option when they walk in the door. Workouts done in a school.com group once a day, a general nutrition plan, can watch recordings, no support, no guarantee. Premium option, unlimited works outs, a personalized nutrition plan, one-on-one accountability, results guarantee, or you get another 21 days free.

5:26Important notes, how to make your decoy offer. Offer fewer components, older models, or less personalized versions of your premium offer. Also, remove any guarantees. Your attraction offer only has to get leads to engage, nothing more. Advertise benefits, not the features. We want to sell them on the dream outcome. We advertise a transformation in 21 days, not workouts and meal plans. Leads get specific product details in the sales presentation, not the advertising. Private jets and rowboats can both get you to an exotic island, but the premium option is certainly more enjoyable. You can advertise discounts in four ways.

6:01So let's say you have a year-long thing that costs$100 a month. If you wanted to have them pay$900 for the year, you could say, one, percentage off, 25 % off. Two, an absolute amount off,$300 off. Three, a free portion, so three months free. Or four, total package, one year for$900, which you cross out$1 ,200 above it. They all mean the same thing. It's worth testing to see which one converts better in your market. Make the contrast huge. The value of the premium option comes from the huge difference between it with the decoy option. So make the decoy option as basic as reasonable. Then make the premium option as awesome as possible.

6:38The bigger the contrast, the better the deal, the more customers will take it. Discount offers have higher show-up rates than free offers. In my experience, if you run a free attraction offer, you'll get more leads. If you run a discount offer, you'll get fewer leads, but a higher percentage will show up. So if you have low show-up rates for appointments, try a discount offer instead. This is especially important for businesses where you have high cost of someone not showing up. Think doctors, lawyers, dentists, etc. If possible, present the premium offer first. In a perfect world, they take the premium offer immediately.

7:08The decoy offer stays in your back pocket. If they come in specifically asking for the decoy option up front, then get them to give you permission to sell to them. If they ask to hear about your decoy, you are legally required to present it. Or if you prefer to present it first, here's how I like to do it. I ask them this simple question. Are you here for free stuff or lasting results? And as soon as they say results, which most people do, skip to your premium offer. If they say free stuff, present the decoy offer, then immediately contrast it with your premium offer. Then only after presenting both, ask them, which do you think will get you to your goal faster?

7:44Or which would you prefer? The less valuable thing or why, why, why, more valuable thing? Benefit one, two, three. At this point, they'll have to say the premium offer. Then you can move forward in the sale, mutually agreeing it's the best for them. When making your premium offer, get excited about it. Present it as superior to the decoy offer because it is. and, assuming it is, how it fits the customer better. Your excitement motivates people to take the option that will get them the best value. From a selling perspective, you want to talk to the lead as if you already know they will accept your offer.

8:13Many salespeople refer to this as an assumed close. You operate from a position of, this is what everyone does. This is just a formality. Let me get your ID and credit card so you can get your value. No hype, just friendly disposition, almost bored of how regularly people buy. Surprise benefit, optional. To take this a step further, if someone takes the decoy option, you can choose to surprise them with a few or low to zero cost features from your premium offer. Just say something like, hey, I'm going to throw this in, even though it's part of our premium offer, just because I want you to get great results.

8:42This builds goodwill, over delivers, and increases the chances they take your upsells later. Remember, they're still leads. Summary points. Decoy offers advertise something free or discounted. Then when leads ask to learn more, you also present a more valuable premium offer. Two, make the premium offer far more valuable than the decoy option by adding more features, benefits, bonuses, and guarantees. Strip down your decoy offer as much as reasonable. When leads ask about your decoy offer, present your premium offer right next to it. Ask, are you here for free stuff or lasting results? For permission to offer the premium offer first.

9:15You can still make money from leads who pick the decoy option. You'll learn the best way to deliver your decoy product and maximize the upsells from it. Expect to make money fast, and if you're not, then make the contrast between offers larger. Free gift, no opt-in required, decoy offers training. Decoy offers are one of the most flexible attraction offers in any business. You just need to know more about your customer's problems than they do. They're also easy to train people to sell. I've run them in a number of different industries. If you want to nerd out on the topic, I made a full video breakdown for you.

9:42You can check it out at acquisition.com forward slash training forward slash money. Buy X, get Y free. Buy one puppy, get two puppies free. Downtown Nashville, 2020. Bars and shops at this popular tourist destination went in and out of business all the time, but one store reigned supreme Boot Factory Their neon sign cut through the visual clutter of the street like a hot knife through butter A cowboy boot bigger than my car directed me to the front door There was no mistaking what they wanted me to do. So of course I obeyed And as I got closer, I could make out their offer Buy one pair get two pair free A decade passed since I've been to Nashville, but I remember the sign and buy one get two free offer like it was yesterday.

10:24As a kid on bar crawls, I thought the offer was dumb. How could they give away so much stuff and stay in business? But now, with some offer making under my belt, I could appreciate it. I went straight to the men's section and grabbed a boot. Curious, the price was marked down twice to a final offer of$600 for the pair. But these were normal looking boots. The young me would have scoffed, but the business me realized that I had missed something. The store got much bigger since the last time I saw it, so the offer clearly worked. Then it clicked. They charged three times the price for a single pair of boots because they came with two more pairs.

10:56So rather than saying, come to Boot Factory and buy boots at a fair price, they managed to create a free offer. Even in the few minutes I checked out the store, Bachelorettes filled in getting matching pairs of boots. And since the Boot Factory sat in the middle of a street full of cowboy-themed bars, this happened a lot. It was brilliant. Description. In buy X, get Y free offers. When customers buy something, they get other stuff free. The more free stuff they get, and the higher its value, the better it works. Free offers get way more attention than discount offers. But if you have one thing to sell and give it away, you go hungry.

11:26In situations like this, businesses tend to lean on discounts. They run sales relying on holidays, seasonal changes, or whatever as reasons to temporarily lower their prices and get more customers. But by selling more than one thing at once, you can turn discount offers into even stronger free offers. When you have more than one item, you can make the discount value large enough that it covers the price of the more stuff. For example, I could sell three t-shirts for$10 each for a total of$30, or I could sell one t-shirt for$30 and give away two for free. It's the same price, but way more free stuff.

11:59And if I wanted to offer a discount rather than only reframe the price, I could do this. I could sell three t-shirts for$6.67 each for a total of$20, which is a 33 % discount, or keeping the same discount, I could sell one shirt for 20 and give away two free. It's the same price, but way more free stuff again. Boot Factory took the first option. They tripled the price of one pair of boots and added value in more boots. And an expensive pair of boots with two free gets Boot Factory more customers than selling one pair at a fair price. Plus, if you can include free, then attracts even more customers.

12:35Examples. Buy one, get two free physical products offer, the Boot Factory offer. One pair of boots,$200. Buy X, get Y free offer. Buy one for$600, get two pairs free. End result, they still buy three pairs of$200 boots for a total of$600. Three versions. Now here's three different versions for an 18 months of services agreement, aka three pairs of boots. Here's a good version. Buy 12 months, get six months free,$1 ,800. Here's a better version. Buy six months, get six months free,$1 ,800. Here's the best version. Buy six months, get 12 months free,$1 ,800. Everyone pays the same price for the same amount of service, but the third option is the most compelling.

13:15Hint, it has the most free stuff. Important notes. Buy X, get Y free gets people to buy more stuff and provide more value. It used to take a whole year for some of my service businesses to make their money, but buy six, get six offer attracted far more customers than the original month to month offer. Even better, they got paid up front for it. Raise prices before giving away free stuff to preserve profits. If you use this to attract customers, it will work. And since it will work, you need to make money. So permanently raise prices to accommodate the discount. Don't lie. Actually raise your prices.

13:52Since this is what all new customers will be coming in on, then it makes sense to change it for a season at least. Plus, plenty of people might still take your double prices a la carte and break your limiting beliefs around prices. You're welcome. Buy X, get Y free works better if you have more free stuff than paid stuff. For example, buy 10, get 2 free is not as strong as buy 2, get 10 free. This seems obvious, but again, people don't do it. To make it work better, give more free stuff than you ask people to buy. Just play with the pricing until it makes sense for you. Buy 1, get 2, instead of buy 2, get 1.

14:26The free things can be different from the paid things. When people first start doing offers like this, they match the free and paid stuff, but you can mix and match whatever you want. Just make sure the value of different free stuff still makes the offer compelling. Example, let's say socks have a$10 value. If they buy one shirt for$10, but get$20 free socks, it may seem like a better deal. More cheaper things can work better than fewer free expensive things. Revisiting the t-shirt example, let's say I could only afford to give away one shirt for free, but for the same cost, I could give them three pairs of socks.

15:03I'd probably test buy one shirt, get one shirt free against buy one shirt, get three pairs of socks for free. Socks cost less than a shirt, but people still see buy one thing, get three things free. Sometimes more cheaper things works better than fewer expensive things. Rather than offer a 33 % discount, try buy one, get two free. Even though it can be structured to accomplish the same thing, free drives more interest than a discount. More people know the value of free than the value of one shirt. For example, rather than selling$10 shirts for$6.67 each, 33 % off, you may get more interest and make more money by offering buy one shirt for$20, get two free.

15:46Just test it. Do not make offers like this if you can't manage money. While buy X, get Y free offers create massive cash flow for a business, you need to deliver. So if you get a whole year's worth of payments in a month, make sure you can deliver for the whole year. Budget the correct amount of money to service your customers for the duration of your agreement. Don't be a goon and buy yourself a house with the cash meant for servicing your customers. Selling stuff you can't deliver on breaks the law and ruins your reputation. Deliver on your promises. Make this offer to existing customers for fast cash.

16:18If you have a recurring business already and need fast cash, you can make this offer to existing customers. Many will happily buy 10 and get 2 free at their current price. Just cap how many can take the offer to 10 % of your customer base. This gives you a good cash pop and keeps recurring cash flow healthy. Even if customers prepay then, you can still upsell them different stuff now. A lot of people don't want to make more offers to customers who prepay for stuff. This is a mistake. Speaking from experience, these are the people who spend the most money. Give them other offers to buy, and they will.

16:50After all, they may have prepaid months ago. Their wallets have been refreshed with new money that is dying to make it in your pocket. Don't get in the way. If customers only buy once, make the buy as big as you can. The boot factory in my story catered to tourists that want to fit in at the local cowboy bars. This means most of their customers made one purchase ever. For that reason, it makes sense to make that purchase as large as possible. Just provide the value to back it up. If you only have one shot, you might as well make it count. Summary points. In buy X, get Y free offers, when customers buy something, they get other stuff free.

17:28Buy X, get Y free works for stuff that makes sense to buy more of or get longer access to. Basic buy X, get Y free offers reframe pricing. Buy one gets two free costs the same as buying three, except customers see the free offer as more valuable. Just look at the 18 months of service example. Always try to give more free things than paid things. You can pair different free things with your paid things. Some buy X, get Y free offers discount the price, where buying more things cost less per thing than buying the same number of things one at a time. Buy X, get Y free can lengthen the amount of time customers stay.

18:04If normal customers stay for three months, then buy two, get two free will keep them for four months or whatever you set it at. This gives you more opportunities to make more offers and provide more value. If you use buy x get y free to generate lots of cash fast, make sure you manage it well and deliver on your promises. If you need fast cash, you can make this offer to existing recurring customers. Just cap how many you sell to so you still have cash flow. Keep selling customers who prepay long durations. They are the most likely customers to buy again. Free gift. Buy x get y free video course.

18:39Buy x get y free gets lots of cash and lots of customers. You just need to know your math. I made a free video for you giving you a few more creative ways to use it. You can watch the video for free at acquisition.com forward slash training forward slash money. Pay less now or pay more later. Time is money. Benjamin Franklin. June 2016. A headline caught my attention. Double your reading speed in three hours or it's free. I opened and scanned the text. Inside, the world's fastest reader offered a free training to double my reading speed in three hours. So I registered. Why not? The registration page said, you can put your credit card down for$0 and get billed$297 tomorrow.

19:19And if your reading speed doesn't double, just email us before then and we'll cancel the charge. But you must attend in order to be eligible. Or you can just pay$97 right now and as a free bonus, get the recordings, which won't be for sale anywhere else. I decided on the first option. I wanted to see if my reading speed doubled before paying anything. The whole training, I expected him to sell me more stuff, but he simply provided value. After two hours using his tactics, my reading speed doubled. Impressive. The training had been true to the promise. He earned his$297. After that, he talked about how I could learn to read even faster with his eight-week training program.

19:53I was satisfied with my results, so I chose not to take the upsell. He taught me a skill I still use to this day, but the true value came from learning a brand new attraction offer. Description. In pay less now or pay more later, you give people a choice to pay full price later or pay a discounted price now. This play works so well because it removes all risk from the customer. They pay later and only if they like it. So it combines the benefits of a delayed payment and a satisfaction guaranteed. Anyone can sell this. Almost anyone will agree to pay later if they're satisfied. But once they agree to pay later, you can get them to pay now with hefty discounts and valuable bonuses.

20:27The pay later option allows you to advertise free since they can choose to pay or not. This gets lots of engaged leads. But this free offer has an added benefit. We get their card on file. So if they choose this option and hate the product, then they can cancel at any time before the charge goes through. If they accept the pay later option, we make a follow-up offer to pay now, and pay now options provide a 20 to 50 % discount and greater bonuses. And since we already have their card on file, make it easy for them to pay. Whether they choose the pay now or pay later, you've got customers and likely some profit.

20:59But to take full advantage of this offer, you want something else to sell. So have something more, better, or newer to offer when the time is right. And don't worry, we'll go deep on upsells in the next section. Examples. Find your first real estate deal. Free three-day workshop. Pay later option. $0 for three-day workshop. Get billed$500 at the end unless you cancel. Pay now option. $299 for three-day workshop plus recordings. One-on-one call with certified distressed property expert plus printing materials to use delivered at the workshop. Upsell offer. From the workshop. $30 ,000 take you through every other step of closing your first deal within six months, plus legal templates, advisative at the investment, inspection checklist, etc.

21:44Local business service. Trim your hedges for free. Pay later option. $0 lawn cut plus hedges, then$600 after, if satisfied. Pay now option. $369 lawn cut and hedges and lawn treatment. Upsell. $199 per month lawn care services. The rep comes to the house, makes the upstimate, and offers both options. Then upsells after the work is done. Physical products. 14-day clothing trial. Pay later. $0 now. Get it. Then get billed$149 in 14 days. Pay now. $97 for the closing, plus an accessory that goes with it. Upsell. The dress comes with an offer for a monthly subscription to more clothes like this. Customers must return the product in like new condition before billing to qualify for the guarantee.

22:33Important notes. Promise a clear yes-no result. First, make your promise a clear yes or no result. Second, make sure you can deliver on it within your time frame. If you don't, they will ask not to be billed. Duh. For example, if you promise to decrease someone's shoulder pain, have them rate their pain 1 to 10 before you do your magic. Then ask them to rate it after. If it went down, you've succeeded and you can sell them something else. Keep the promise simple, clear, and measurable. This avoids unnecessary cancellations. Make a conditional satisfaction guarantee. People can only cancel the billing if they qualify.

23:05For example, I had to show up to the reading training to qualify to cancel the charge. After all, they can't say that you suck if they never tried it. So be sure to track the conditions necessary to qualify. Think attendance, showing up to an appointment, turning in data, etc. Make the criteria what people do to get the most value out of the product. Win-win. Bonuses for your pay now option. I hate when people repeat content and call it new, so I didn't want to be like that. I dedicated an entire chapter and$100 million offers, bonuses. You can grab a copy of that book or watch the video training on my site for free at acquisition.com forward slash training forward slash offers.