690: High Ticket vs. Low Ticket Offers – Which One is Right For You?

0:01Okay, I have been on this ruthless pursuit to purge any clothes that I'm not actually wearing. Like if I haven't reached for it in months, it's got to go. I am trying to be really intentional about what I bring into my closet right now, which means I am only buying pieces that I know I will actually wear and use. Revolve just gets it though. I'm literally wearing my brown Autry sneakers from there right now and my new suede purse. It fits my laptop in it. So it's basically a fancy shoulder bag that works for everything. I love finding pieces like that. Things that look good, but also work hard for my actual life.

0:35Their holiday shop is live right now with all the good stuff. Sparkly party dresses, cozy sets, cute gifts, everything you need for whatever is on your calendar. And it's all in one place, which makes shopping feel way less overwhelming. Whether it's a weekend away, a big night out or a holiday party, your dream wardrobe is just one click away. Head to revolve.com forward slash gold digger, shop my edit and take 15 % off your first order with the code gold digger. Fast two day shipping, easy returns. it's literally the only place you need to shop from. That's revolve.com forward slash gold digger to shop by favorites and get 15 % off your first order with the code gold digger offer available for a limited time.

1:15So happy shopping. What I love about low ticket, low touch offers is that I can be so intentional on the front end of how I create these offers to help deliver results on the backend without requiring a lot of effort on my part. Hey, my name is Jenna Kutcher and I am obsessed with all things business, marketing numbers, and helping you to navigate both the messy and the magical seasons of this thing called life. I'm a small town mama who took a$300 camera, grew a successful photo biz, and now I work from home and run a seven figure online business. I teach you the tried and true secrets to building a career you adore.

1:54Shy away from the real talk? No way. Money, hardship, growth, loss, and marketing are all topics we discuss here. Think of this as your one-stop shop for happy hour with a gal pal mixed with business school. Pull up a seat, make sure you're cozy and get ready to be challenged and encouraged while you learn. This is the Gold Digger Podcast. This episode is inspired by a recent debate I was having with some other incredible CEOs and moms. So one thing about me that you need to know is I love being in community with other people who are in a similar stage of life or business. And my friend, Natalie Ellis started this mastermind called CEO Mama.

2:33And I joined this year and it's been awesome to just connect with other women who have young children at home who are also running really successful businesses. And on one of our calls recently, we had this incredible debate that I cannot stop thinking about. And so I was like, I need to just record an entire episode about this. So during the discussion, one of the women in the group raised the question of whether to pursue a high ticket, meaning expensive, high touch approach or offer, or to go deeper on low ticket, low price offers in order to serve her clients. And it was so interesting because what happens in a mastermind like this is one person will ask a question and then anyone can chime in with their advice.

3:18And the advice was so different based on who was giving it. Like so many entrepreneurs, this is a decision that I've grappled with in various business capacities throughout my career. So I am so eager to talk about this today. What is better? High ticket, high touch, low ticket volume offers. This was an amazing conversation amongst many of the women in my mastermind. And today, hopefully, it is going to be an amazing conversation on the Gold Digger podcast. Let's dive on in. pop quiz who do you think is more popular these days taylor swift or chat gpt now although our feeds are flooded with hype around the era's tour chat gpt is actually beating taylor swift in search volume which tells us that the ai revolution is upon us that's why hubspot's brand new ai power tools content assistant and chat spot are all the rage content assistant helps you brainstorm create and share content in a flash all inside a super easy to use CRM.

4:17And ChatSpot, which runs on OpenAI's GPT-powered tech, automates all the manual tasks inside of HubSpot to help you engage more customers, close more deals, and scale your business faster. Both are designed to help you get more done, stand out amongst the competition, and work smarter, not harder. Find out more about how to use AI to grow your business at hubspot.com slash artificial dash intelligence. Again, that's hubspot.com slash artificial dash intelligence to check out these tools for yourself. So to provide a little bit of additional context, this scenario that we're talking about today was based off of a woman.

4:57We'll call her Elle. And Elle had a low ticket course. Let's say it was like$300. And people were getting awesome success with it. She was serving a high volume of students. Then she decided, I want to have a$5 ,000 offer and serve less people, but at a higher level. And that offer wasn't selling as well. And so she was like, should I scrap it and go back down to low ticket? What should I do? And I thought this was a really great question because I think that so many of us are at different stages of our lives, of our business, maybe even of motherhood. And we're trying to figure out what type of offer is best for me, for my lifestyle, for my business, for my revenue, and for my family at this stage of life.

5:40This is something that I think about all of the time. Most specifically, when men give me business advice on what I should be doing, it's through their lens of experience. And for me, I feel like I am in such a tender season of my life with young children at my feet and at home that while I know that I could do a different offer or a different structure that would likely be successful, it doesn't align with where I'm at energetically or what I want in terms of my lifestyle. And so what was amazing is, is with Elle's question, a bunch of different people brought different perspectives on which way and which method would serve her better knowing that she has one young child.

6:22She's hoping to get pregnant again soon. And so we were all kind of debating like timelines and offers and what would be the best. At the end of this episode, I'm going to share the advice that I gave to Elle on what I would do if I were in her shoes. But first, let's talk about the difference between high ticket, high touch and low ticket, low touch offers. So first, a high ticket, high touch offer. The major advantage of doing something like this is that you can provide an exceptional level of service and customization to a small group of clients. So if you are creating some sort of offer where you don't want volume, you want to have the right people in at the right level of investment, this can help you to give an exceptional high-touch experience.

7:12This often can translate to higher profit margins and the ability to establish yourself as a luxury brand. If that is something that you want, then you definitely want to focus on high-ticket, high-touch offers. According to research done by HubSpot, 68 % of consumers say that they are willing to pay more for products or services from a brand known to offer good customer service experiences, So keep that in mind. If you are charging premium prices, you want to provide a premium experience. Now, what I see as the disadvantage of high ticket, high touch offers is it usually requires a significant amount of time and energy and investment on your part in order to cater to each individual's needs and to ensure that they get this over the top experience.

8:01So for example, When I was a photographer at the beginning, it was more of a volumes game. So the first year I shot 25 weddings. The next year I shot 27 weddings. The next year I shot 30 weddings. That might not be a lot to some people, but at the time I was charging a lesser price and serving more clients. As I started to get more established, get more recognized, gain more accolades in the wedding industry, I started to pull back on the volume and increase the price. And so when I first started shooting weddings, they cost anywhere from$2 ,500 to$3 ,000. By the end of my career, people were spending upwards of almost$10 ,000 for their wedding photography.

8:39And that was because I had gained the experience in order to charge those rates. But it also allowed me to cut back on my workload. So the year that I was pregnant with Coco, I was still shooting weddings. I think a lot of people forget that I was still shooting weddings five years ago. And I was only serving like four clients at a high ticket price point at that stage of my career. And so what's interesting here is, especially if you're a service provider, you can always start out at a low ticket offer and gain that valuable experience and feedback and the testimonials and the expertise required to then increase your rates and serve less people.

9:15So let's talk a little bit about high ticket, a high touch. So I think this can be an incredible idea for people who are willing to cater to individuals' needs and craft an experience. If you are someone who loves giving people an amazing experience, for example, like when you host, if you have signature cocktails ready and beautiful cocktail napkins and things like that, this might be it for you. I am the type of person, if you come over to my house, we might order Domino's pizza and eat on paper plates. That is not my gifting. That is not my specialty. That doesn't mean that I couldn't hire out those specific things, but that is not my sweet spot.

9:58So when you are thinking about like high take, high touch, you have to understand that there are going to be ebbs and flows within that sort of offer structure where your time, energy, and investment are deeply required at a really high hand-holding level. And then there are probably going to be times where your clients or customers are on their own and they're not bothering you. And so if you can kind of plan for those ebbs and flows within that, and that works for you, that might be it. Now let's talk about low ticket, low touch offers. So these type of offers allow you to reach a broader audience and generate revenue from a larger customer base.

10:37While the profit margins may be lower, you can compensate for it through volume, meaning selling more. Now, the key advantage here is scalability, as you can serve more people with less individual attention. Low ticket doesn't mean you just like abandon customers. 78 % of customers have backed out of a purchase due to poor customer experience. But you want to make sure that with low ticket, low touch, you are equipping people to find success or to save themselves time or to get joy through your offer, but that there isn't a level of energetic need from you. So again, this is more of a volumes game.

11:15So let's say you want to make $50 ,000 this year. You could sell one product that costs$2 ,000 to 25 people, or you could sell a $25 product to 2 ,000 people. Which one is going to make more sense for you? Which one is more feasible for you? Can you see how there is a difference in this debate? And I think it's an awesome, awesome debate. So what's really interesting to me is as we were having this conversation, there were some women who again are CEOs and moms who swore by doing the high ticket, high touch point offer. These are women who maybe run a coaching program where they're coaching 10 people for an investment of$100 ,000 for the year, or they're leading these two month long incubators where it's a high ticket, a high buy-in price, and they are getting a lot of extra support and a great experience.

12:12These people swear by doing this. Now, one advantage that I've seen is a lot of times the higher the ticket, the more trust people put into the person that is giving the offer. So when I had high ticket wedding clients, a lot of times they were pretty hands off. They just trusted me to be the expert, to guide them, to do my job well. And I appreciated that, right? There's a different level there. A lot of times when people are investing a high ticket amount of money, they are also established enough in many ways where they are not going to be asking you step A, B, C, D, and E. They might already have a lot of the pieces of the puzzle completed.

12:52And now they're just looking for that extra secret sauce or to learn that one thing that you know really well. And so there was a lot of debate saying that a lot of times, often our neediest clients are the lowest cost clients. I don't know if anyone else has experienced that. But if you think about it, it makes sense. These are people that are likely at the beginning stages of their journey, whether it's as a consumer, as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, they need more help. They need more handholding. It's a really delicate balance to try to find this sweet spot where if you are going with a high ticket, high touch point offer, you are qualifying these people before they are coming in to your offer to ensure that they are the right fit and their expectations are right.

13:37The year that I got pregnant with Coco, I had decided to host a high ticket mastermind. And let me tell you, I loved so much of it. There were 25 women in it. They each invested$25 ,000. And that year was so transformative for me, but it was so transformative for so many of the women in the mastermind. Now, what I learned in that year was that there were some challenges in charging that amount of money. And there were some mistakes that I made in doing that. One of the things that I think was a mistake is I didn't have a very strong qualification process. So when people applied to be in my mastermind, I got some baseline information about where they were at with their business because I wanted to make sure if they're joining and they're investing this much money that I can deliver that value.

14:27And so I would intensify my screening process to ensure that people are truly at the right stage of their business and that their goals are aligned with what I feel like I excel in. What ended up happening is that there were some students who were in the mastermind who were ready to run. They understood what I was teaching. They took it. They got results. They earned back their investment so quick. And then there were also women in the mastermind who just weren't ready yet. And that was something that I probably could have learned better had I had a better screening process. And so while they have found success five years out of the mastermind and they are now applying some of those principles that maybe they gleaned inside of one of our mastermind retreats, they probably weren't ready for that level of investment yet.

15:12And what ended up happening for me is that I felt highly responsible for getting them their initial investment back. I knew what it was like to put that much money down because I had done it in other masterminds and I've had very good mastermind experiences and I've had some not so great mastermind experiences. And I wanted to ensure that each woman who was investing the significant amount of money would walk away knowing and having the earning power to earn back that initial investment times 10. And so that personal responsibility that I felt energetically was draining at times because there were so many times where I was like, this person is so close, but they just don't get it.

15:53Or I've given them every step, but they're just not implementing it, which is why they're not seeing results and they're getting frustrated. And I felt that deep level of commitment to help people earn back their investment to the expense of my energy. Now, this was also a really challenging personal year for me because I had moved states and gotten pregnant with Coco. And my pregnancy with her was really rocky emotionally, physically. It was all the things. After experiencing two losses, being pregnant again was the greatest blessing, but it was also a massive challenge. And so looking back, the timing of doing this high ticket, high price, high touchpoint offer was not great because I was not as available as I wanted to be in terms of delivering the experience again.

16:39To sum all of this up, hosting my mastermind was literally one of the greatest things I've ever done in my entire business. Watching business owners flourish, pulling back the curtain, guiding people to the next stage and scale of their business. Oh my gosh, it was amazing. There were so many moments where I was like, this is the best thing I've ever done in my life. But there were also moments where I was like, oh my gosh, I can't do this. This is so draining. I want to deliver. I want to be responsible. And it's not my responsibility. And so that's something that I want for you to think about.

17:10Quick recommendation for you. If you love Gold Digger, check out My First Million, hosted by Sam Parr and Sean Puri. Brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, My First Million features guests like Alex Ramosi, Sophia Amoruso, and Rob Dyrdek. They're sharing their secrets on how they made their first million and how to apply their learnings to capitalize on today's business trends and opportunities. I was just listening to them talk about Sean's AI plan dinner with tech billionaires, something I cannot relate to, but I am utterly curious about. And it was honestly so clever and also hilarious how he used ChatGPT to create the menu.

17:47You're going to love their candid business conversations, industry observations, and world-class advice. Listen to My First Million today, wherever you get your podcasts. With one little shift, my life began to feel longer, more expansive. I know it sounds dramatic, but it all started when I questioned something that I had claimed about myself for years. I had said, journaling isn't for me. I would look at my graveyard of unfinished journals and feel like a failure. My intentions, they had been good, but I simply didn't enjoy the experience of journaling. But then something clicked. I created a five minute daily practice and my daily reflection journal was born.

18:28Now I want you to experience the life-changing habit too. Grab your daily reflection journal by going to howareyoureallyjournal.com or you can send me a DM on Instagram with the word reflect and I'll send you all the info on how to get your hands on a copy. It's a one page per day journal that gives you enough space to open your mind, respond to the open prompts and reflect on your day. There is so much magic in a five minute daily check-in. Start your new journaling journey with me and get your daily reflection journal, plus a free journaling masterclass to help you get started on your journaling path.

19:06When you do, You can grab this at howareyoureallyjournal.com or hop onto Insta and shoot me a DM with the word reflect.

19:17Can you believe that we're already wrapping up 2025? This year was packed with travel and so many new memories. One of my favorite moments was our team retreat in Arizona with the incredible women who helped me keep this business running. I also recently took the kids to Nashville during fall break. and somewhere in between, I squeezed in a trip to Puerto Rico with friends. We booked some of our most memorable stays this year on Airbnb. There's something special about finding a place that doesn't just look great in the photos, but actually feels welcoming the moment you walk in. That this feels right kind of feeling.

19:50If you've got trips coming up, whether it's a family vacation, a retreat, or a work trip, your house will probably be sitting empty while you're gone. Have you considered hosting your home on Airbnb and letting it work for you? It's a simple way to earn some extra income that can be put towards a future trip or home improvement projects. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com forward slash host. Okay, I have been on this ruthless pursuit to purge any clothes that I'm not actually wearing. Like if I haven't reached for it in months, it's gotta go. I am trying to be really intentional about what I bring into my closet right now, which means I am only buying pieces that I know I will actually wear and use.

20:34Revolve just gets it though. I'm literally wearing my brown Autry sneakers from there right now and my new suede purse. It fits my laptop in it so it's basically a fancy shoulder bag that works for everything. I love finding pieces like that. Things that look good but also work hard for my actual life. Their holiday shop is live right now with all the good stuff. Sparkly party dresses, cozy sets, cute gifts, everything you need for whatever is on your calendar and it's all in one place, which makes shopping feel way less overwhelming. Whether it's a weekend away, a big night out or a holiday party, your dream wardrobe is just one click away.

21:12Head to revolve.com forward slash gold digger, shop my edit and take 15 % off your first order with the code gold digger. Fast two-day shipping, easy returns. It's literally the only place you need to shop from. That's revolve.com forward slash gold digger to shop my favorites and get 15 % off your first order with the code gold digger. Offer available for a limited time. So happy shopping. So what is the other side of that coin? So that does not sound like something that you want or you're able to really invest in energetically, financially, experientially, then what is the other side of the coin?

21:46The other side of the coin is the low ticket, low touch offers. This is where I have found my sweet spot over the last five years. And And it's no surprise that the last five years have been my years as a mom. This has been my path forward. And it's really interesting because every time I talk to a business consultant, they're like, Jenna, you need to add in more high ticket, high touch offers. Like your audience is so ready for them. Like they would totally do these. And I'm like, I get it. And I see that, but I am not there. What I love about low ticket, low touch offers is that I can be so intentional on the front end of how I create these offers to help deliver results on the back end without requiring a lot of effort on my part.

22:30So for me, low ticket, low touch offers include having a digital shop online, jennacutcher.com slash shop. We sell different templates. We sell pricing guides. We sell media kits. We sell editing presets. It is a low ticket offer and requires very little support. I also sell online courses. And I freaking love my online courses. I build them so intentionally so that once somebody invests their money, they are paying attention, they are taking the program, they are getting results. It requires very little effort on my part. I am involved in my Facebook communities answering my students' questions.

23:05And that's about it. So I build it on the front end in the right way. And then I focus my energy on selling it and helping people get results. This has been my bread and butter for the last five years in this season of life. Now, why I argue for this is because you can be in control of what the level of support is and also in control of what someone's expectation is around that experience that you can offer. For my online programs, they are so comprehensive and fluff-free that when you dive in, you have everything. I anticipate everything you could need to get success. You don't need hand-holding because it's already written out for you inside of the course.

23:45And so I swear by this approach, especially if you are someone who is juggling a lot of life or perhaps children, because you do everything on the front end to anticipate what the back end looks like. Whereas I feel like with high ticket, high touch, you can plan all you want. But once you get those people in the room, or once you get your service to be provided, it's not necessarily in your court any longer. You are kind of working around the person who is paid. So it's really interesting as we think about this. This doesn't just apply for digital businesses or online businesses. This can apply for any industry.

24:21So think of a boutique. You could be a very high-end boutique where you have designer clothes, you serve a smaller market, and you may have better customer service. Or when you walk through the door, there's champagne. It is a true experience, but there are fewer people qualified to enjoy that experience. Or you could be a boutique and have a low ticket style boutique where you sell lower budget clothes serving a larger market and they don't require or expect these personal touches with their experience. Or think about real estate, for example. You could be selling million dollar homes to less than 10 clients per year, or you could sell$100 ,000 homes to 100 clients per year.

24:57Again, just a different type of clientele, different expectations, different business models. For e-commerce, maybe you sell jewelry on Etsy. You could sell high quality 14 karat gold necklaces with beautiful packaging and custom engraving and fast shipping for a higher price and less buyers. Or you could sell costume jewelry at a low price to a ton of people. So you've got to kind of think, do you want to have a really wide net? If so, you probably want to have low priced offers that reach a wider variety of people. Or do you want to work with just the chosen few. If that's you, then you want to have a high ticket, high touch offer.

25:31Do you see how there's really no right or wrong answer here? Any type of business or any industry likely has different levels of the game. There are always going to be people who value that high touch experience. There are also always going to be people who are at the starting line, who are budget hunters, who are looking for that first step. They kind of sell the same thing, right? But one is a totally different experience than the other. Neither is a right way to do business. It is just different. So let's kind of continue to explore what exactly is different and how you can decide which one is right for you.

26:07Listen to this. No matter what your business is, there is one major thing that I think you have to consider between high ticket, high touch offers and low ticket, low touch offers. And that thing is energy. You probably thought that I was going to say like time and money, but it is energy. The truth is you can probably make the same amount of money with these two different business models and spend the same amount of time. But in my experience, it is so important that you understand the difference in energy expenditure based on these models. That is the most variable thing that I want for you to consider.