We had a great question from Tricia yesterday on my YouTube live, asking for thoughts on a three-tier offer model.
You’ve seen this one — it’s the “silver/gold/platinum” set of choices.
Now, this model is popular for a reason. It lets your buyers self-select based on their needs and budget.
When you have a lot of buyers, this can be the exact right way to present your offer. But if your audience is smaller, you may get better results from a different approach.
Why this model is so attractive
When we launch out of the gate with three options, there are some hard questions we don’t have to answer.
Like Who, exactly, is the perfect person for this offer?
And What kind of transformation, specifically, are we promising?
The idea is that the audience will just buy the one they need, and we’ll get the answers that way.
I am always in favor of getting real-world data when we can. But in this case, there are a few downsides.
The hidden problems with silver
That “silver” version can create some business problems that aren’t always easy to see.
First, it lowers the perceived value of the whole set.
If your buyer can get a “diet” version for $197, they’re likely to put off making a more profound commitment.
And the reality is, depending on the problem you solve, they’ve probably already tried a bunch of $47 and $97 and $197 solutions.
I believe this is why this kind of entry-level product has actually become tricky to sell.
(It wasn’t always like that. But based on my observations of my own business and my clients’ projects, I think it’s increasingly common.)
Your people already have stacks of short courses and entry-level products cluttering up their hard drives. So you have to do a lot of marketing to sell those products — and even more onboarding and persuasion to get your buyers to open them and get any value.
That can mean more support costs, more refund requests, and fewer real transformations that you’re helping your clients and customers to make.
Consider doing this instead
We don’t do cookie-cutter solutions here.
But I can offer a framework that I’ve often found works better than starting with a cheaper version.
Start with your version of Gold as your primary offer.
You may want to make an additional Platinum version available, for those who want one. But structure it so that your business is fine if no one takes you up on it.
Put your time, energy, and passion into that Gold.
Make it intensely valuable. Obsess over the transformation you’re creating for your buyers. Get into lots of conversations with the kind of people you want to sell to, so you can understand specifically what they want and how they want it.
Then, launch a rough-around-the-edges version as soon as you can, and get real world feedback on what’s working and what could be sharpened up.
Once you have that truly dialed, you can think about creating a more introductory “Silver” version that lets people take their first steps toward real change.
But get the Gold working first.
“Silver” isn’t a bad thing
If you’re offering a lower-cost option because that’s genuinely what serves your audience, go for it with my blessing.
And if you’re just starting out, a more moderately priced offer makes sense — especially if your level of expertise means you’re solving a more introductory problem.
But if you’re doing it because you’re a little insecure about offering something bigger, my advice is to embrace the hard parts and focus on the offer that really makes a difference to your people.
(Want help with the hard parts? You can get it with the Offer Accelerator. It’s a complete framework — with lots of individual attention and support — to do the work and get your brilliant golden offer into the world.)
Photo by Uwe Conrad on Unsplash
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