Value Pyramid

Price based on change

Stop pricing on just features most people buy as they want change. The best examples I see of this is with coaching and services which make a person better, to many people think do I have enough features.

People want change they pay a lot more for the change you can help them with than if it was loads of features. Theres coach's out there that get paid hundreds of thousands for a session. they can do it through just two phone calls a month instead of meeting face to face.

Imagine you hired a marketing expert you will expect them to help you change your life with what they teach, if they create a life-altering change you should not mind paying them a fortune.

If they proved to your their clients on average earned an extra £10K within a year of working with them isn't paying them £1K a good price? Even if it has few features.

Now thats powerful proof of the change they can make, you can learn how to make powerful proof later on.

Make sure to use values to improve the change

The value you provide should aim mainly at increasing the change you can make for a person, lets look at the reality of some needs/wants experienced by clients.

Fitness membership= Get fit (change)
Traffic building course = More/Better traffic (change)
Persuasion targeted coaching= Better at persuasion (change)
Printing a book= Get seen as an authority (change)
Selling on amazon= Access to lots of paying customers, which you could get loyal to your brand (change)

Look at the change of your products/services and write them down somewhere and refer to it during this article. All features you add should maximise the change you make

Is it personal?

As a general rule the higher up the pyramid you are the more personal you are, and if your more personal you can charge more. There are exceptions such as with videos and forums.

With video walk-throughs you are doing it with them except its not 100% personalised to them, it may be counted that way if its very very specific and is likely to be almost 100% related to their situation.

For example imagine if your showing them how to advertise online its very general, you may argue otherwise that your showing them where to buy banner ads and best practise's etc.

Except your audience will vary in industries, some will have social media businesses, others gardening, maybe even dog rearing. What you show will likely be general and they will have questions such as what about for my industry xxx.

At the end I will show you easy yet powerful value add ons such as getting high quality proof, re purposing and improving content, and getting paid what your worth.

While a forum can be very personal as people ask their questions and you can answer them with specifics, the main problem with forums though is value dilution as other members can comment and quick responses usually don't go through all the levels.

So it’s not ‘masterclass’ level quality, they can be high yet almost never ‘masterclass’. Also they are usually transformational level not done with you level.

“The more personal attention and value you can provide the higher you can charge.”

Done with you

These are generally a mix of products/services. Think of giving a person a framework and coaching them through it.

This is doing it with them which is the highest value you can provide. Now note that how personal it is to a person can affect the overall value, coaching is very personal and you work with them a lot more compared to other methods.

While a forum may fit being personal yet the value is diluted through the fact that the other value levels tend to be ignored such as the done for you level. Also you don't spend as much individual attention compared to coaching.

There is some confusion with this think of it this way do it for them the first time, they can watch/try it and from that they reach the done with you level through repeated practice.

Requirements

(AN effective trust building process can eliminate these as a requirement which is essential if your starting from scratch)

A strong brand
Previous strong success stories
Lots of time
Other products to sell your ideas and build your authority (can be a blog)
Committed clients

Benefits

Potentially lots of money

High value case studies you can use

Proves that your ideas can improve peoples lives

Can build very strong relationship with clients

Can get high level PR if public events etc are marketed well.

Build a very strong authority presence

Content can be evergreen

Content can be re purposed

Drawbacks

Very time consuming to set up

Time consuming to maintain this level correctly

Some options are very expensive

High prices need limited spots to maintain quality

If not done right you can look like a fool

Most methods are time sensitive

Target market

The target market is almost always exclusively existing customers. Simply because you know if the relationship will work and the customer trusts you as they already are using you.

Getting a brand new customer at this level is very very difficult, especially if its a personalised approach, by this I mean £1000 a month programs where you have few spaces (10) due to coaching each client on the program.

Its much easier to persuade them if its not as personalised and its ‘cheap’.

Also your own customers are more likely to accept how much you value yourself and your time unlike someone that doesn't know you well.

Having both forms of this level makes sense say a cheap £10-£30 a month subscription where you have courses forums etc. Where its tailored to your customer profiles.

Then you can have an upsell where its the same level except personalised with coaching from you or an expert (people prefer you). These should be priced much higher as its limited to your time.

Some ideas to add this value

Coaching- The most valuable is coaching you add this on and mention how you will review, improve and show them how to do it. This helps you maximise the change you can make in others.

From hundreds to thousands or even more a month is the price point you can achieve, note that its almost never a good idea to start with a personalised continual program option until you have a strong following and proof. (start with one off fixed term coaching -up to 6 months- before a long term coaching program)

At first it makes sense to have the average approach of cheap prices or offer free spots for people you select just to bring them in, just make sure the client is committed as you want them to succeed. It looks good great in a testimonial/case study.

Video- You can provide videos showing how to do certain things such as run a social media campaign.

Problem here is its not able to target people specifically so is unlikely to maximise this value. (unless your video is very niche specific)

E-learning Software- Imagine you have an academy the user only progresses as they go along, you can also test them and offer feedback.

Webinars/Q&A- There’s a reason webinars are so successful, its due to the interactivity and being able to do things with people in real time.

If you do encounter problems they can learn from how you handle it. (fear of error is a great procrastination weapon which is why few do live webinars)

Forums- These should never be used on their own for this level instead it helps reinforce this level when combined with the above techniques/features

Public events- Very expensive to run yet you can bring in lots of PR from companies close to the area or even your industry. Booking a place and all the equipment can cost a small fortune so you need to make sure you will bring in a big audience.

Usually you should avoid public events as you can just use Webinars to hack some of the benefits such as putting your webinar as an event and marketing it, its cheaper to do and if you don't bring in much of an audience its not much of a loss.

Include other values- Make sure you use the other values to enhance your ability to do it with them, such as providing templates which can jump-start their learning.

Done for you

These are generally a mix of program and a system. Think of giving a person the rights of a franchise in that area, such as McDonald's and giving them the tools and systems to succeed.

This is doing it for them which is the do as I do value you can provide, this is not as good as doing it with them.

This value is however a quick way to boost your sales optimisation as you will have very fast results if done right.

A done for you product/service can provide huge value especially if its easy to set up and makes profit quickly.

Benefits

High value case studies you can use

Proves that your ideas can improve peoples lives

Can build strong relationship with clients

Can earn money by leasing your system.

You make the rules

You can potentially get instant results if your system is good.

Not as time consuming as done with you

Makes it easy for new clients to start

Drawbacks

Not personalised

Your system can become outdated

Takes time to produce a ‘copy and paste’ system

People may criticise your system (due to not an exact fit)

Few customers do very very well through done for you methods

More of a stepping stone to higher level services

Target market

Absolute beginners that are either lazy or want a quick win, while they can go for personalised done with you services these tend to be out of reach of beginners.

Imagine this as helping them to eventually be able to afford coaching with you.

Some ideas to add this value

Templates- These are things such as cheat sheets and scripts

Tools- These are things such as calculators which just needs the numbers, so the user knows what their projections are and what they need.

Access to a system- Think of a franchise they provide access to distribution and other clients.

Marketing and pr done for them- The clients shouldn't need to worry as you can provide it such as with the big franchises they do it and the franchisees (clients) benefit from it.

‘Copy and paste idea’- You do everything for them so all they have to do is follow it exactly to succeed.

Transform you

These tend to be ideas that transform a persons mindset, such s uncovering that clients are not after X there after Y, all your ideas in whatever your produce must help transform them. It may seem simple to you so try to make it simple to your client.

No complicated stuff even if your industry is complex look for ways to simplify it to the key points that lead to success.

If I had more time I would make it more simple.

Benefits

Makes your authority clear

Shows off your ability to cause change

Can cause a following

This level is the most important stepping stone to the higher levels

Can cause a fan following

People love ideas that can change them to become better

Drawbacks

Can be hard to cause transformational ideas

You will likely get haters as well

The human mind hates change so expect big reactions

You need strong proof to back up your ideas

Target market

Everyone its really that simple, transformation is not just a single market it can be the world. Look at computers, cars and air planes it started as an idea and now its used widely.

Just make sure to target your industry first before expanding your ideas.

Some ideas to add this value

Written content- A book is the best method for showing off transformational ideas, although other means such as a short report or even a post can do this.

Challenges- Have challenges for your clients to follow such as writing 2000 words a day or whatever is relevant to you.

Proof- Testimonials, case studies and your research can help show how your ideas can cause a lot of change.

Implement for you

Don't mistake this for transformational ideas, these tend to be very basic ideas of how to use something.

Imagine your on about social media marketing you may say things such as use forums, Q&A sites and comment in blogs. These don't tend to cause a massive transformation it just shows how to use information.

Benefits

Quick wins

Quick way to add value

People love being told what to do (limits their fear of error)

Guides beginners on best practice

Can gather proof while you do it for yourself

Drawbacks

Experts may ridicule it due to changes such as in Google's algorithm

Can become outdated quickly due to changes by companies

May not be worthwhile to those that aren't beginners

Proof helps build credibility you may be ignored without it

Target market

Anyone new to that particular market or method, its especially more important to be targeted at people that don't know and trust you yet.

You probably have seen many Blogs do this, you want the quick win so you can upsell them on your authority and value later.

Some ideas to add this value

Video walk-through- Just record yourself doing it.

Statistics- Anything that reinforces how effective it is to use that method.
Proof- Same as above except it can be things such as statements.

Mention tools- Paid or free, notice how paid products have reviews that show you how to use it?

Same thing here show them the tools and why it will benefit them.

Inform you

The lowest value this is just information, such as social media marketing is good, it just informs you.

Newsletters mostly have this such as we have dropped our price by 50% for Christmas.

If you have a newsletter make sure to improve it by having some implementation tips within readable excerpts. I see the popular ones give implementation within what you can read on the newsletter.

Benefits

Information can be enough to drive traffic such as new content release

Can get audience to react to something such as a questionnaire or special

Usually easy to do

Drawbacks

Very little value by itself
Don't build authority
Little change made in your clients lives

Target market

Everyone information is just that, the main reason to inform is to get reactions to something specific such as content releases, price specials or even surveys.

Add this value

Newsletter- This is straight forward use a newsletter often.