This ‘Easy Yes’ Formula is about exactly what you’d expect – how to create pricing that is EASY for your clients to say yes to!
I want to ease you in gently with this discussion about pricing because I know it’s a BIG one – it has all kinds of feelings attached to it. I can imagine that when you think about pricing you probably hear lots of other peoples’ voices in your head telling you how it ‘has to be’ – how you should ‘not devalue your brand’- and customers’ voices telling you those THREE WORDS THAT HURT THE MOST: “you’re too expensive”.
Don’t worry – we’re going to cover all of this, but first I do feel compelled to trot some cliches out for you… and they are these:
1. Sales is a Numbers Game
If you ask one person and they say no, do you quit? No! If you have a list of 100 people and you email them once and nobody buys, does that mean the product/ price/service/idea is a failure? NO! It just means you need more LEADS or potential customers in order to get the CONVERSIONS or sales that you need. It’s a ratio (and for many businesses, that ratio is only about 2% – so that means 500 qualified people to make 10 sales!) < learn more about this in our sales funnel challenge
2. People pay for what they value
People find money for what they care about – if they don’t value what you’re selling (or more likely, aren’t compelled by how you’re selling it) then they’re probably not going to buy it. The price has nothing to do with it – $1 might be too much for them.
3. Aim to be one person’s dram of whiskey, instead of everybody’s cup of tea
Your goal is not to appeal to EVERYONE – it’s to appeal to the RIGHT people. In this process (if you’re doing it right) you’re going to annoy or alienate some people. That’s great! You’re going to want to crank up your volume to 11 on your personality so you can REALLY attract your premium whiskey drinkers. Let everyone else fight over the boring tea. < Learn more about this in Branding 101
4. There are plenty more fish in the sea
There are plenty of pets and people for everyone to have growing, thriving businesses. It’s not life or death if you get rejected several times in a row! Remember, sales is a numbers game! It’s time to stop living in scarcity.
Are your fears and worries now completely resolved? NO? Ok well keep reading 😉
A little later I’ll share my super secret weapon response to the ‘you’re too expensive’ comment (make sure you read to the end – it’s a good’n) but for now let’s dive in to the structure of your pricing and how to make it easier for your clients to say yes.
What Are The Reasons People Say No (Or Say Nothing At All)
Believe it or not, a lot of the reasons your customers may say no, or ghost you all together, have nothing to do with price, and everything to do with where they’re at on their journey:
1. Timing
They might just be in ‘information gathering’ mode and are not be ready to purchase what it is you’re offering. They might not even have a pet yet! Or… maybe they’re saving up… or maybe they’re comparing their options. This one you don’t have a tremendous amount of control over, which is why it’s SO important to follow-up.
2. Fit
It could be that through your initial discussions they’ve ascertained that you or your business are not a good fit for them. This might be because of conflicting philosophies, opening hours, products that are or are not stocked, perception of staff or service – the list goes on and on.
3. Overwhelm & Confusion
Too busy, too much going on, too many choices… it does not take much to tip your potential customer towards the side of inaction (or active action running the other way). We are sensitive creatures, and now more than ever, the demand for our time and attention is so great that we’re only ever allowed a few seconds to help our client decide “YES” … or at least “interesting, I’d like to know more…”
4. Perceived Value
Ok so as any entrepreneur has heard many times, price is often a barrier… but it might not be in the way that you think. Remember – people pay for what they value – so the price is insignificant compared to… wait for it… what they GET for that price. This is value. No matter WHAT your price, you want your people to feel like they’re getting ‘a good deal’ – because they are so well served, or their needs are so well met, or they feel like they’re getting a lot for a little.
It’s important to remember that VALUE is totally based in our individual PERCEPTION. Everyone has different ideas of what is ‘good value’… some people will think 250k is a good price for a 3 bedroom house, some people will think 500k is a good price for a 3 bedroom house – it depends on where the house is, what it looks like and a myriad of other characteristics that indicate to each of us what is ‘valuable’.
You’ll probably have heard of a term called ‘Perceived Value’ – and that is what matters when you’re trying to create value in your business: Creating what is perceived as good value by your ideal client.
5. Perceived Risk
On the opposite side of the spectrum of Perceived Value is Perceived Risk. Perceived risk is the level of risk a person feels they are accepting by saying yes (or sometimes just by getting in touch). This will include everything from being worried about whether or not they can’t trust you, or that you won’t ‘get the job done’ in a way that pleases them, or maybe that they won’t be able to get a refund if they’re not happy. Perhaps they’re worried about potential awkward situations (like their pet being embarrassing or perhaps having to have difficult conversations about payment plans or other personal stuff). If they sense a high-level or risk (which by the way could be as simple as being worried about signing up to have someone ‘hard sell’ to them) they will definitely choose inaction over action.
The Easy Yes Formula
Why Do I Want It?
The Easy Yes Formula is a way to approach your product offering and pricing strategy that takes into consideration, and mitigates the 5 objections above and is:
- Perfectly timed (as much as you can predict/control)
- A good fit
- Clear (not confusing)
- Clean & simple (not overwhelming)
- High in perceived value
- Low in perceived risk
Which, all added up, = it’s EASY to say yes to!!
Why is the ‘Easy Yes’ so important?
Well, in addition to the fact that it feels like crap to be told ‘no thank you’ all the time – once someone has said yes to you ONCE it is easier to sell more to them in the future:
“On average, loyal customers are worth up to 10x as much as their first purchase.” – Marketing Tech Blog
So sometimes just getting that first yes isn’t even about making money now – it’s about making it easier to make money in the future!
How Do I Do it?
There are two very important parts to the Easy Yes Formula:
Simple Pricing & Product Strategy
Simple Pricing & Product Presentation
1. Simple Pricing & Product System
To get started with the easy yes formula, it’s important to understand the ‘pricing tiers’ of products that you offer – which is essentially grouping your existing products and services based on price. This will accomplish three very important goals
- It helps you get clear so you can make it super simple for your customers
- It helps you identify gaps and opportunities for new products
- It helps you understand your sales funnel & create sales automation
PRICE POINT PYRAMID
The first way you’ll want to look to categorize your products is by price, in a Price Point Pyramid
Since the way you would sell $9 product and the way you’d sell a $9000 product are very different, and the person who buys them might be quite different, it’s critical to understand your products based on price categories.
Also, when presenting options to your customers (which we’ll discuss in #2 Simple Product Presentation) grouping three price-tiers together (not 1, not 10) can make it easier for your customer to be decisive and feel like they’re getting good value.
In a Price Point Pyramid you’ll see 4 Categories: Free, Novelty, Core, & Premium. For the purposes of this conversation, we’re most concerned with the ‘Novelty’, ‘Core’ and ‘Premium’ options.
In your workbook we’ve provided a worksheet for you to brainstorm and group your products into the following categories:
Novelty Product – $
This is where you can score your first easy yes transaction – not ALL brands NEED a novelty product, but if you don’t have a waiting list of customers, I highly recommend it.
o Low cost
o Low commitment
o Low expectations
o Can be “taster” or “trial”
Core – $$
o This is where you’ll make most of your revenue
o Your most popular products
o This is the product / service most people will seek you out for
o “Cash cow”
Premium – $$$
o If you don’t have a premium offering, you’re leaving money on the table
o Your most profitable products
o Premium products act as an anchor to make the core product seem less expensive
o May include more access to you – more 1:1 time or
increased benefits, features, or convenience
Now keep in mind, what you’re putting in each group may be individual products or services, but they are probably individual categories of products and services.
Example: We learned quickly at Dog is Good that not everyone was keen or able to buy a $20 tee shirt, especially as a gift. So we created magnets, stickers and mugs with our most popular designs on them. Interestingly, sometimes people would still spend the same amount, around $20, but they felt like they got more VALUE by buying 5-6 magnets or a mug and a couple stickers instead of just one tee shirt.
We also discovered that many of our customers became repeat buyers – so if we could get them to purchase that mug for 12.99 it was very likely they’d be back for a tee or two or ten. Additionally, we learned that some of our customers were willing to spend a lot more, so we started to offer hoodies, PJ’s, tote bags and other products with a higher price point. This allowed virtually anyone who loved our brand to buy something and become a part of our community.
Dog is Good’s Pricing Tiers:
Novelty (the easy yes) – $2.99-$12.99 Magnets, mugs, stickers, cards, ‘grab bags’
Core (most of what we sold) – $19.99-$29.99 Tees, Hats
Premium (higher end products) – $39.99-$49.99 – Hoodies, PJ’s or gift bundles
Sample Grooming Pricing Tiers:
Novelty – $5-$20 nail trim, beard trim, bath-only, self-wash
Core– $22-$99 full groom (bath, brush, dry, trim)
Premium – $45 – $350 sensory spa groom (adding essential oils + additional services like daycare, massage etc.) packages of multiple grooms (ex. 11 for the price of 10)
That’s the key here, is wanting to be able to serve different members of your core audience – getting them IN THE DOOR with the ‘Easy Yes’ and then being able to sell more to them in the future.
This is not about ‘being everything to everyone’ – it’s about having options that reduce risk (low price point) and increase value (higher-priced bundles, premium offerings that add levels of convenience/ access etc.) so that different people can enter in to your brand in the way they feel comfortable.
2. Simple Pricing & Product Presentation
One of the MOST important obstacles to overcome when you’re creating your ‘easy yes’ pricing and product strategy, is to eliminate overwhelm. The more details, points of information, rules, exceptions, bullet-points, and choices you present to your customer, the less likely they are to buy. It’s too much. This is the #1 thing I address when I’m working with my 1:1 clients. It’s SUPER simple as a concept, but sometimes a bit mind-bending to actually implement.
The simple idea here is that when you go to actually present your product offering to your client, you want it to be simple and clear. It needs to require no explanation (or if it does, that fine-print lives somewhere else that they can find if they look deeper into the product or service)
Today in our digitally obsessed lives this boils down to one VERY important characteristic that your pricing/product offering needs to be:
SKIMMABLE
If you want me to even CONSIDER buying, I NEED to be able to understand the full scope of what you offer, right away, without reading or thinking.
This is pretty straight forward for an ecommerce businesses – because we have tools like Shopify that have created templates for us to make our products very shoppable and skimmable.
But for service-based businesses, or single products (like subscription-based or membership type products) this gets much trickier.
Skimmable Pricing Structure:
In the Web 101 theme, we created a detailed website audit which will help highlight some of the ways you can achieve this on your own website… but for now, I suggest that when you’re presenting all of your pricing options, you use this formula:
a) Present all three pricing tiers, side by side, horizontally across the page
b) Use the structure below to convey the minimum information with maximum impact
Six Essential Elements of the Skimmable Pricing Structure:
- Product Name / Headline
- Representative Image
- ‘From’ Price
- Informative Bullet Points
- Call To Action (ideally sending them to somewhere where they can get more detail)
- Call-Out the Middle (most-popular tag / subtle background color)
Using this model your customer doesn’t get overwhelmed by too many choices. Additionally, the middle option becomes the most appealing. If all you offered on your pricing or services page was the middle option on its own, it wouldn’t seem quite as appealing, but because the cheaper and premium products are there offering value context, whispering to your customer, “Don’t take the most expensive or the cheapest, take the middle one, that’s sensible,” it eases guilt and
makes decision-making easier.
Finishing Touches
Lastly, it’s important to note that it needs to be INSTANTLY OBVIOUS to your customer why they would want each product over the other, and which is the best fit for them. To achieve that clarity, you need to eliminate similarity when creating your products or product categories and make each one distinct from the next.**
**We know this isn’t always easy – so if you’re struggling to pair your categories down, just pop over to the Facebook Group and we’ll help!
SUMMING IT UP
Obviously, pricing and product strategy is a very complex topic and the suggestions above are simply a guideline to make your offering simple, desirable and anchored in value to make decision-making easy for your customer. We hope this formula helps you make it easier for your customers to say yes to you – remember – it’s your job to make it easy for THEM, not their job to struggle through trying to figure out what you sell and how they can buy it!
And last but not least
As promised, my super secret weapon response to the ‘you’re too expensive’ line is…
‘Compared to what’
Yes, I would genuinely straight-faced say that to someone who told me I charged too much. It definitely makes them stop and think because it’s such a valid point! Expensive is a relative term, it’s also loaded with judgment, personal opinion and zero facts.
Don’t let other people tell you what you are or are not. Remember cliche #2 – people pay for what they value. For some people it’s fast cars, for some it’s handbags, some prefer experiences like fine dining and travel, some people invest in art or season tickets to sports or theater… there are PLENTY of people out there who will think that what YOU DO is worth paying for.
Got it? Great! Now download your workbook and get started.
Desired Outcome:
Understand the easy yes formula and how to use it in any sales process.
Related Content:
Productivity Challenge
Brand 101
Understanding And Finding Your Ideal Pet Client
Websites 101