Ep. 097: High vs. Low Ticket Offers

There's a lot of talk online about how it's more wise to sell fewer high-ticket offers than it is to try to sell tons of low-ticket ones. But that doesn't really paint the full picture.

Sure the math is what it is, but if you've never confidently sold a higher-priced offer it'll likely feel really awkward and you'll sabotage yourself before you can even get someone to say "yes."

But it's also true that if you're going to sell something lower priced you will have to sell more of them. And with conversion rates it means needing to get your offer in front of a lot more people in order to hit your sales goals.

I wanted to talk about both paths and what you really know so that you can plan ahead and make either work for you. And how you can build out offers you can confidently sell to the right people.

LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED TODAY:

• Your Next Big Thing: https://erikatebbens.podia.com/ynbt_jan

• Want to read a transcript of this episode? Click here!

  Welcome back to the sell sister podcast. I am super geeked to chat, uh, high versus low ticket offers today because this is a conversation. I have a lot with my clients and with my friends. And I think it is so important to understand so that when you're designing a business, that for you, that you don't make some of the mistakes that I often see a lot of people making.

  And you can actually make better decisions around your offers and your marketing funnels and your messaging and all of that stuff. As you, as you try to enroll people into those offers, um, and keep growing your business. So I have a workshop called, uh, the, your next big thing workshop, which is a way to help people decide on.

  Their next offer. Uh, I will be sure to put the link for it in the show notes. It's a really low cost workshop, but it's super helpful if you are trying to decide which offer types are actually best for you this season of your life currently, and you can always revisit it in the future. If things have changed and you want to create a new offer.

  So it's great. Something you can go back to again and again, and again. And in there, I talk about all different offer types that you can have. And I have this graphic in there that shows, you know, making a $10,000 month having a $10,000 month based on the math of what you would have to sell to hit that.

  And obviously this is like pretty self-explanatory, but you could either sell. You know, one or two higher priced offers or a ton of really, really low cost offers or several middle tier offers or some sort of combo, right. Sort of like an endless, uh, assemblage of ways to make this happen. And I just use.

  10 cakes. I feel like it's an easy round number to look at the math on. And there is some times I feel like the, I feel like things are changing, uh, in the online space, but there are times where people are like, just sell higher ticket things. You can get your, to your goal more easily. And while that's sort of true good Smith magically correct rate it's, you know, you only have to get one person to say yes to a $10,000 offer.

  If you want to hit that goal versus needing to market, you know, a hundred dollar offer to tons and tons and tons of people. But at the end of the day, if you don't feel comfortable with a $10,000. Offer, if you don't feel comfortable selling that, you're not going to be able to competently show up and sell that.

  And then you're going to have zero sales regardless. Right? So there's a lot of psychology in this. And actually next week's episode, I have a, it's a guest episode and we, we talk, uh, we talk a bit more about this in that episode, but it's, I don't necessarily agree with the thinking of. Well, just sell a higher price thing to fewer people and your life will be easier on the flip side.

  There's also this misconception around wanting to sell lower cost, uh, products or services, because while it may feel less scary to say, Oh, this thing is, you know, a hundred dollars versus $10,000. You also need to get in front of way more people in order to hit your goal number that you want to sell.

  And that like that is just like, there's no necessarily like set conversion rate for any industry or anything like that. But generally speaking, uh, we need to be, especially for like lower cost things. You need to be getting that out in front of a lot of people, because while it seems like, well, if it's 50 bucks, like wouldn't everyone just get it or 30 bucks or whatever, but the answer is just 100%.

  No. It is now there is no like 100% conversion rate of anything in any industry, um, ever. And so it's really important to know this from the start and a lot of where this tends to show up is. There are, um, several people have programs now where they are teaching you how to create small, um, paid offer funnels.

  So, uh, sometimes they're called like self-liquidating offers or, uh, Courtney foster who calls them pocket products, Allie pier call some tiny offers and. These are, uh, offers where they're usually, you know, like between 20 and $50 and they're things that you've probably seen paid ads for them. And what happens is when you click to get that low cost offer, why it's, why they're called like self-liquidating offers is because people are paying money.

  They're paying for the advertising. To put that ad out so that you see it. And then let's say you buy the $37 thing from the paid ad. Generally speaking, what it does is it will have an order bump, um, on that page. So it'll be something that's, you know, maybe like a $20, something that partners really, really well with the thing that you just bought.

  And then when you're at the checkout page, it will have a one-time offer that pops up. That's generally something that's a little bit more. Um, but it's also complimentary with the other, the other things that you just got. Right? So it's not something that's like way out of left field that the person selling it has also made.

  And it's just trying to like, Lump and to get people to buy. It's something that when, if you were to buy all three things together, it's like a really natural suite of products that would, um, work together to help you get whatever result it is that they are promising or suggesting to you. And so that is how that is how that works.

  And so the self-liquidating part is that. In, even though you are paying to get those people, like essentially paying for leads, you're paying to get them in to your orbit. Is that even if you were say spending $10 per. Uh, new lead, like new customer of those digital products, even if they were $10 a lead that if on average, you know, not everyone is going to get the order bump, but not everyone is going to get the one-time offer.

  But that overall, like let's say on average, people were spending $85, uh, on the, on the funnel. Then you have made. A profit of $75 on average. Um, so you've made a profit. So your, your, um, your lead costs, it has been liquidated by, uh, what people are. Purchasing from you, right. And this really works well. Like when you have it all set up correctly and not everyone also needs like the two different offers.

  Sometimes people just have like an order bump or one-time offer or whatever, or it will just like get people into a funnel and then you can nurture them on the backend and seldom into like much higher price stuff right later on. But, uh, it really requires. Knowledge of ads or outsourcing it and advertising dollars.

  And there's nothing wrong with doing that. I mean, unless you were like morally or ethically postpaid advertising or something, but in general, it's something that can totally be done and be done really well. However, usually like most people are not going to be like, Oh, cool. I'm just gonna. Hire an ad strategist and just like start spending, you know, 10 or $20 a day on, on ads to see what happens here and to really get this running.

  So what ends up happening is that you have people selling lower price things, but trying to. Market them organically to enough people so that you are getting enough conversions to be hitting your goals. And this is really hard. Like it's much, it's much, much harder, unless unless you're like super lucky and you already have like a gigantic, really engaged platform and you can just like send out an email of a low cost thing and people will snatch it right up.

  If that is the case, that is amazing. And you will always know that there's money in your list. And you can do that when you have a lower cost thing. But if you were still in that list, building process, or even like social media channel growth process, um, It's not to say that you can't put something out to your list or your social channels that is lower cost and get people to purchase it.

  You absolutely can, but it's going to be harder if that is like your only thing and you are going to be trying to, you know, sell it like month after month after month after month, you need to be. Regularly, adding new people to your list, adding new people to your audience, right? You need to get that same low cost thing in front of fresh eyes all the time.

  Right? So this is just something to consider, as you're thinking about your offers and the pricing of your offers and who you're marketing the offers to, and your overall suite of offers, there's just different things to consider here versus. You know, low versus high cost offer. And when I, when I say higher cost offers, I mean, usually thinking, starting at like 2020 500 us dollars.

  So that's different people have different spectrums, um, for what they consider like higher costs versus lower costs. That is just my personal one. So when you're thinking about that overall chart of like selling a bunch of low cost things or, uh, you know, several mid cost things or very few, um, like upper end high cost things, it's important to understand that different people like the, the different price points and the different types of offers are actually going to be meant for different people.

  So it's not as simple as just saying. Well, this thing is really inexpensive. So of course people would want it. Um, and I, I'm going to illustrate this with myself. Uh, so I, this is something I used to struggle with as I was raising my own rates because I was like, Oh my gosh, I I'm going to have to like, give more to these like higher cost offers and how am I going to sell them that the people who I'm speaking to right now, like, They're not even buying this thing for 500.

  I can't, I can't like do something that is, you know, like if they're not doing something that's, you know, three months a three-month commitment at $500 a month, they're not going to spend $1,500 for six months. Like that doesn't, that doesn't compute. Right. So what I had to really grapple with and, and change my thinking around is that.

  I'm actually speaking to two different people with those offers. No. If the people in my audience are not even the right people for, you know, a $1,500 total commitment, they're certainly not the right people for $1,500 a month for six months commitment. Right. Um, or if they are, if I, if I haven't been selling that other, that lower cost thing.

  Maybe it's because it's not the right thing or my messaging is off or, or whatever. Right. So it's, it's not, I'm not saying like I'm blaming my audience, I'm blaming who's there. And not like nothing of the sort, I just mean that there's so much more to selling an offer than just saying like, Oh my gosh, it's this thing.

  And it's amazing. And it's. 50 bucks, right? There's a lot more to it. Or even it's a thousand bucks, right? If there's, there's a lot more like nuance and thought that needs to go into the, all of the marketing for it. So I think it's really important to, to look at it through, um, through that lens, because the more clear you can get on who is perfect for that particular offer and speak directly to them.

  The easier any offer on this spectrum will be to sell. So here's why it doesn't always make sense to sell something that is super inexpensive, hoping that people will buy more. Right now, if I was. Gotcha. Okay. So I just had, um, this perfect example, uh, because I, I just put out an interview with a Pinterest Pinterest expert.

  So, um, if you're curious about Pinterest, definitely check out the episode with, um, press Rogers. That was super awesome. Uh, but for me right now, I know that there are some really great lower costs. So under $2,000, Lower cost resources on learning Pinterest. Right? I know there are some amazing things out there.

  There are some free resources. There are some ultra low cost resources, and then there are some, you know, courses or programs, stuff that are under $2,000 total to invest in where I could learn all of the ins and outs of Pinterest marketing. But the reality is. Is that even reflecting back on to last week's episode about FOMO.

  And do I really need this? I personally do not want to spend my time, energy or attention on that. I just don't. So I'm at a point now I'm feel very lucky to be at this point, but I am at a point where I would literally rather, like, let's say something. Was a $300, um, mini course on Pinterest for entrepreneurs.

  I would rather spend $3,000 on an actual Pinterest done for you. Pinterest strategist, who is going to go in for, let's say. I don't know, 90 days, something like that. Uh, maybe a little bit longer for that price. I don't know, but they're going to go in for 90 days, it's gonna be $3,000 total and they are going to, uh, utilize Pinterest as a marketing channel for me.

  I, to me that feels like a better use of my money and my time, because I don't really care about learning all the finer details about Pinterest so that I could turn around and DIY that for myself, I do not want to, it's not how I want to spend my time. Um, it's, you know, in terms of like parking lot list, if you've already listened to last week's episode, you'll get this reference, but I don't even have learned Pinterest or take a Pinterest course on a parking lot list.

  If anything, the parking lot list item for me is hire a professional Pinterest strategist done for you provider. Who will take it and run with it and get me results and I can just pay them for their expertise and do it. So I am a very different buyer than let's say if this was Erica from four years ago, who was just getting started in the, like, just purely being in the online space.

  And I'm thinking about ways to get my blog posts out more broadly. Right. Back then I might be like, Ooh, $300. Pinterest course. Hell yeah. I'm going to go through that. I'm going to leverage it. I'm going to get more attraction out of these blog posts. I'm going to get more people on my list. Like this is great.

  Great, great value. 300 bucks. Now I got to use my time. I've got to use my time to learn and I gotta use my time on the execution. But dang, this, this is good value right now. I do not want to use my very limited time on the learning and the execution. I would rather leverage more money. To get the results.

  And again, very fortunate to be at this place. This is where it's important to note, because I guarantee you, even if you, even if right now your Lake, but where am I going to find these people? Erica, I don't know how to reach these people. I don't know how to speak to these people. Who are they? Where are they all of that?

  Even if that is unclear, just trust that if you have something out there that is lower. Cost. And even still, there are people who are like, yeah, I'm not, I'm not like paying for that right now or whatever, or I just can't, or I don't want to, or that price still feels a little high or whatever. Just trust that there are other people who are experiencing different levels in whatever it is that you help them with.

  And they have different needs and they have different desires. And they would be happy to pay you more, uh, to help solve that same, that same problem. Right? So this is like the really it's, it's the dichotomy of going back to the very first thing I talked about on that scale, the people who buy on that scale, the people who are at that upper echelon, who are buying a $10,000 offer are going to need a lot.

  Like the there, what they're hoping to do generally speaking is by paying more there, if you're like a done for you service provider or something, they're hoping to literally not have to like deal with that problem themselves. They want to outsource it entirely to somebody else who will take care of it for them and help get the result for them.

  Right. So they are very, um, pressed for time, or they're choosing not to dip into their time in order to get that problem solved and they have the money, or they don't mind spending the money in order to solve that, that problem. And then if you go all the way to the beginning, you know, the sum, the hundred dollar offer, right?

  These are people who maybe don't want to spend, or, you know, or can't spend. A lot more than that, a hundred dollars by they, because they are getting a price break on that. They are also willing to DIY it more. To get the results so that that's the trade-off, they, they are investing more of their time, but less of their dollars to solve the problem or at the higher end, more of their dollars, less of their time.

  And when you're in the middle again, it's, you know, depending on what you do and who you serve. And in all of that, it's generally a combo. So it's sort of like at the very bottom there's DIY at the very top there is done for you and the spectrum in the middle is a bit more done with you. Again, there's always exceptions here.

  And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out, but that is just sort of a general, general overview. So ways that you can do this, that you can actually get things sold and get things, um, so that they're working together in your, in your offer suite. And all of that is first get really, really, really clear on who you serve, how you serve them.

  What their struggles are, what their desires are, all of that. And then think about the ways that you're going to serve them. So I want to use a really common example, social media, um, managers and strategists, right? So you can have on the low end, the DIY, you could have low cost workshops, mini courses, full courses, anything like that?

  That is, um, I would say, you know, like, Maybe, I mean, I guess it would still say under $2,000, right? Probably even more like under a thousand or even under 500, right. Very low costs. Like you are just going to walk people through, um, you know, content planning, hashtag research, um, You know, graphic creation, anything like that, you're going to walk them through all of that.

  They are going to DIY it. They are going to spend more of their time learning it more of their time, executing it, but less of their dollars. And then at the highest end speed done for you. This is a brand that is going to say, Hey, this is, these are our branding assets. Um, this is our, you know, Are like launch calendar or whatever.

  This is like what we're selling it, what we're selling when we're selling it, all of that. And we want you to create and execute a full fledged, social media marketing strategy for us. We don't want to do it. We want you to do it. And then there could be people in the middle, like, so you, so you have like a full done for you.

  Maybe it's, you know, a monthly option full down with you service. And then you have the people in the middle who they don't fully want to DIY it. They do want to partner with an expert, but they're not quite ready, whether it's money or just desire to fully outsource it. So they want to do like a done with you.

  So this could be an offer like a, um, you know, maybe it's a four week. Group program where you go through all of the key components, um, that you, you know, that you utilize with your done for you clients. You're teaching that to that. You're teaching them that framework. You're walking them through.

  Step-by-step in four weeks, they're going to leave. They're going to know how to effectively manage their own social media for themselves. Or maybe this is like an intensive where you meet up with them, you create their plan for them. You, um, maybe create like, A few, you know, you give them a few templates that they can use.

  Um, you give them some hashtag banks. Like you CA it's, it's not the full fledge. You're not posting for them, but you're giving them the assets that they would need and the information that they would need so they can post for themselves. And that would be more of that mid. Range. So it's not a hundred dollar a mini course, and it's not a, you know, $10,000 for the whole year, like done for you, which that actually might be that's pretty low.

  Um, it could be something like a, you know, $2,000 intensive where you are mapping out like all over their content for the next, however long, you know? 90 days and you're giving them templates and you're giving them hashtag banks and you're, you know, doing a full audit and you're doing this interview.

  Like, you know what I mean? So it's, it's kind of them, it's the hybrid there. Uh, and then what you can do. So as you're, as you're marketing, each of those, uh, You will be speaking. You're still, you're obviously talking about, you know, social media strategy overall in your business. But when you are speaking about a specific offer, you're going to want to get a little bit more nuanced with your messaging about who you are speaking.

  Too, because, uh, you know, it could be somebody who has taken your course might now be ready for the done with you intensive or the four week group program or whatever that is. Uh, But it's, it's probably easier to move them there than to go from like the course to totally done for you and like their needs and their desires and their, um, what they're like willing and wanting to invest in all of that.

  They're going to be different. So while yes, it's, again, it's still social media and getting people more results from social media. In whatever way that looks like in the context of your business, there's going to be smaller niche things that the people who are perfect for each offer are going to be experiencing.

  And you want to talk about that in your messaging. And then when you think about the overall suite of different things that you, that you have. Yeah. If you have with this same example, if you have somebody who has done that intensive or, um, that, you know, four week program or whatever it is, and they are doing it and they are getting results and they, and those results are leading to more revenue over time as they get busier, because they're having success with the thing that they already invested in with you.

  You could always go back to that person and say, Hey, I wanted to check back in. I know it's been, you know, six months since we spoke, I have room for another, um, full management client. Is this something that you are interested in? Would you like me now to take over and do it for you? Cause you know that my methodology works.

  You, you know, you trust me, like you're getting results. All of that. So, is that something that you are open to? That makes more sense? Same thing. If somebody has bought a bunch of your courses or workshops, and now you're doing. Like a done with you group program. It could be a really great way to say, Hey, you know, if you're ready for like level 2.0 on this, I have this group program.

  Would you be interested? So there's like a natural flow up the, the ladder of your, of your suite too. Get people who are already in who already know, like, and trust you a new experience, a new way of working with you. This doesn't mean that everyone is going to perfectly keep graduating to the next thing whatsoever.

  But when there is a next logical step, that makes sense. Again, it doesn't even mean that they're going to go move into it right away, but you could have something that they organically. You know, makes sense as a next step. And you also, if you just want to have one offer, you're also just allowed to have one offer.

  You don't have to have like an offer stack or anything, if you don't want to. And then as you were doing more and more and more of whatever the offer is, especially if it's one that takes your time and you are doing your own, you know, continuing education and research, which even if it's not like formal continuing education, like we're kind of always learning and improving.

  Right. I feel like everyone, I know, like we're always striving to like learn more and do, do better in our industry. Um, and so just the more experience and knowledge you gain and, and everything, it makes sense that your prices would raise over time. So that's also a way you're going to just be naturally, uh, you know, making more money in your business over time.

  So that is really a very big picture overview of low versus high ticket offers. Not, you know, one is not necessarily better or worse. I don't necessarily think that you should just go right out tomorrow and create this ultra high ticket offer that you won't feel comfortable selling. I mean, if you do feel comfortable selling it, like, hell yeah, go for it.

  But that's just generally not the case with everyone. We kind of have to like work our selves up to it from like a personal comfort level, um, of quoting somebody. Certain prices on certain offers. But if you are finding like you are struggling right now to sell something that is lower price and you're like, I can never sell something.

  That's higher price. Just remember you are speaking to a different person. They still want the same result. Right. They still want whatever the result is that you can get for the people who work with you. But. They want to get, they want to get that result in a different way. Right? They, they either, um, especially if we're talking higher ticket, generally, that means, uh, less of their own time invested for a similar result.

  So just get, get a little bit more nuanced with the messaging around those offers. Um, always, you know, continue to bring new people in your orbit, make new connections, new relationships, uh, Just so that more of those people have the opportunity to know that you even exist, um, and you know, speak in your content to those.

  You know, micro attributes of them because they will be able to see themselves in your offers better and then more likely to invest in them. So I would love to hear from you as you know, I say at the end of every episode, but I really do love hearing from my audience. So if you had any big ahas or takeaways or anything, or if this is something you've experienced in your own business and was sort of like a lesson that you had to learn and how.

  You overcame it. I would love to hear from you. I would also love to know, like, if you, if you were selling, you know, higher touch, higher ticket things before, and then we're able to come back in with a lower ticket offer and like leverage some of your revenue to help get that sold. I would love to hear about it.

  And vice versa. If you were selling a lot of lower price stuff, And then you finally got the courage and the confidence to, um, sell a higher ticket offer. I would love to hear that too. You can, um, take a screenshot of this episode as you're listening and then share it to your stories. Tag me at Erica turbans consulting with any, with any of those ahas or takeaways.

  I would love to hear from you. And if you have any questions about any of this. Uh, definitely, you know, messaged me over on the platform as well. Happy to answer them. And if you're curious about that paid workshop, the next big thing workshop again, I will have it, um, in the show notes or just DME and say, Erica, can you send me the link so I can do that workshop.

  And I'm more than happy to, and as always happy selling.