Sales Funnel Radio SFR 292: To Customize, Or Not To Customize
The offer is a two-way agreement, not a beg-session to get anyone to buy from you.
Here's when I STOP customizing my offers…
My friends, I'm pumped for this - grab a pen and paper - 'cause this can simplify your business.
A while back, there was an interesting post in my group…
Here's what went down…
Someone purchased a service, product or whatever, and after they bought it - they didn't like the fulfillment.
So they went back to the seller and said, "Hey, Mr. Seller, I don't like this..." and the seller said, "Oh, so sorry about that," and gave their money back.
And this actually made the customer mad.
I was a little bit confused by this response because something similar happened to me...
There was a guy who paid me for a one-hour consultation, (I don't really sell that anymore... ), but he scheduled it during the speeches at Funnel Hacking Live.
And so I was like, "Oh crap, sorry about that."
I reached back out and said, "Hey I'm so sorry,” and I just refunded his money.
I was like, "Hey, here you go."
Here’s the thing, the refund didn’t make him happy - in fact, guy was livid and made tons of nasty posts all over the place.
The dude finally got so loud that I blocked him
Originally, I was confused by his reaction so I reached out and asked...
- Why are you mad that I gave you your money back? What's wrong with that? Our call was scheduled for a time that I couldn’t do…?
- Why do you think I’d wanna get on a call for an hour with you after you've been lighting me up across the whole internet?
… that's crazy!
I'm NOT obligated to spend time with you. I can give you your money back and I no longer have an obligation, right?
So, let’s go back to the post…
THE CUSTOMER ISN’T ALWAYS RIGHT!
The guy was super frustrated... he was so mad about getting a refund, and I was like, "I guess there's a pattern here."
So let me tell you exactly how I respond…
It was a good enough response that Mr. Russell actually liked it.
Here’s how I started…
After digging into this, I kinda understand the story.
Now you paid somebody...
- You didn't like it
- You brought it up
… and instead of getting more as you wanted, they refunded you.
I said…
Buying is a two-way relationship; I create an offer, set a price and a value, and use the offer as the anchor of the relationship, NOT the money.
The offer is the anchor, NOT the money.
This is a *BIG* mistake a lot of entrepreneurs make.
So let me teach you something really cool here that will help simplify your business...
When a customer uses their money as the anchor of a relationship, it forces the seller to dance at the customer's will.
This violates the very first step of my offer creation formula - The Who.
Just because someone has money doesn't mean I should sell them.
That's NOT the only qualifier for you to sell to somebody.
The offer is my agreement with the customer. If I keep changing the offer to each person, it equals a dizzying level of customization. That's WHY I don't change my offers for each person. If so I charge significant levels higher.
In my mind, it sounds like the seller is just doing what they thought was fair, and like myself was unwilling to change their offer, so, they refund you - that's not spitting in your face.
The customer is NOT always right.
Whoever started that whole thing, "The customer is always right," in my opinion, that person has NEVER had a successful business!
Or they worked in an industry that was 100% customization, you know what I mean (and even then the customer is not always right)?
'Cause…
The customer is NOT always right.
I don't want to fight the doctor if I'm about to go in surgery
‘Doctor, cut here and not here."
The customer is ALWAYS right????
That's a stupid phrase… overall, it's just NOT true.
And a lot of your businesses will be simplified by removing that belief and that vernacular…
"The customer's always right..." No, they're not, you are too - that's why you're the seller.
An offer is a two-way agreement, you can't keep customizing the offer per person - that's why we have a value ladder.
HOW TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICE BY SAYING ‘NO!’
One of the major reasons why you don't customize everything is because of how hard it is on your actual business.
It is hard for me to ALWAY be changing the offer - because it makes it hard for me to create business systems.
You have to understand the major functions of a business - and there are a lot of different theories/ competing beliefs around this…
But I'm just going to draw the major functions of any business.
- The first function of any business is to generate a lead, obviously.
- Then you have to be able to convert the lead.
There's a lot of great books with different views... “There are varying points... there are four points. No, there are five points of any business. No, there's six points of any business.”
However, they're all around the same area for EVERY business.
This is the reason why funnels work for any company. Every company has to be able to…
- Generate a lead
- Convert the lead
- Deliver/fulfill on the purchase
- Upsell
- (And then some people add...) Retain
Again, various places have differing opinions, but it's basically that…
A business is nothing more than a series of systems that generate and fulfills a lead.
*THAT’S IT*
… it's NOT some fishy hokey-pokey thing.
It has nothing to do with some clever slogan... I don't have a mission statement, 'cause “Urrrgh!”
Anyway...
For example: Say I go generate a lead by creating an offer
Let's say that I'm selling some widget…
- I need to go generate a lead who is most likely and has a predisposition to purchase that widget.
- If I continually change the widget I have to continually re-set up new lead machines.
One of the reasons why some of my webinars have done so well in the past and I've only touched them once, (and it's been over a year and a half since I've touched one of the largest ones)...
The reason why that works is that I'm not sitting here continually changing the offer.
I change it for a while and I'm like, "Okay, this feels like a safe place for it to land!"
… I stop touching the offer.
*DON’T TOUCH THE OFFER*
- My job is no longer to keep tweaking the offer.
- My role and my business changes to finding more people to fit the offer rather than continually changing the offer.
PRODUCT CUSTOMIZATION - WHEN TO *STOP*
Most businesses have a good enough offer to…
- Make A LOT of money.
- Have consistent purchases.
But as marketers, we tend to get so focused on changing the offer that we forget about the next step…
Take it from the guy who's the self-proclaimed offer guy, stop changing your offer so much.
PHASE #2
Find the person who fits the offer - that's way easier than constantly changing your offer.
So back to my Facebook Group…
This guy gets frustrated and says, "Oh my gosh. You're not willing to change the offer for me? And you gave my money back to me?"
Like, “YEAH!” (ALL CAPS)
- First of all, that's fair.
- Second of all, it's smart on the business owner’s side.
Any time as any level of real genuine customization, it sucks!
That’s one of the reasons why a lot of entrepreneurs feel like their business wheels are spinning - they don't have a business.
You can't make a business where it's constant 24/7 100% pure true customization for every person that comes in.
Now, if your business is…
- "I build custom sales funnels for people."
- "I do custom body jobs in a car shop."
… there's still a system you can build around that.
I'm talking about when you're NOT customizing on purpose, and you keep changing all the stuff inside your offer.
After a while...
STOP!
It's extremely hard to create a consistent powerful lead machine when your offer's changing all the time. It's very hard to convert if your offer isn’t consistent...
I’ll change my offer for a while… but after a certain point, it's like…
*STOP*.
The next phase is to become good at finding people who fit the offer, instead of convincing EVERYBODY that they fit your offer.
(I'm hoping this is not too techy)
I want to…
- Generate a lead under the lens of those who have a predisposition to purchase the offer.
- Keep converting, (obviously), under the lens of the offer itself.
- Fulfill on what they purchased and *ONLY THAT* - it’s a two-way agreement, right?
- Keep up-selling people... but it's still anchoring off the offer.
The offer is NOT just a marketing tool - for me, it acts as an anchor.
Think of it this way...
(I hope I'm not talking in circles here with this, but this is such a key thing!)
HOW TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE BY FINDING THE ‘WHO!
I've had several people who reach out and be like, "You're not willing to do this, extra thing for me?"
I'm like, "No, you knew the agreement. The agreement was I was gonna provide this, this, this and this at this price, at this time frame."
And it's funny…
We call it an offer, but it's also an agreement between the buyer and the seller.
BAM! (Write that down!!!!)
Here’s the equation…
BUYER + SELLLER + OFFER = AGREEMENT
Let me illustrate this another way...
There's a place where my wife and I take our car where we know they're gonna act like our car is gonna fall apart in a second!
... and then, they try to charge us like three extra grand for repairs that don't matter.
You know what I'm saying? 😉
So we don't take our car to those people anymore!
Instead, if we ever need even simple maintenance or an oil change, we take it to another spot… because the guy is ALWAYS fair with us.
A lot of times car places say…
- These are the things that are terrible with your car.
- These are the things that are kinda in the yellow that are a warning.
- Here are the things that you should worry about kinda in the future.
(It's very clever on their part by the way.)
They're like, "Here's my offer. I will fix these things for these prices."
After they start on the work of the car, if I want something else done on I have to pay more money… and it's assumed.
It's the same thing with your offer!
- Just because it's an info product…
- Just because it's some other business besides cars...
... does NOT mean it's different, right?
I will charge MORE something is outside of the offer - it makes sense.
I have to do MORE.
DO YOU HAVE A BUSINESS?
Trey Llewellyn is an absolute animal. I look up to him - he's a beast, and I’ve gotten to know him a little bit more recently.
We're both pretty darn busy but I think we both watched each other a from afar.
#SBB (Steve Before Beard)
Trey is an e-com genius - the guy makes tons of money.
Anyway, Trey found is that every time you add a new SKU, (a new product, a new offer to your business), you increase the complexity of your fulfillment systems by 17X.
Every new SKU increases the complexity of your fulfillment systems by 17X.
So, my friends, the reason I'm going through this is NOT just for the individual who posted in my group kinda having a hard time…
It's to help *you* understand the role of the offer in your business systems, NOT just marketing.
A consistent offer allows you to have consistency across all major functions of a business - which allows you to create systems - which allows you to remain strategic.
Here is the difference, check this out...
ARE YOU CUSTOMIZING YOURSELF TO DEATH?
When I was in college, I started learning how to drive traffic, lots of it.
I got pretty good at driving just tens of thousands of clicks to certain things and it's actually opened a ton of doors for me - it was a lot of fun.
Under that one service, me and my buddy had a waiting list of 15 businesses…
Contrast that to about two years later (after I knew what ClickFunnels was) and I started doing funnels for other people…
I found myself with a 12 business waiting list, but my service was different every time.
- I was building different funnels
- I was doing different campaigns.
It was mind-numbing...
Not the boring kinda ‘mind-numbing’ - it was too much and was crippling to me.
I see A LOT of people being overwhelmed because they don’t know when to STOP customizing a product…
"I'm doing this... and I'm doing this ...and I'm doing this... and I'm doing this… and this!"
Here’s the rub…
You're confusing the number of opportunities that you're running at with success.
That's NOT true at all.
Go look at like some of the people who are making the most money, they have one main offer, that’s it.
Alex Hormozi = GymLaunch
BAM!
They did that one thing till (I think) they crossed $10 million... then they added the next thing.
It’s the same in my business…
HERE’S WHAT I’M NOT DOING
People ask:
Q: "Stephen how come you haven't launched like a mastermind yet?"
A: Don't worry, I will, but...
- I don't have the business systems to fulfill on it the way I want to yet, so it wouldn't be smart for me.
- I don't want to yet, okay 😂
Q: “Stephen, how comes you haven't written a book yet?"
A: Man, I'm focusing on the one thing on my value ladder, okay?
That's the other reason we have a value ladder, we say…
"Alright, okay, market place, okay community…”
- Here is my value ladder.
- Here are the things that I am agreeing.
- Here are the things that you can purchase from me
... but also the things that I'm willing to fulfill on.
Here's the offer and here's the exact thing I'm saying yes to…
I've had many people reach out and they're like…
“Stephen what can I buy from you?"
Man, go to capitalistcoaching.com, and you'll see EVERYTHING you can buy from me right now...
That's all the stuff I'm willing to do and fulfill on at that price point…
And it's ALL set up for a specific…
- ‘WHO’
- ‘Dream Customer’
...that I know will 'cause the fastest success story.
At the top of my value ladder, my application funnels at are real application funnels.
It is NOT me just trying to get anyone who has the money - people actually apply - ‘cause I'm legitimately trying to see if they are ‘a good fit’ for me.
A lot of people ask…
- "How come you're not doing this Stephen?”
- “How come you're not doing this Stephen?”
- “How come you're not doing this Stephen?"
A: It's because I know that there are certain things that I should and should not be doing and if I constantly have a changing offer it affects…
- All of my business systems
- Every major function of my company
- The type of person that I bring in
And instead of focusing on *ONE* ‘dream who,’ - I get a lot of different ones coming on in from all walks of life.
*I DON’T WANT THAT*
I want one main type of ‘who’ = one main type of dream customer.
It also affects my ability to create or NOT create a value ladder.
TESTING MY OFFER
You have to understand, there’s a timeline for when I launch a new offer…
- I test the offer
- I make tweaks
- I change things for a while.
... but there comes a moment where I stop and say, "I will no longer change, this offer is what it is... and my role progressing forward is NOT to keep changing the offer."
- STAGE #1 = Change the offer
- STAGE #2 = Find more veins of ‘the dream who.’
I launch and start changing the offer (which includes the message), and then once I've got it validated, I update to continually find ‘the dream who.’
FINDING ‘MY DREAM WHO!’
Q: How do I find my Dream who?
A: With additional traffic sources.
I have four major awesome traffic sources that I like and use, and I just dump in between them.
Q: How do I get those traffic sources to find it?
A: I have a list of Launch campaigns and Evergreen campaigns to get those traffic sources and those ‘dream who's’ to actually see my offer - bam, bam, bam.
Anyway…
I did not do a lot of storytelling in this one, it was a little bit more of a tactical episode here but it's because…
If you keep changing your offer, past the testing period, by kowtowing and bowing to everyone just to get the sale…
You literally...
Drop your ability to have faster and greater success rates with your customers.
So, set your offer and understand this is NOT about you going, "I will do whatever it takes to get the sale.”
I will NOT do *anything* for a sale - because of ALL the things I've been talking about here.
The offer is an agreement between me and the seller, it is NOT me begging the seller for a purchase.
Alright, hopefully, this has been a helpful episode - this is a very key topic and one that I'm definitely passionate about!
Partly it's because I went through 34 tries (over about 5- years) without a big success.
And looking back, I can see that…
- I didn't have any clear dream customer - so no wonder I couldn't create good marketing.
- I had no clear offer - 'cause I was like, "Whoever gives me the sale, whoever gives me the sale, whoever gives me the sale."
...and it was one of the MOST painful lessons I ever went through!
If you do wanna go see the things that I have available... if you’re like…
- "Oh, I wanna work with him more."
- "How is it I can get more of his time and attention?"
...which I get many of you guys reaching out about - go to capitalistcoaching.com, and you'll see all those things right there.
It is literally my value ladder with clickable links to the things that it's referencing.
There are some things on there (just so you know) that are not actually available yet... or where we're just focusing on the current students.
I find that most people have zero clarity on their business - so how can a customer have any clarity on what you're offering?
They can't - it's very hard!!!
It sets this weird precedence (or no precedence at all) for what you actually will or *won't* provide,
Hard to have a life when you keep changing your offer. You will literally be tied to the business if you keep changing your offer.
If you guys got any value from this please tag me on social media and let me know…
"Steve, that was fresh to death, that was awesome!"
Let me know what you liked about it - I'm trying to just provide epic value for you.
#StayTuned
There are some fun surprises coming up in the next few episodes thatI'm very very pumped about!!!
Alright!
*You* reading this right now, you're in one of two scenarios.
Either…
You're currently selling a product and you've got a slick sales funnel and traffic...
There are ads and you have content, bringing in new customers. You have upsells, downsells, and phone sales.
You've almost automated it, making money while doing everyday things.
Either that's all set up and going…
OR…
The second option is you don't have any of that, and you're still trying to make this work and tie all of these pieces together.
If you want my help, just go to capitalistcoaching.com and see where you can get started.
It took me a long time to get the skills for all this to get moving…
- Writing the sales letter
- Making the sales videos
- Building the funnel
- Writing follow-up emails
- Promo campaigns
- Promo emails
- Fulfillment plans
- Fresh new ads
... there's A LOT.
And the path to move forward is different for each person.
So I created capitalistcoaching.com for you to check out where *you* need to start.
Whether you're just starting out with…
- No product
- No list
- No single clue on what to do next.
OR…
If you're like one of our BIG corporate clients who just need to add more revenue and scale your offer, go to capitalistcoaching.com.
I don't really believe in shortcuts, but I do know you can speed up the path on the journey
Figure out the BEST place to start by going to capitalistcoaching.com now
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