Before You Buy Anything… Here’s How to Know Which Offer Is Really Right for You

Okay, so in almost three years that this podcast has been around, I think this is the first time that I have ever shared a previous episode. Yes, I’ve done the aff, the occasional feed drop, where I have shared an episode with you where I was a guest on someone else’s podcast. But today I’m going to be resharing a solo episode with you that originally aired in May of 2023.

It’s particularly relevant because in this episode I am talking about how to choose the right container for you if the person that you’re interested in working with has multiple offers. And I’m also talking about the value of a survey that I had just distributed back when the episode originally aired.

And it just so happens that yesterday I sent out a survey to my email list doing the exact same thing. And as I listened to that episode this morning, I realized I still did not fix the question that I was talking about in this episode. So I have corrected my mistake. As a podcast listener, you may or may not be on my email list, and if you’re not, I would really encourage you to visit the show notes and join because when I do a full launch, when I do a flash sale.

They are always to my email list. I typically don’t share them on the podcast, and I typically don’t share them on Instagram. And so today I am on the backend of what was one of my biggest live launches. Um. In my business, ’cause I don’t live launch often. So a couple weeks ago I did a three day email challenge called the Systems Glow Up email edition.

And that went right into a launch for the CRM blueprint and my upcoming email course email, like you mean it. And so yesterday I decided to send out a survey to ask why people chose to buy or not buy. And I am still going through the results, but I am already finding out a lot of information about who and who is not in my email newsletter community.

And so if you are not currently a member, I would really love it if you would join. But alternatively, if you would like to fill out the survey, it’s just a few clicks and give me your opinions, please go to coley james.com/survey. And you will be entered to win one of three $50 cash prizes from PayPal.

All right, and now back into the episode.

Hello, hello, and welcome back to the Business First Creatives podcast. So today’s topic, you find somebody that you really want to work with and they have multiple offers. How do you choose which one is best for you? Now guys, some people offer only one way to work with them.

Like they either do a one-to-one service, they only have a group program or a course, or they only offer hourly consulting. I mean, I’m sure there’s other ways, but those are the three ways that you can work with me. And I know many entrepreneurs that only offer one of those ways in order to work with them.

But so if you land on a website, where someone gives you multiple ways to solve your problem, how do you choose which one is best for you? So if they say that a one-to-one, like let’s say Dubsado setup, is this price tag or an online course, is this price tag or hourly consulting is this price tag? How do you choose

and I’m specifically not giving you prices because, number one, I want this, I want this podcast to not be outdated when I raise my prices, but also while I understand that a price tag can totally dictate a purchasing decision, for a lot of people, that is not the deciding factor. I know many people who can afford to hire me, to do the one-to-one service, but yet they buy my course. They buy my course because they have an innate feeling that they want to learn how to do something for themselves, and in my case, it’s systems.

But depending on what the other offer is, maybe you feel like a course is best suited for you because it’s not something that this person is gonna do for you and that you’re not gonna ever have to tweak or make modifications. And so, I mean, that’s what I wanna talk about today. I interestingly enough, sent a survey to my email subscribers, which if you are interested in taking this survey, please go to coliejames.com/survey.

Um, I asked my email people, because I make a lot of assumptions about the people that I am speaking to, either on this podcast or on my email list. Like, I make assumptions that the majority of you are photographers. I make assumptions that the majority of you do have a C R M and that in a lot of cases it’s probably Dubsado, but those are things that I need to know while I make content. Whether it’s an email newsletter or it’s a podcast episode, I like to know who’s in my audience and what you would benefit most from.

But, so one of the questions that I asked was if you are trying to figure out how to do something in your business, and I really wish I had the survey up cuz I’m probably messing up the wording, but if you wanna learn how to do something in your business, would you rather: take an online course or hire someone to do it for you.

And overwhelmingly with the people who actually answered my survey, they said, enroll in an online course. Now guys, this is where the former statistics professor in me has to come out and say, yeah, I didn’t have a large sample size. Um, The data is definitely skewed.

I mean, is it that people who are more likely to take an online course are in my newsletter audience, or is it that those people are more likely to actually fill out the survey? I mean, there’s a, there’s a lot to go into. But I will just say of the people who answered my survey, the majority of them said they would rather take an online course.

Now, did I ask them why? No, in hindsight, I should have asked them why. And so I may actually tweak the survey the next time that I offer it, or I may just send out another survey that just asks people you know about their purchasing decisions. Now, I hired Melissa Harstine, uh, almost a year ago now, and she interviewed several of my clients, people who had hired me for one-to-one Dubsado setup services, people who had just enrolled in my course, and then she also interviewed just a couple of people who had initially taken the course and then upgraded to a VIP setup.

And all of the information that she gave me at that point was super helpful, but I don’t think that I knew enough to ask Melissa at that point, “hey, can you ask them more about their buying decision?” Like we focused on a lot of things, but I wish I had more information on that buying decision.

So guys, as you create your offers, if you are someone who has more than one offer, really think about how you can communicate the benefits of each of those offers, that will help people make a buying decision for themselves.

Whether it is straight off your sales page or in a sales call, I think we should all really think hard about the differences between our offers and who would specifically benefit from each one, aside from the price tag. Because yes, guys, there is often and should be a significant price increase if someone is hiring you for a one-to-one service versus buying your online course, doing your group program or hiring, hiring you for online consulting? I mean, my, the difference between my hourly consulting and my v i P is 10 x, well, it’s almost 10x. The difference between my online course and hiring me for a full setup is 5x. So there is a significant investment difference between those offers, but that doesn’t always mean that just because someone has the money that a full setup is the right choice for them.

So I encourage you to think about this inside your own business and also if you are looking to hire someone and they have multiple containers in which they’re solving the same problem, figuring out which one is best for you.

Alright, y’all, back to the present. So the reason that I went down this rabbit hole today is I am in the process of adjusting my offer suite. I have a new program that fits directly between the CRM Blueprint and my full Done For You offers. I am calling it Systems in Session and it is a new done with you container where you and I will work together one-on-one.

I will be the strategy that guides you and you will implement these things inside of your business and specifically dodo or HoneyBook. And so it is something that I am running with a very limited number of beta people right now, but it’s going well, and I am personally thinking that this is where I’m going to put a lot of my effort going forward.

And so if you are someone that doesn’t want a DIY course and isn’t quite ready for a full done for you, this might be the perfect fit. So if you would like additional information on Systems in Session, go ahead and come over to Instagram @coliejames and send me a dm. Alright, that’s really it for this episode.

See you next time.