How to create a killer offer to which people will feel stupid saying no?

[Kubera]

Sorry to disappoint you if you thought you'll find here an answer to the thread title. I think I'm on the right path, but I'd really appreciate some help from more experienced folks.

@MJ DeMarco , would be awesome to hear from you on this. Others, no offense for not tagging you, I just don't frequent the forum often enough to know who are other very experienced members.


I started doing web design full-time recently. After a couple of months of cold emailing (learned a lot but it didn't get me a client) I realized that one of the things I need to work on to make the whole thing work is my offer.


The problem with web design is that it's extremely saturated and everyone does it. Most of the people offering it have similar offers which can be generally categorized as:

a.) feature-oriented offers(like faster website loading or optimizing for mobile devices)

b.) better results/business problem solving-oriented offers(like more qualified leads every month, making more money – basically trying to sell a dream outcome)

You can see such offers all over the place, the latter one not just in web design, so I really don't see a way of „living happily ever after“ if I go down one of those two routes.


So the only way for me to really stand out from the crowd is to create, what Alex Hormozi calls, a Grand Slam offer.

Such an offer should significantly increase prospects' perceived likelihood of achieving their dream outcome while decreasing the time, effort, and hassle they need to put in to get rid of their pain point.

I really want to provide tons of value for my future clients, that should be the main focus of the offer. I know $$$ flowing my way will be just a byproduct of the value a client gets from working with me.


I thought about offering kind of a 3-month program thing where I'd onboard a client, work on their website, SEO, paid ads...to get them some measurable results. I know, I need to work on this, it's still too general, but it might be a way to stand out from those two, above-mentioned, categories.

So what would be the right way to go with creating the offer in my case? How would you go about it?

 

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[Jeannen]

You can put as much painting as you want on a wall, in the end, it's still a wall. You can listen to all those fancy marketing guys telling you to make a "Grand slam offer" or whatever, but if you sell the same shit as all the other schmuck out there, you won't go far.

Don't improve your offer, improve your product. Then, you can improve your offer and your marketing

 

[Paul David]

Here's an offer I seen from a website designer recently:

Feel like paying thousands for a website with no guarantee that it will work is a bad deal? Website companies love that model. They build your site, hand it over, and have no accountability for what they’ve built. We’re changing that.

The Convert Guarantee. If your Convert website doesn't win at least 10% more sales than your existing website after 3 months, your monthly payment is free — and we'll refund your entire setup.*

 

[Andy Black]

I still prefer a starving crowd.

 

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[Miketing]

It seems like you're entirely focused on the offer and have neglected the more important part of the equation: the market.

Like @Andy Black said above - you need to find a starving market that has a strong NEED. No matter how you package up your web design service, it's not going to matter unless you find an audience that actually needs it.

So who is your audience? What do they actually need? What exactly is their dream outcome?

Despite naming his book $100M Offers, Hormozi does say that the market is the most important factor. Perhaps his video on the topic will help you out: Picking Markets

 

[Bing]

Starving crowd is definitely great advice, but I've had issues personally identifying what people are hungry for when trying to enter new markets. So I'd like to provide an alternative answer:

Your question reminds me of an excerpt (actually two) from TMF . I'm having trouble searching my Kindle for them, so these "quotes" are paraphrased:

1. "If you set up a stand selling $20 bills for $10, how long do you think the line would be? Huge, of course! If people think you're giving them $20 of value they will HAPPILY hand over $10 for it." My business partner has posed this question to clients as "if I can save/make you a dollar, will you give me a dime?" When you pose a question like that, no one says no! The next step is to educate them how you will get them $1 and only charge them $0.10.
2. "I went to get a coffee at Starbucks, but didn't realize it was 'Donut Day' so people were lined up in their cars for an hour wait to get a free donut that normally costs $1. Did people really value their time at $1/hour? These people didn't recognize the value of their own time."

Again, both "quotes" are paraphrased from my memory, so apologies to @MJ DeMarco for my mistakes there.

The points are:
(1) people will pay for something when they think the cost is less than the value, and
(2) often people under value their own time.

Honest example from my company:
I have a product that costs $1-per-use, and some customers immediately understand the value (point #1) and buy it, but others need more help because they don't value their (or their staff's) time, so I have to walk them through point 2 for them to understand.

In the case of those missing point two, I lead them to the question ("okay, and how many times a day do you do that manually? Eight? Okay, over a 4 hour period?") I then hit them with the sales question that makes them realize how stupid it would be to object ("Eight times in 4 hours means you do this twice an hour, which means my product would do it for you for $2/hour. Are you saying you'd prefer work for $2/hour instead?").

Sell value. Even if that value is giving someone his time back. Even if you need to educate them on how much their time is worth. Once you posit that question well, they wake up.

 

[Andy Black]

I've had issues personally identifying what people are hungry for when trying to enter new markets.

I like to think of sales as getting the right people to the right offer at the right time.

I’m simple, which is why I like paid search. Done right you can get in front of people searching with their credit card in hand already looking to buy.

If I have to educate people in the value then I figure I’m in front of the wrong people.

 

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[Fox]

After a couple of months of cold emailing (learned a lot but it didn't get me a client) I realized that one of the things I need to work on to make the whole thing work is my offer.

Can you post up what your cold emails look like?

 

[Kevin88660]

Sorry to disappoint you if you thought you'll find here an answer to the thread title. I think I'm on the right path, but I'd really appreciate some help from more experienced folks.

@MJ DeMarco , would be awesome to hear from you on this. Others, no offense for not tagging you, I just don't frequent the forum often enough to know who are other very experienced members.


I started doing web design full-time recently. After a couple of months of cold emailing (learned a lot but it didn't get me a client) I realized that one of the things I need to work on to make the whole thing work is my offer.


The problem with web design is that it's extremely saturated and everyone does it. Most of the people offering it have similar offers which can be generally categorized as:

a.) feature-oriented offers(like faster website loading or optimizing for mobile devices)

b.) better results/business problem solving-oriented offers(like more qualified leads every month, making more money – basically trying to sell a dream outcome)

You can see such offers all over the place, the latter one not just in web design, so I really don't see a way of „living happily ever after“ if I go down one of those two routes.


So the only way for me to really stand out from the crowd is to create, what Alex Hormozi calls, a Grand Slam offer.

Such an offer should significantly increase prospects' perceived likelihood of achieving their dream outcome while decreasing the time, effort, and hassle they need to put in to get rid of their pain point.

I really want to provide tons of value for my future clients, that should be the main focus of the offer. I know $$$ flowing my way will be just a byproduct of the value a client gets from working with me.


I thought about offering kind of a 3-month program thing where I'd onboard a client, work on their website, SEO, paid ads...to get them some measurable results. I know, I need to work on this, it's still too general, but it might be a way to stand out from those two, above-mentioned, categories.

So what would be the right way to go with creating the offer in my case? How would you go about it?

Offer some things for free or at great discount.

I am guessing that you want to do a killer offer because you don’t have enough customer who can give you enough recurring referrals that you are busy fulfilling.

When you have that kind of a strong client base and referral you don’t need to compete on price or do more while charging less.

Do things for free/great discount until you don’t have to.

 

[Kubera]

I am guessing that you want to do a killer offer because you don’t have enough customer who can give you enough recurring referrals that you are busy fulfilling.

True that. As said I started out recently. But also. I'm thinking of ways to set things up so that I have a recurring revenue. If you just sell websites, that may not be the case.

Can you post up what your cold emails look like?

Sure, thanks for wanting to check it. This is just the initial mail, I send three follow-ups after that.

"Hey <name>

<this is the personalized first line, it changes in every email>Reason for my outreach is what you wrote on your Linkedin profile; "We specialize in helping closely-held businesses and their owners grow their enterprise value." What if you could get the same level of help for your business when it comes to its online presence so that you can get it where you want it to be?

I work with business owners on optimizing their websites according to their business goals and needs. The results you can get - fewer clients lost to competitors, less money left on the table, and more qualified leads coming your way.(I experimented with including some past results I got for clients but it didn't make any difference).

Are you against a quick call on Monday morning, at 10 am, to figure out solutions that would work best for you?"

It seems like you're entirely focused on the offer and have neglected the more important part of the equation: the market.

Like @Andy Black said above - you need to find a starving market that has a strong NEED. No matter how you package up your web design service, it's not going to matter unless you find an audience that actually needs it.

So who is your audience? What do they actually need? What exactly is their dream outcome?

Despite naming his book $100M Offers, Hormozi does say that the market is the most important factor. Perhaps his video on the topic will help you out: Picking Markets

Actually, I have a way to qualify my prospects. The offer is just a part of the whole thing I've been working on in the last week or so. But, definitely, I agree. The offer is useless if there's no one to offer it to.

I like to think of sales as getting the right people to the right offer at the right time.

I’m simple, which is why I like paid search. Done right you can get in front of people searching with their credit card in hand already looking to buy.

If I have to educate people in the value then I figure I’m in front of the wrong people.

Same here, and I think in the same way. I like simple things. What I can do right now is to get (to) the right people(thru cold outreach) the right offer(as you can see I'm working on it) at the right time(when they're "hungry", hence I figured a way to qualify who might be hungry).

 

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[Fox]

So some feedback here - just copying in your cold email first from above:

"Hey <name>

<this is the personalized first line, it changes in every email>

Reason for my outreach is what you wrote on your Linkedin profile; "We specialize in helping closely-held businesses and their owners grow their enterprise value." What if you could get the same level of help for your business when it comes to its online presence so that you can get it where you want it to be?

I work with business owners on optimizing their websites according to their business goals and needs. The results you can get - fewer clients lost to competitors, less money left on the table, and more qualified leads coming your way.(I experimented with including some past results I got for clients but it didn't make any difference).

Are you against a quick call on Monday morning, at 10 am, to figure out solutions that would work best for you?"

---

So I think this email fails for a few reasons:

#1 - Doesn't look natural

"what you wrote on your Linkedin profile" - this can easily be perceived as "this person is just doing this on 100 different profiles." It isn't a good foundation for the reason you reached out to someone.

#2 - Not a clear value proposition

"What if you could get the same level of help for your business when it comes to its online presence so that you can get it where you want it to be?"

This is a massive mouthful. Also, it leverages off the last part, so it requires quite a bit of mental thinking. It is only a few seconds but they do have to think over what exactly you are saying and what it means. And in cold emails you don't want to require much thinking at all - you need to keep it more simple.

#3- Assuming a sale and giving no room for a smaller step forwards

"Are you against a quick call on Monday morning, at 10 am, to figure out solutions that would work best for you?""

This is basically a poker "all in" type approach. And I don't think it is even close to the time to do this.

Maybe this can work with some other emails but with an already so-so cold email, this is just pushing people to say no or not respond at all. You don't have the momentum to try to jump to a fixed call time (which is implying they are already interested).

---

A better start to an email like this might be...

"Hey ____,

I was going to call you directly, but I thought I would send a shorter email first.
I have been working with some similar businesses as yours, and your name has come up a few times.

And then make the rest super relevant to this exact person.

A good rule of thumb with cold emails is if you're moving fast it is likely to fail.
(Slow down and make each one as relevant and personal as possible).

Hope that helps.

 

[Kubera]

So some feedback here - just copying in your cold email first from above:

"Hey <name>

<this is the personalized first line, it changes in every email>

Reason for my outreach is what you wrote on your Linkedin profile; "We specialize in helping closely-held businesses and their owners grow their enterprise value." What if you could get the same level of help for your business when it comes to its online presence so that you can get it where you want it to be?

I work with business owners on optimizing their websites according to their business goals and needs. The results you can get - fewer clients lost to competitors, less money left on the table, and more qualified leads coming your way.(I experimented with including some past results I got for clients but it didn't make any difference).

Are you against a quick call on Monday morning, at 10 am, to figure out solutions that would work best for you?"

---

So I think this email fails for a few reasons:

#1 - Doesn't look natural

"what you wrote on your Linkedin profile" - this can easily be perceived as "this person is just doing this on 100 different profiles." It isn't a good foundation for the reason you reached out to someone.

#2 - Not a clear value proposition

"What if you could get the same level of help for your business when it comes to its online presence so that you can get it where you want it to be?"

This is a massive mouthful. Also, it leverages off the last part, so it requires quite a bit of mental thinking. It is only a few seconds but they do have to think over what exactly you are saying and what it means. And in cold emails you don't want to require much thinking at all - you need to keep it more simple.

#3- Assuming a sale and giving no room for a smaller step forwards

"Are you against a quick call on Monday morning, at 10 am, to figure out solutions that would work best for you?""

This is basically a poker "all in" type approach. And I don't think it is even close to the time to do this.

Maybe this can work with some other emails but with an already so-so cold email, this is just pushing people to say no or not respond at all. You don't have the momentum to try to jump to a fixed call time (which is implying they are already interested).

Thank you @Fox!

---

A better start to an email like this might be...

"Hey ____,

I was going to call you directly, but I thought I would send a shorter email first.
I have been working with some similar businesses as yours, and your name has come up a few times.

And then make the rest super relevant to this exact person.

A good rule of thumb with cold emails is if you're moving fast it is likely to fail.
(Slow down and make each one as relevant and personal as possible).

Hope that helps.

So you wouldn't try to get them on a call in the first email? If so, what would be your CTA, at the end?

 

[Fox]

Thank you @Fox!



So you wouldn't try to get them on a call in the first email? If so, what would be your CTA, at the end?

Na - I first aim for a response.

Without a response (some data), it is really hard to see where you are losing them and why.

So with any new approach to cold emailing, I aim for a reply first.
Then as I start getting results, I know how to adjust the first email to dial it in more.

I'd rather take 3 smaller steps (in this case an email) towards a sale and see on which one I lose people than take 1 big step and have no idea what went wrong.

 

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[Kubera]

Na - I first aim for a response.

Without a response (some data), it is really hard to see where you are losing them and why.

So with any new approach to cold emailing, I aim for a reply first.
Then as I start getting results, I know how to adjust the first email to dial it in more.

I'd rather take 3 smaller steps (in this case an email) towards a sale and see on which one I lose people than take 1 big step and have no idea what went wrong.

Then, basically, you would include your value offer in the first email and close it with something like "is that of any interest to you?" - generally, they say it's a good idea to close the email with a question, which makes sense.

 

[Fox]

Then, basically, you would include your value offer in the first email and close it with something like "is that of any interest to you?" - generally, they say it's a good idea to close the email with a question, which makes sense.

From this thread title, it seems you are mixing up the tactics of an offer and the tactics of a cold email.

A cold email is simply to get a reply - you are focusing more on making contact than actually offering anything.

I never try to take a big leap towards a sale in a cold email:
- it is highly unlikely to work
- even if it did work, I have no idea if we are on the same page (a very risky client relationship)
- also, I am moving too fast (buyer remorse, no time to explore their needs, maybe priced it wrong etc)

So forget the offer stuff no now, just focus on getting a person to want to talk to you.

With that in mind my basic cold email structure is something like this:

- Attention and interest (get them to stop and read it)
- Trust (get them to feel it is real)
- Relevant (get them to feel it was for them specially)
- Value (something that they are interested enough to actually write back)
- CTA (a clear easy step for them to take)

You are asking: and close it with something like "is that of any interest to you?"
So the CTA you are using here is for them to write back with a yes I guess.

This isn't bad but it does mean they have to agree it is interesting when they say yes.
So it forces them to make a decision already (even though it is only a small one it's still a point of possible failure).

I prefer to say something like "so can I send you some more details on this and you can see what you think?"
In this case the yes is easier for them to say yes to - it's only a request to send more details. That's simple and fair.

In short, make it very easy for them to say yes to your first email.
This triggers "consistency" and "commitment" and gives you momentum for the next email (read the Influence book).

 

[Kubera]

Thanx @Fox, I'll try that approach!

 

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[Itizn]

Most web designers pitch the same way:
Behind a screen (email, linkedin, ads)

You want to provide value? Differentiate yourself from what every other person in your position does.

Go in person to the businesses you want to help and talk to someone. Do it enough times and you'll find your rhythym for building contacts, setting meetings, and closing sales.

People buy from people.

 

[Kubera]

Most web designers pitch the same way:
Behind a screen (email, linkedin, ads)

You want to provide value? Differentiate yourself from what every other person in your position does.

Go in person to the businesses you want to help and talk to someone. Do it enough times and you'll find your rhythym for building contacts, setting meetings, and closing sales.

People buy from people.

I wouldn't mind doing that, but I'm living in a village and there are no larger towns anywhere near.

 

[Paul David]

I prefer to say something like "so can I send you some more details on this and you can see what you think?"
In this case the yes is easier for them to say yes to - it's only a request to send more details. That's simple and fair.

In short, make it very easy for them to say yes to your first email.
This triggers "consistency" and "commitment" and gives you momentum for the next email (read the Influence book).

Aren't you running the risk of losing them by not being able to convey enough value on the info you send over?

A lot of data i've been reading recently on cold email says get them on the phone. Although I'm going off topic here I guess.

 

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[Kubera]

Aren't you running the risk of losing them by not being able to convey enough value on the info you send over?

A lot of data i've been reading recently on cold email says get them on the phone. Although I'm going off topic here I guess.

While what @Fox said makes sense, it can be confusing to get different advice from people who, obviously, know what they're talking about.

That email I copy-pasted, I got the idea from Becc Holland. She was the head of sales for a Chorus.ai, runner and trained sales teams in cold emailing and calling. They got some great results using that email copy. However, truth to be told, I didn't. Was it the copy or the lack of qualifying or something else, that's to be tested.

 

[Kubera]

I guess what I'm getting at after thinking more about it is "productizing".

What I mentioned in my original post, "a three-month program" - guess a better word would be a process, which would be sold as a product(if I got the "productization" right)

So the process would be something like, working for three months on their website, SEO, and G ads, to get them measurable results. If I can get them solid results they'd be likely to stay with me, which would create recurring revenue from SEO and ad management. It would also provide some track record to show to future prospects.

On the other hand, with the right processes and enough VAs/employees, this may be scalable enough to create enough money for investing in other things, outside of web design.

I know I'd need to figure out pricing, bonuses, guarantees...but that's the rough idea.

Am I onto something?

 

[Andy Black]

@Kubera ...

"Overthinking is the art of solving problems you don't have."

Your current problem is you're not getting any responses. Like @Fox suggested... get some responses first.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend cold emailing while you're still trying to figure stuff out. Get chatting with people so you can learn quicker.

I have chats with people all the time and often get new clients out of it. I don't have bonuses or guarantees. I don't even think about pricing until after the call.

 

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[Kubera]

@Kubera ...

Your current problem is you're not getting any responses. Like @Fox suggested... get some responses first.

I thought one of the reasons why I'm not getting any responses is that my value offer wasn't good enough. Hence wanted to improve on that, along with other things.

 

[Fox]

An "offer" is the deal - it's what comes at the end.

What makes a deal "amazing"?
- Solves the exact right problems
- Has great benefits
- The right price to get the best results (given their budget etc)
- Takes care of any objections or resistance that might exist

How much of this will you know upfront when you send a cold email?

Very little or none.

So I think it is best to not make offers upfront.
It's better to focus on making contact and getting communication going.

So the goal of my emails isn't to sell - it's to make contact and get a response.

If you aim for this (and not to directly sell) you might see much different results.

 

[DarkZero]

Agreed with the above.

Your emails and all outreach should simply be to make a connection. Creating that relationship is the first step.

There are marketing strategies to amplify the relationship and nurture them to get them over the fence.

You have to also remember that they get hit up by people pushing their services on them immediately. The more you can delay the ask while being in their corner, the greater chance you have of them wanting to hear your offer and see how they can be helped by your services.

 

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[Paul David]

An "offer" is the deal - it's what comes at the end.

What makes a deal "amazing"?
- Solves the exact right problems
- Has great benefits
- The right price to get the best results (given their budget etc)
- Takes care of any objections or resistance that might exist

How much of this will you know upfront when you send a cold email?

Very little or none.

So I think it is best to not make offers upfront.
It's better to focus on making contact and getting communication going.

So the goal of my emails isn't to sell - it's to make contact and get a response.

If you aim for this (and not to directly sell) you might see much different results.

I get what you're saying and a lot of people who specialise in cold email are pushing this approach.

Do you think its ok to mention they can test something for free in first email?

 

[Andy Black]

I get what you're saying and a lot of people who specialise in cold email are pushing this approach.

Do you think its ok to mention they can test something for free in first email?

Bear in mind I don’t do cold emails, but have my opinions as a business person on the receiving end…

Why even offer something in the first email? And why introduce the word “free”?

As a business owner I’m suspicious of free. What’s the catch? Are you no good at this? Will this cost me a load of time?

Your ideal clients are probably willing to pay $ to save time. You offering something “for free” might not be as appealing as you think.


To the people sending cold emails… have you contacted everyone who already knows you? How many people have you physically spoken to 1-2-1 already?

I’m with @Fox … get people to raise their hand and just reply to you. Then build rapport.

Make friends. Build relationships. Create win-wins.

 

[Paul David]

Bear in mind I don’t do cold emails, but have my opinions as a business person on the receiving end…

Why even offer something in the first email? And why introduce the word “free”?

As a business owner I’m suspicious of free. What’s the catch? Are you no good at this? Will this cost me a load of time?

Your ideal clients are probably willing to pay $ to save time. You offering something “for free” might not be as appealing as you think.


To the people sending cold emails… have you contacted everyone who already knows you? How many people have you physically spoken to 1-2-1 already?

I’m with @Fox … get people to raise their hand and just reply to you. Then build rapport.

Make friends. Build relationships. Create win-wins.

Sorry I didn't word it correctly, I meant something along the lines of I've launched a new product and i'm looking for people to test it and give feedback.

However I do understand those objections could be going through their mind.

Is this soft enough?

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[krypticsilver]

I still prefer a starving crowd.

Is that not a similar sort of thing though? If I'm starving and someone is selling food, I'm still gonna feel stupid saying no to that offer.

 

[GuestR401x3]

@Kubera don't give up! Your months spent trying and not reaching anyone will pay off, and soon you will perfect the process.

Are you only using email outreach? As much as it sucks I would recommend you pick up the phone and call or stop by in person. Use email as well as other means of outreach to be successful, and try reaching out at least 8 times to each prospect (Using phone and email) over the course of a few months before giving up.

Also, I would recommend creating scripts for your phone calls and always be trying to improve them.

Wish you the best!