How do I go about building a value ladder?
What is the value ladder?
The value ladder is a range, a suite of offerings of services you provide to your clients.
A value ladder typically looks at the value that you deliver at increasing levels of price and value.
We create a range of products/services that deliver increasing levels of value to our clients.
The word value is critical.
Typically, value is correlated with price. So we look at the price and value on axes as shown in the chart above. We can draw a chart that shows the value and its relationship to price. When you are looking to create a value ladder, you want to look at breadth AND depth. Both of those things are important.
You may have a product right now. You may have a suite of products right now. And in terms of building that out into a value ladder, I'm going to share the exact way you need to do that.
A value ladder has a price axis and a value axis. You use it to map your products out visually. Creating a range of products allows you to grow your business because you're not just focusing on a single item that drives revenue, that drives profit.
You've got a suite of products, a family of products, a portfolio.
It doesn't matter whether you're selling physical products, digital products, services, coaching, consulting, etc. The same principles apply.
There's a principle that I'm going to come back to in a short while called further, faster, deeper. I want you to keep that one in your mind...
Transformation - The Foundation Of Your Value Ladder
The first thing is to start with the transformation. What transformation do you bring to your clients? And what you must do is you must forget you for a moment, step out of the equation, and focus entirely on the difference you make to your ideal client.
What is that transformational change? I call this the prison to paradise transformation.
Somebody comes to you, comes into your world, and they are in prison right now. They are frustrated. They are overwhelmed. They are confused. They lack clarity. They lack confidence. Whatever is around what you do. What is that for you? That's the prison state. That's the state before they've experienced your amazing services. Seek to understand the prison state:
- What does it look like?
- What does it look like?
- What does it sound like?
- What does it feel like?
- What am I thinking in this prison state?
- What am I saying?
- What am I doing?
- What do I believe is right for me?
- What do I think will make a difference?
Then we're able to make a contrast and look at that and focus on the paradise state.
After you've delivered your transformation, what does life look like? What does it sound like? What does it feel like? What do I think now? Now that you've given me confidence, now that you've given me peace of mind, now that I am bursting with excitement for the future?
If I'm in a prison of confusion, what does clarity feel like? If I'm overwhelmed, what does serenity, calmness, lightness feel like to me? How do I describe it?
What words do your clients use to describe the transformation?
Help Your Clients Go Further, Faster, Deeper
Once you understand the transformation, you can focus on the question that we talked about earlier, further, faster, and deeper. And it's to ask the question of your process:
How can I help my clients transform further, transform faster, and go into a more in-depth version of that transformation?
How can I help my clients to go further, faster, deeper with what I do?
That's the question that you need to ask once you understand that transformation. And remember, the bridge between prison to paradise is your process. It's the journey that you take your client on.
At the end of that journey of transformation (using your product or service), they're in paradise. That's how you deliver the state of paradise.
Your Process Creates Value
That's your process, and this isn't always a single product. It's a process, so you may have the ability to deliver that process. In part, you may have the capacity to provide that process in full. You may have the ability to give that transformation process in pieces. And can you see how suddenly what you think as this is my product or this is my service gets splintered, it gets broken up into tiny pieces? You're able to utilize more versions of that same process.
More repeat clients
Can you see that? That's the starting point of building out your value ladder and how you should be thinking when you are thinking in the right way. Think about three key areas. The first one is, how can I get more repeat clients? So the people that you're working with right now, how can we give them more value? How do we encourage repeat business?
How do we encourage referrals and social shares and testimonials?
And how do we keep in touch? You'd be surprised by the number of people I speak with when asked the question, when did you last communicate with your current clients? And they'll just look dumbfounded like, I don't know. When did you last speak to your existing clients? When did you last send an email and say, Hey, I appreciate you, how's it going? Outreach and the process of keeping in contact with your current clients strengthens relationships.
Remember, it's about you really bonding and creating lifelong relationships with your clients so that you can deliver amazing transformations over time.
How can you get more repeat clients? Reach out to people you've worked with before, find out where they're at, chat with them, engage with them, and find out what you can do to help them. And remember, in all of that, it's not about you. So it's not about you going these people and saying, hey, I've got this to sell you, I've got that to sell you. It's not about that at all. It's about your serving. Fully serve and say, hey, what's going on in your world? Exist for them.
And actually listening to the answer. And then thinking about ways that you could help them with where they're at. That's the essence of service. That's the essence of creating a robust, world-changing business.
Increase The Value of Every Sale
The second thing is to look at increasing the value of every single sale. And this is the first thing that we think of with the value ladder. If we sell a product for a thousand dollars, what would we need to do to that product to double it in value to make it 2000 dollars?
And I don't just mean let's put the price up. Remember, this is a value equation. So the price and value of correlated, how can we deliver twice as much value and justify twice the cost?
How could you do that? How could you take your current product and make it go further, faster, deeper? How could you stretch it upwards and charge more? How could you break it down and charge less and break it into blocks or modules or splinters? Here a $1000 average order can go to $2000 or $3000 because we use additional add-ons to take your clients that little bit further.
Suddenly, your average order value goes through the roof, and your average order value explodes. This is how you do more business with the same number of transactions.
There is no need to chase leads and sales. Don't make the mistake of chasing new business when you're already doing work with clients. The real key to growth is strengthening relationships, figure out what you can do to further help your clients, which allows you to build out a value ladder of offerings.
And guess what? You are then more attractive to potential clients at the front end. Your business becomes so much more magnetic because you've got so much more richness in what you offer. It's much easier than to convert new clients. You've also got Raven funds, you've got ambassadors, you've got people that love what you do. You've got people that go out of their way to recommend you. That's the whole point of being in service, of actually realizing your potential and your mission, your purpose.
That's why you're here. Remember, it's to realize your purpose of making an impact of making a difference. And this is how you go about really creating that from a marketing business perspective.
Get New Leads And Attract New Clients
The third and final thing we look at is new business.
But this is where the new business becomes so much easier to get because we are sure about what we do. We are confident in the transformation we deliver. We are sure in the process by which we provide that transformation. So reaching out to brand new people just becomes a case of talking about that transformation, talking about that process, showing people who've been through that transformation and that process. Finding new clients then becomes the third thing on our list and not the first. Here is some additional practical advice when it comes to marketing for coaches.
This is really important when it comes to building out a value ladder because if you're chasing new clients all the time, who's that for, you or the client? And remember, the key to this is putting the client first, genuinely putting the client first. If you are in scarcity where you need this, you need that, how can you serve the client?
I understand. I get it. I've been on my knees with zero money in the bank. I've not been able to pay my bills at times. I've had businesses that imploded and left me destitute. So I get it. I get the need to pay the bills. I understand. And I'm not belittling anybody that's in that situation.
But what I'm saying to you is you need to move your beingness. You need to move your mental state into one of abundance, not one of scarcity. Because if you stay in scarcity and you stay in fear, then you're going to remain in scarcity. You're going to stay in fear if you're able to transmute to change that fear into abundance and service and trying to focus on making a difference. As paradoxical as that may sound, abundance follows.
You have to really focus, get grounded, get centered. For me, that's meditation. It's prayer, it's breathwork. It's exercise, it's nutrition, it's sleep, it's journaling…
It's all of the things that help to ground, center, and connect you with the source to connect you with the highest self. And from that place, you really are acting through your purpose. You're operating from a place of mission, driven to make a difference. You're not driven by ego, by self, by the stuff that prevents you from actually making that difference in the world, and that's the last thing that I want for you.
I want you to go out and make ripples in the world. The value ladder is a critical part of how you do that.
How To Build Out Your Value Ladder - Action Steps
Start with the transformation. What does that look like?
What does the prison state look, sound, and feel like?
What does the paradise state look, sound, and feel like?
And what is your process to get clients from one side to the other? You can then look at how you can help people go further, faster, deeper with what you do?
Can you break your products up into blocks?
Can you add new products?
Think about ways that you can upsell.
You can cross-sell.
You can offer related products or services.
The mechanics of how you tie this stuff together from a marketing perspective, the foundational pieces, the concepts never change.
How can you help that person go further, faster, deeper?
Focus on three areas:
Strengthen relationships with existing clients to encourage repeat business, referrals, build, strengthen relationships.
Then you can look at how can we increase the value of every single sale? Let's say our average sale is usually a thousand dollars; what do we need to do to make that $3000 or $5000?
What value can we add on?
Don't look at the price, look at value, focus on value. Once you've got this incredible ecosystem, this beautiful journey that you take your clients on, this journey of transformation, this remarkable process, that's then when you are ready for new clients.
Make sure you Download the Value Ladder Worksheet to help you map out and build your own Value Ladder.
You will naturally start to attract new clients into your world, focus on these things, create an outstanding value-driven ladder of products and services in your business.
