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Ready to learn all about value stacks & offer stacks?
Today you are going to learn what a value stack (or offer stack) is and why you need one. So many people are moving their services online right now and I’m hearing from a lot of you that you are frustrated with how much harder it is to sell a service online than it is to sell it in person. And I totally understand selling online is a whole different ball game from selling a service in person and making that transition can be really frustrating.
It’s harder to get people to see the value. It’s harder for people to understand exactly what you do and there’s a natural lack of trust or disconnect when you sell an online service. You lose that in-person face to face component where you’re building a relationship. So what I want to do in this episode is introduce you to the concept of a value stack, which is something I actually learned from Russell Brunson who is an absolute genius at marketing.
What is a Value Stack or Offer Stack?
Basically, you take the big thing you offer and you unpack and break it into smaller pieces and assign values to those pieces so that people can really better see the amount of value that you’re providing for them in that one regular main service.
Let me give you an example to kind of help you understand what this looks like.
Let’s say you that you are a therapist or a counselor and you’ve been doing in-person therapy appointments forever and right now you’re having to switch to doing that online. Basically you’re used to just saying, “Hi, I do therapy for a hundred dollars an hour”.
It isn’t working trying to do that as an online service because what happens is that just immediately commoditizes the service. Instead of being one therapist out of maybe a dozen local therapists people can choose from, now you’re one therapist out of a hundred thousand online therapists. It makes people take your price and go compare it to everyone else’s price.
If it’s just hours for dollars, then there’s nothing really there that makes people see an advantage in hiring you. All they have to focus on is the price unless they’ve received like a really specific recommendation from a friend. So instead of doing a simple dollars for hours offer, what you need to do is a value stack of the offer.
So if I was a therapist right now having to offer everything online, I would sell a package like this:
- 20 minute consultation to make sure we are a good fit.
- Intake questionnaire & assessment.
- Flexible therapy options: Zoom, text, phone, chat.
- My Black Book mental health resource list.
- My eBook “Hard Conversations Made Easy”.
- One 60 minute intake session.
- Four 30 minute follow up sessions.
- Locked-in, discounted follow up session price for one year.
Then, you bundle all those separate pieces up into a package that is $300. So instead of just saying, “hi, I’m a therapist, I charge a hundred dollars an hour”. You say, “Hi, I’m a therapist. This is my $300 beginner therapy package.” Where you’re really outlining what working together is going to look like and feel like instead of just making it so, so simple that they really just have to go compare on price alone.
This can apply to lots of different types of services. It can apply to personal trainers and birth professionals like doulas and childbirth educators. You know, all these people I keep hearing from, they’re like, “well I used to do classes in person and now I’m doing them online, but everyone else is undercutting me. They’re only charging $27 for the class.”
If it’s only just about the class, then that’s going to be really hard to compete. You can’t out-Walmart, Walmart. You can’t undercut a price so low to make it unsustainable. You have to build a value stack around a package and an experience with your business so that it really incentivizes people to see the differentiation between you and someone else who’s just, you know, selling a simple thing for a simple price.
Give them more value, tease out the different parts and things that you can offer. And even if it really is just the same thing but you’ve just broken it out so people can see things more clearly, see what they’re getting more clearly, then you’re more likely to convert and make the sale.
More Value Stack or Offer Stack Examples
Live, Virtual Your Birth, Your Way Childbirth Class value stack:
- Pregnancy Discomfort Busters workshop & cheatsheet (pre-recorded, send right away) value $100
- The Prenatal Companion Email Newsletter (9 month dripped email sequence) value $50
- Free Pregnancy Besties Support Group (on Facebook) value $200
- The Your Birth, Your Way Goodie Bag mailed to you (all the fun things they will need for class) value $50
- The Your Birth, Your Way Guidebook (PDF handouts) value $100
- Six Week, Live, Your Birth, Your Way Workshop value $400
- Monthly Pickles & Ice Cream Virtual Meetup (live in Facebook group & on Zoom) value $600
- The Pregnancy, Birth & Postpartum Blackbook of Resources (this is your resources list) value $100
- The Breastfeeding Secrets Masterclass (pre-recorded, in the FB group) value $200
- The Postpartum Pelvic Floor Rehab Challenge (pre-recorded, in the FB group) value $200
TOTAL VALUE: $2000
YOUR PRICE ONLY: $297
Personal trainer value stack:
- 30 minute Zoom consultation to evaluate your goals and discuss expectations
- 4 week fully custom workout plan designed around the equipment you have at home
- Personalized macro plan to help you keep your nutrition on point
- “Perfect Form” video library that shows you exactly how to perform each exercise safely
- Unlimited email & text support
- Weekly check in to make sure you are on track
- 30 minute Power Dinners & 10 minute Rapid Breakfasts cookbook
- Craving Buster Snack & Dessert cookbook
- 30 minute Zoom session at the end of 1 month to evaluation your progress
- Locked-in, follow up consultation rate, good for 1 year if you need additional support
PACKAGE PRICE ONLY: $500
I would love to see your value stack. So if you redo your packages or your pricing in any way, slide on in to my DMs on Instagram and show me what you got because I want to hear all about what is going on in your business.
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Some Frequently Asked Questions About Offer Stacks or Value Stacks
What is the difference between a value stack and an offer stack?
Those terms are use interchangeably. However a value stack is sometimes used to lay out what’s included in a service while an offer stack is usually used to lay out what’s included in a product (like a digital course). You will usually see offer stacks used in webinars along with product mockups or box shots.
Do you have to assign values to each part of the value stack or offer stack?
No it’s not required. Some people prefer to assign an MSRP or retail value of each part of the stack. Typically they will add up those individual values to equal the “full value” of the offer and then compare it to the lower price of the product or service. This is most effective if the individual pieces are sold separately but that is not usually the case.
How are offer stacks or value stacks used in webinars?
Typically if a digital product is being sold via a webinar the offer stack will be presented repeatedly in slides. Each piece of the offer will be presented one at a time and then added to the stack. At the end of the offer presentation there will be a slide that shows all the parts of the stack and then the price will be shown.
Is an offer stack or value stack the same thing as a box shot or product mockup?
No, but they are usually used together. Typically you’ll outline the offer stack and then include an image that shows all the pieces included in the offer.