Creating an Irresistible Offer – EP 127

Are potential clients excited to work with you after presenting them your offer?  In this episode you’ll learn how to create an offer that your client cannot refuse, make it a win for you and a win for the client, and increase your ability to charge a little bit more for your package.

You’ll hear examples of irresistible offers and learn how to use them to keep existing clients happy and continuing to renew their contract.

Here are some things we covered in this episode:

• How irresistible offers tip the scales in your favor and make clients want to work with you
• Eliminate the psychological barriers clients have to overcome to work with you that very first time
• Creating an upsell product in your offer
• Why you should think strategically during the sales call and when packaging your offer
• How to map out your irresistible offer
• Ways to thank ongoing clients for their long service together
• Why you should talk over your offer with another freelancer or your business coach

After listening to this episode, share your action steps and take-aways with our group:

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Read the Transcript:

Hey, it’s that time for another episode of the advanced freelancing podcast, today’s topic is creating an irresistible offer. Now an irresistible offer is exactly what it sounds like. It’s something that is so enticing for your client to want to work with you. That they’re going to have a really hard time passing it up. Now you can use an irresistible offer really at any point during the freelance sales cycle with your client. But there are some times when it performs a little better than in other cases. So an irresistible offer is one of the most meaningful things that you can use when you’re early on in the sales process with a client who doesn’t know, like, or trust you already, there are a lot of psychological barriers they have to overcome to work with you that very first time. And so to tip the scales in your favor, one of the things you can do is present them with an irresistible offer where they have a lot to gain and very little to lose.

This makes them excited about working with you, and it doesn’t lock them into a long term relationship when they’re not yet sure if this is going to be a good fit. Now using this like a sample job or a test job showcases your ability and your communication skills with the client, where it’s a total no brainer for all of your other packages to continue working with you. So one irresistible offer can create another, and that is why these irresistible offers work so well with a client that is maybe on the fence about signing a bigger retainer or signing a huge project. Let me give you an example of an irresistible offer for a content writer. I have used this many times as the sample project or test job with my freelance writing clients, I offer to create a set number of blogs. So there is a clear output or deliverable that they’re going to use, which is something we’ve talked about in our sales process together, me and the client, but then I’m also going to create something like titles for their next two blog posts or a one-month editorial calendar.

(01:54):

Now this works on a couple of different levels. First of all, it’s essentially an upsell product. If I’m just giving them the initial blogs as the key deliverable, that’s something they can take and run with, but I’m including additional material that makes it a big value add for them to sign on with me, but it also gives them the sense of, Hey, if she’s creating an editorial calendar and these other blog materials, we’re going to get what we need. And even if we decide this isn’t the right fit, we have our next couple of weeks of blogging material planned out. So this is a win, win for the client because they know that they, even if they don’t have the best experience with me, for whatever reason, they’re still going to have something, a piece of the project that is valuable for them to use when this is priced the right way and takes a lot of work off of their plate.

(02:40):

It becomes an irresistible offer. They stand to gain a lot and lose very little if they lose because they don’t like my writing style or something like that. They’re still leaving with an editorial calendar or keyword research or photos that they can use in the blogs that they rewrite or some other suggestion, right? You can do a content audit would be another example of something that you could include along with your initial package. This also pushes the price up that you’re charging the client because you’re doing more than just giving them that key set of deliverable product at the end. So you stand to gain a lot here and risk very little on your end because you’re not locked into a long contract with the client. Now, normally I’d recommend once you find a great client to work with, you want to stick with them.

(03:26):

You want to get them on retainer. You want to work with them as frequently as possible, but in these early stages, sometimes clients who’ve presented themselves as great fits really aren’t that great of a fit. Once you have the chance to work together, I’ve seen this with a lot of my six figure coaching clients. They will work with a client that they’re very excited to bring on at the beginning, but then it turns out that that team is really dysfunctional or the client never reviews the work product. And it really slows the freelancer’s workflow down, or there’s a lot of turnover at the company. And so the freelancer never knows who they’re reporting to. Those type of systemic issues can be really frustrating for freelancers. And even if the client is giving you projects that you love and you enjoy creating the deliverables, if those issues are bad enough on the system side, it can make you wish you’d never taken on the project at all.

(04:17):

So the irresistible offer is designed to be a win for you, but also a win for the client because you can walk away and the client can walk away after completing the irresistible offer. And there’s no harm, no foul, right? But having that upsell built into it is going to increase your ability to charge a little bit more and know that even if this doesn’t pan out for the long run, you have been compensated fairly for a valuable project that the client can use at the end, if they decide not to work with you again. So as you can imagine, pricing of your irresistible offer is really important coming in out of the gate and saying, here’s what I can do for $6,000. When the client just talked about a handful of things that wouldn’t really cost that much, that’s not going to go over that well.

(05:02):

So we want to also have this product competitively priced. Now I don’t mean cheaply priced. I don’t mean knock $200 or 15% off of your rate. The real purpose here is to have it competitively priced so that the client sees all of these sort of stacked value things that you’re offering in the product and finds it even harder to back out of working with you because they see the potential of getting a lot out of that process. So this works really well when you’re thinking about how do I get a client who’s on the fence, or who seems really nervous about working with freelancers to tip over the edge and decide to work with me. So when you’re mapping out your irresistible offer, think about complimentary services or deliverables that work really well with what you were going to propose anyways.  Don’t add throw ways to this offer because that’s not going to tip the scales in your favor.

(05:55):

The client has to like, even if the project falls apart, they’re still going to walk away with something valuable that they can use. And so that’s why things that are unrelated to your core service, but complimentary to the core service work really well. So for example, I wouldn’t throw in one free blog post for my client as something that’s part of an irresistible offer. It might convert a handful of people who could be interested in the feeling like they’re getting something for free. That’s a really difficult way to kick off your relationship because you’re leading on price and they’ll always be looking for a discount or getting something for free. Instead, I might include some other elements, like perhaps the copy to share it on social media, how this piece could be repurposed into a Facebook ad and a mini funnel for them that way they feel like they’re getting dual purpose out of the material and I’m not throwing in something for free, right?

(06:50):

I’m charging accordingly, but I’m making sure they’re going to get as much traction as possible out of the one thing that I am creating for them, I’ve seen a lot of website designers do this by adding on something really simple to their initial package. Their initial package includes the timeline and the pricing for them to build one website. But rather than just leaving it at that smart web designers add things like two weeks of email access to me after launch or a wrap up call 10 days after the website is pushed live to ask any remaining questions. And to have me train you on how to update things on your website, that’s a super huge value add because it’s not just about the deliverable. It amplifies the success of the deliverable, but it makes the client feel like they’re getting a whole lot more. Now you’re not going to come out and tell them, Oh, well, I would just do the website for 1500.

(07:40):

And if you add this other package, it’s 1800, we’re going to present the whole package together as one price for them to work with you on this initial project, it really puts their mind at ease and gives them confidence about your ability to complete the project. Ideally, the thing you’re rolling into your irresistible offer as the value add is something that doesn’t cost a lot of money or time for you to implement. So you don’t want to pick, you don’t want to say, well, I’m going to charge a hundred dollars more than I would for my base package. And I’m going to do a full content audit of their website and write up a four page report that isn’t a good use of an upsell because it’s not priced appropriately. So instead you want to think about how can adding this for adjustments to the price in the initial package, be a win for me and be a win for the client.

(08:28):

They’re going to walk away with more tools or ability to interpret it or greater support access, or the ability to communicate with me and ask questions. And those are huge value adds that make it easier for them to use the end deliverable that they want. Now you can get a lot of information about what would be good to include in your irresistible offer by listening to the client on the phone, if there’s concerns that they have, that the last freelancer was really hard to communicate with offer them 24 hour email turnaround service or something like that. That can be part of your initial project for as long as you’re working together on this project. If that, that is their primary concern of how do I communicate with you? Are you going to answer me in a timely manner? That is an upsell that doesn’t cost too much of your time.

(09:12):

So long as you’ve already identified, they’re not going to push your communication boundaries, but it can be very valuable to the client. And it’s super valuable to you because it doesn’t involve too much extra work on your part to set up the parameters and boundaries of what that’s going to look like. And ultimately for a client who is concerned about communication, that’s going to be the perfect value add, which is what makes this offer so irresistible anyways. So here’s the thing about irresistible offers. It’s not that easy to create a templated one, unless you’ve sold tons and tons of them and you know what converts for your clients. So this isn’t going to be as simple as saying, well, here’s this irresistible offer that got one client to sign in five minutes. And so I’m just going to copy and paste and swap out the company’s name in order to do it for a different client.

(09:57):

No, we’re going to think strategically, what was the original project? What would make this be a bigger value add for the client? What would make them excited about signing on the dotted line? What did they say on the sales call that made me go, Hmm, that’s an additional upsell. This client is going to see as a big value add and something that I should include in the proposal now, just because I’ve talked a lot about how this can be used with a brand new client doesn’t mean that you can’t use this. In other stages of the sales process, irresistible offers also work really well to thank ongoing clients for their long service together. I recently had the opportunity when working with a partner to put together a pretty substantial premium package for them to sign for all of the fourth quarter of the year. Now, the package in and of itself was really compelling, but one of the things they’d mentioned on the call was wanting to send one additional email.

(10:50):

And at the time that wouldn’t have really fit in the schedule for the particular product that I was offering. But as I stepped back and realized that this has been a long term client who had recently done me a big favor, it gave me the opportunity to turn an original package that was compelling on its own into an irresistible offer. So after presenting the original package and thinking about this, I came back to the client when it had been a few days that I hadn’t heard from them and said, Hey, I really want to thank you for your continued service and the opportunity to work together. I also named the favor they had recently done for me and said how much I appreciated it, that they had stepped in and helped me with this particular thing. And then I said to thank you for that. I’d like to offer you one email, that’s going to fit in this particular slot.

(11:33):

And I just left it at that. And the client was so excited that I had gone kind of out of my way, a little bit, to provide them with a VIP service. They felt really special. Of course, that’s going to be something they can use because they directly brought it up on the call. And for logistical reasons at the time, I couldn’t include that in the original package, but it really them decide to resign and work with me again. So if you’ve got a client who is kind of on the fence about renewing their contract, or maybe hasn’t always understood the service that you’re offering and needs a little bit of re-education and restrategy, this is a good opportunity to retool the existing packages you presented to them. You’re in a great spot to do this at this point in the relationship with the client, because you know them a lot better.

(12:18):

You’ve heard some of their concerns. You’ve given them reports about performance, or you’ve wrapped up other projects for them where you’ve gotten direct feedback. And that makes it really compelling and easy to turn what was a good package into an irresistible offer because you are personalizing it to the client, perhaps, you know, you threw in as a bonus last quarter, that you were also going to create a lead magnet or a mini funnel for your client. And it ended up performing really well. And they kept saying, wow, I wish we were doing more than one of these a quarter. Your irresistible offer might include two because, you know, from the client that it gets them results that shows the client that you’re listening to them. And you’re concerned about their business, having the best possible success that it can. And being the freelancer who helps take their business to the next level.

(13:04):

So irresistible offers, don’t just have to work in that beginning of the sales process. You can bring them up with clients you haven’t heard from in awhile, right? Maybe someone who looked at a proposal that was a little pricier and they couldn’t imagine fitting that into their schedule or paying for the whole thing. Maybe you pair it down a little bit and position that as a holiday special or a new year special or something you’re doing specifically for clients that you’ve had conversations with before, if it’s a good fit for them, it makes it really irresistible to them. And they’re very tempted to move forward on that project that maybe they tabled the core part of because your original quote was really expensive. So it can’t just be irresistible to you. It has to be important for the client. It has to feel like a big win for them, the pricing on it has to be right.

(13:49):

So when you’re beginning to just test this and think about it, it’s a good idea to think of talking over your offer with another freelancer or your business coach, or even pulling in one of those clients that you’ve been with for a long time, who you know, is going to renew their contract. And you can say, Hey, I’m thinking about testing out an offer. That’s something new. Can I run something quickly by you? Here’s the current package I’ve put together. Does this seem compelling? Does anything seem off about it? This gives you the insight from someone who might be very much like your ideal client that you’d be pitching the irresistible offer to, and you get the chance to hear their input and make tweaks as necessary before it goes out to the intended audience. Now, I would only do this with a trusted partner.

(14:32):

Someone who’s worked with you for a long time, a client that’s maybe an ideal client that has had you on retainer for years and years, that will really make it that much more compelling and much more likely that you’ll get a yes from someone who’s essentially doing you a favor and to thank the client for giving their input, you might create your own irresistible offer for them the next time that they have an opportunity to renew their contract. So what’s your irresistible offer? How are you going to price it? And how are you going to think about it with every new client that you interact with?

As a military spouse, Laura is passionate about serving her community and founded Operation Freelance, a nonprofit organization that teaches veterans and military spouses how to become freelancers and start their own business.