$100M Offers: How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No

by Alex Hormozi

So, then, what does it take to grow? Thankfully, just three simple things: 1) Get more customers 2) Increase their average purchase value 3) Get them to buy more times

It allows you to differentiate yourself from the marketplace. In other words, it allows you to sell your product based on VALUE not on PRICE. Commoditized = Price Driven Purchases (race to the bottom) Differentiated = Value Driven Purchases (sell in a category of one with no comparison. Yes, market matters, which I will expound on in the next chapter) A commodity, as I define it, is a product available from many places. For that reason, it’s prone to purchases based on “price” instead of “value.” If all products are “equal,” then the cheapest one is the most valuable by default. In other words, if a prospect compares your product to another and thinks “these are pretty much the same, I’ll buy the cheaper one,” then they commoditized you. How embarrassing! But really . . . it’s one of the worst experiences a value-driven entrepreneur can have.

It’s an offer you present to the marketplace that cannot be compared to any other product or service available, combining an attractive promotion, an unmatchable value proposition, a premium price, and an unbeatable guarantee with a money model (payment terms) that allows you to get paid to get new customers . . . forever removing the cash constraint on business growth.

Your Grand Slam Offer, however, forces a prospect to stop and think differently to assess the value of your differentiated product. Doing this establishes you as your own category, which means it’s too difficult to compare prices, which means you re-calibrate the prospect’s value-meter.

You are forced to be priced “competitively” to get clients and to stay that way to keep them. If the client sees a cheaper version of the “same thing,” then the value discrepancy will cause them to swap providers. This is a dilemma . . . lose this client, the rest of your clients, and potential clients, or stay “competitive.” Your margins become so thin they vanish.

We want to make an offer that’s so different that you can skip the awkward explanation of why your product is different from everyone else’s (which, if they have to ask, then they are probably too ignorant to understand the explanation) and instead just have the offer do that work for you. That’s the Grand Slam Offer way.

The degree of the pain will be proportional to the price you will be able to charge (more on this in the Value Equation chapter). When they hear the solution to their pain, and inversely, what their life would look like without this pain, they should be drawn to your solution. I have a saying I use to train sales teams “The pain is the pitch.” If you can articulate the pain a prospect is feeling accurately, they will almost always buy what you are offering. A prospect must have a painful problem for us to solve and charge money for our solution.

Pro Tip The point of good writing is for the reader to understand. The point of good persuasion is for the prospect to feel understood.

I make my life easier by looking for easy- to-target markets. Examples of this are avatars that have associations they belong to, mailing lists, social media groups, channels they all watch, etc. If our potential customers are all gathered together somewhere, then we can market to them. If searching them out, however, is like finding needles in a haystack, then it can be very difficult to get your offer in front of any potentially interested eyes.

here’s the simplest illustration of the order of importance between markets, offers, and persuasion skills: Starving Crowd (market) > Offer Strength > Persuasion Skills

You must stick with whatever you pick long enough to have trial and error. You will fail. In fact, you will fail until you succeed. But you will fail far longer if you keep changing who you market to, because you must start over from the beginning each time. So, pick then commit.

‘I solve this type of problem for this specific type of person in this unique counter-intuitive way that reverses their deepest fear.”

If you try one hundred offers, I promise you will succeed. Most people never try anything. Others fail once, then give up. It takes resilience to succeed. Stop personalizing! It’s not about you! If your offer doesn’t work, it doesn’t mean you suck. It means your offer sucks. Big difference. You only suck if you stop trying. So, try again. You’ll never become world class if you stop after a failed attempt.

The reason people buy anything is to get a deal. They believe what they are getting (VALUE) is worth more than what they are giving in exchange for it (PRICE). The moment the value they receive dips below what they are paying, they stop buying from you.

we are not trying to get the most customers. We are trying to make the most money.

the goal is to be so much higher that a consumer thinks to themselves, “This is so much more expensive, there must be something entirely different going on here.” That is how you create a category of one. In this new perceived marketplace, you are a monopoly and can make monopoly profits. That is the point.

But I know this isn’t easy, and it shouldn’t be. Your product must deliver. So many wish to shortcut the real work. Do that and you will fail. In the real world, to have the “gonads” to charge big ticket prices, you must outwork your self doubt. You must be so confident in your delivery, because you have done it so many times, that you know that this person will succeed. Experience is what gives you the conviction to ask for someone’s entire year’s salary as payment. You must believe so deeply in your solution that when you look at yourself in the mirror at night, alone, your conviction remains unshakable.

First and foremost, charge a premium. It will allow you to do things no one else can to make your clients successful. We were able to charge a premium because we provided more value than anyone else in the industry. In a real way, we were charging on a fraction of what our clients made using our system. This is important. Our clients still got a deal. The gap between what they paid (price) and what they got (value) was massive. As a result, the virtuous cycle continued to spin.

Many entrepreneurs believe that charging “too much” is bad. The reality is that, yes, you should never charge more than your product is worth. But you should charge far more for your product and services than it costs to fulfill it. Think up to a hundred times more, not just two or three times more. And if you provide enough value, it should still always be a steal for the prospect. That is the power of value. It unleashes unlimited pricing and profit power to scale your company.

The harder, and more competitive, are the Time Delay and Effort & Sacrifice. The best companies in the world focus all their attention on the bottom side of the equation. Making things immediate, seamless, and effortless. Apple made the iPhone effortless compared to other phones at the time. Amazon made purchases with a single click of a button and made purchases arrive almost immediately (maybe by the time you read this, they’ll be sending drones to our doors within 60 minutes). Netflix made consuming television immediate and effortless. So, the older I get, the more I have shifted my focus to “the hard stuff” — decreasing the bottom side of the equation.

Given this postulate, a prospect would (in theory) purchase something from you, and the moment their credit card was run, it would immediately become their reality. That is infinite value. Imagine clicking the purchase button on a weight loss product and instantly seeing your stomach turn into a six-pack. Or imagine hiring a marketing firm, and as soon as you sign your document, your phone begins ringing with new highly qualified prospects. How valuable would these products/services be? Infinitely valuable. And that’s the point. I don’t know if we entrepreneurs will ever get there, but that is the hypothetical limit we all should strive towards, and why I structured the equation this way.

Perception is reality. It’s not about how much you increase your prospect’s likelihood of success, or decrease the time delay to achievement, or decrease their effort and sacrifice. That in itself is not valuable. Many times, they will have no idea. The Grand Slam Offer only becomes valuable once the prospect perceives the increase in likelihood of achievement, perceives the decrease in time delay, and perceives the decrease in effort and sacrifice. A prime example of this happened in the London tunnel system. The biggest increase in rider satisfaction (aka value) was never from faster trains to decrease wait times. Instead, it was from a simple dotted map that showed them when the next train was coming and how long they had to wait. The dotted map, which only cost a few million dollars, decreased the riders’ perception of time delay and sacrifice (being bored waiting) more than actually making the trains faster (which costs billions of dollars to do). Isn’t that cool? This is how we need to think about our products.

So it’s not about the money, it’s about the status (the perceived increase or decrease in relative standing when compared to others socially or professionally). Talk in terms of things your prospect believes will increase their status, and you will have your prospects drooling.

Then I realized people pay for certainty. They value certainty. I call this “the perceived likelihood of achievement.” In other words, “How likely do I believe it is that I will achieve the result I am looking for if I make this purchase?”

People value this perceived likelihood of achievement. Increasing a prospect’s conviction that your offer will “actually” work for them, will make your offer that much more valuable even though the work remains the same on your end. So to increase value with all offers, we must communicate perceived likelihood of achievement through our messaging, proof, what we choose to include or exclude in our offer, and our guarantees (more on these later).

It’s good to understand both. The thing people buy is the long-term value, aka their “dream outcome.” But the thing that makes them stay long enough to get it is the short- term experience. These are little milestones a prospect sees along the way that shows them they are on the right path. We try and tie as many of these as possible into any service we offer. We want clients to have a big emotional win early (as close as possible to their purchase). This gives them the emotional buy in and the momentum to “see it through” to their ultimate goal.

Always try and incorporate short-term, immediate wins for a client. Be creative. They just need to know they are on the right path and that they made the right decision trusting you and your business.

Next, I wrote down all the things people struggled with and their limiting thoughts around them. When listing out problems, think about what happens immediately before and immediately after someone uses your product/service. What’s the “next” thing they need help with? These are all the problems. Think about it in insane detail. If you do, you will create a more valuable and compelling offer as you’ll continually be answering people’s next problem as it manifests..

Do not get overwhelmed. This is the best news ever. The more problems you think of, the more problems you get to solve.

Practicality drives this practice. If you can’t get demand flowing in, then you have no idea whether what you have is good. I’d rather do more for every customer and have cash flow coming in, then optimize my business but have zero cash flow coming in after (and zero idea about what I need to adjust to better serve my customers).

What should remain are offer items that are 1) low cost, high value and 2) high cost, high value. Example: Let’s say I moved in with someone and did their shopping, exercising, and cooking for them. They would probably believe they would definitely lose weight. But I am not willing to do that for any amount of money short of a gazillion dollars. The next question becomes, is there a lesser version of this experience that I can deliver at scale? Just take one step back at a time until you arrive at something that has a time commitment or cost you are willing to live with (or, obviously, massively increase your price so it becomes worth it for you — i.e., the gazillion dollars to live with someone).

Many of the “one to many” solutions require more up front work. Once created, however, they become valuable assets that create value in perpetuity. It’s worth putting in the time to create these because they will create high margin profit for years to come.

The Final High Value Deliverable Let’s sum this up before we configure our final high value deliverable. Step #1: We figured out our prospective client’s dream outcome. Step #2: We listed out all the obstacles they’re likely to encounter on their way (our opportunities for value). Step #3: We listed all those obstacles as solutions. Step #4: We figured out all the different ways we could deliver those solutions. Step #5a: We trimmed those ways down to only the things that were the highest value and lowest cost to us. All we have to do now is… Step #5b: Put all the bundles together into the ultimate high value deliverable.

The process of enhancing your core offer is designed to do both of these things: increase demand and decrease perceived supply so that you can sell the same products for more money than you otherwise could, and in higher volumes than you otherwise would (over a longer time horizon).

Desire comes from not getting what you want. In fact, I heard this quote that I love from Naval Ravikant: “Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.” It follows, therefore, that we only want things we do not have. As soon as we have them, our desire for them disappears. Therefore, if we seek to increase the demand (or desire), we must decrease or delay satisfying the desires of our prospects. We must sell fewer units than we otherwise can. Let that sit with you for a second.

This is like saying “My agency only will service twenty-five customers total. Period.” Over time you can increase your prices and squeeze the lower performing accounts out and bring in new more profitable accounts, or, you can periodically ‘open slots’ as your capacity allows (always leaving some demand unmet).

Growth Rate Cap - Only accepting X clients per week (on-going) “We only accept 5 new clients per week and we already have the first 3 spots taken. I have 6 more calls this week, so you can take the spot or one of my next calls can and you can wait until we reopen.”

These scarcity tactics work especially well for higher ticket upsells. If you want to create one off workshops, trainings, events, seminars, consulting, etc. These are things that by their nature take time and provide more access. Paring them with clear scarcity or fixed amounts, seats, or spots will rapidly drive up the demand. But always remember to have less spots available than you think you can sell . . . so that when you want to do it again in the future, everyone will remember you sold out . . . fast. This is a compounding strategy that increases in effectiveness over time. One of the few in the marketing arsenal.

Obviously the less frequently you kick off new customers, the more powerful this is. For example, if you only start clients two times a year, people will be very inclined to sign up, especially as the date approaches. Even starting new clients every other week can confer this urgency nudge.

In a digital setting, having actual sign up date countdowns is very useful. But make sure they are real. If they aren’t, you’ll lose credibility and just look like every other wannabe marketer. This is very common with internet businesses that use “launch” models. I personally love having the dates that I am running a promotion through on my landing pages and in my copy. I want it to be visible everywhere. The nice thing is that you can always fire up another ad campaign and a new landing page with new dates and be right as rain. You will see your conversions go through the roof, and it takes maybe five minutes of editing — well worth the time investment. Example: Our New Year Promotion ends Jan 30! Next Month: Our Valentines Lovers Promo Ends Feb 30! Next Month: Our Sexy By Spring Special Ends March 31! Next Month: Our Fools in Love April Promo Ends April 30! The actual promotion may be the same, but naming it something different “by season” gives you a “real” differentiator that gives you a start and a finish. Deadlines drive decisions. By simply having these, you can point to them and let human beings push themselves over the edge so as not to miss out.

You can interchange a pricing promotion, discount, or added bonuses like free install or free onboarding or an extra workshop (valued at $1,000) if they buy now. These are all things you can swap around your core offer to create urgency.

The main point I want you to take away from this is that a single offer is less valuable than the same offer broken into its component parts and stacked as bonuses (see image).

Pro Tip: Add Bonuses Instead of Discounting Whenever Possible on Core Offers Whenever trying to close a deal, never discount the main offer. It teaches your customers that your prices are negotiable (which is terrible). Adding bonuses to increase value to close the deal is far superior to cutting prices. It puts you in a position of strength and goodwill rather than weakness.

When selling one on one, you ask for the sale first, before offering the bonuses. If they say yes, then after they have signed up, you let them know the additional bonuses they’re going to get. This creates a wow experience and reinforces their decision to buy. On the other hand, if the person does not buy after the first ask, then you present a bonus that matches their perceived obstacle, then ask again. Don’t feel weird about asking again. You simply agree with the prospect, add the bonus, and ask if this consolation was “Fair enough.” People have a hard time rejecting reciprocity, so adding a bonus to accommodate, then another, then another, and people will feel almost obligated to buy from

Bonus Bullets That being said, there are a few key things to remember when offering bonuses: Always offer them (you can use the bulleted bundle we came up with at the end of Section III) Give them a special name that has a benefit in the title Tell them: How it relates to their issue What it is How you discovered it, or what you had to do to create it How it will specifically improve their lives or make their experience Faster, easier or less effort/sacrifice (value equation) Provide some proof (this can be a stat, a past client, or personal experience) to prove that this thing is valuable Paint a vivid mental image of what their life will be like assuming they have already used it and are experiencing the benefits Always ascribe a price tag to them and justify it Tools & checklists are better than additional trainings (as the effort & time are lower with the former, so the value is higher. The value equation still reigns supreme). They should each address a specific concern/obstacle in the prospects mind about why they can’t or won’t be successful (bonus should prove their belief incorrect) This can also be what they would logically realize they will need next. You want to solve their next problem before they even encounter it. The value of the bonuses should eclipse the value of the core offer. Psychologically as you continue to add offers, it continues to expand the price to value discrepancy. It also, subconsciously communicates that the core offer must be valuable bec...

You can get other businesses to give you their services and products as a part of your bonuses in exchange for exposure to your clients for free. This is free marketing for them, and high value products for you at no cost. Businesses will do this because you are going to give their business exposure for free to the highest quality prospects, your customers. As long as they are not direct competitors, you can get some brownie points, secure some future referral IOUs, and make your offer more valuable at the same time.

Create checklists, tools, swipe files, scripts, templates, and anything else that would take lots of time and effort to create on one’s own, but is easy to use once created. Anything that you can invest in one time that clearly costs time or money to create but can be given away endless times is a perfect fit for a bonus. Beyond that, make a habit to record every workshop, every webinar, every event, every interview and use them as additional bonuses (as needed to crush a perceived obstacle). Proactively negotiate group discounts and a referral commission with adjacent businesses that solve needs your customer will have as a result of beginning this process with you. What’s the next natural thing they might want? Go to those businesses, get a deal for them they could never get for themselves (because you are negotiating with the purchasing power of all your customers at once, very powerful).

Author Note: The longer you are in business the more of these bonus assets you will have at your disposal. All of these things are valuable. Put them in a vault and keep them in your back pocket to sprinkle into an offer to get the deal closed. Information products work very well here because they have high perceived value, low cost, and zero operational effort besides giving an additional login. Tickets to virtual experiences or events work too. Same goes for a higher level of service that has a fixed cost like giving someone VIP service for a month (which also doubles as a way of upselling them into that level of service to keep them on it . . . more on that in Book II.) What should be a bonus vs part of the core offer if I am the one fulfilling it? Short answer: Wow Factor - in other words - something you wouldn’t want someone to miss. Many times you have so much “stuff” you will be providing your customers (good thing) that valuable nuggets can get lost in the mix. You want to take the most distinct ones that can almost stand on their own and pull those out to highlight them. This is especially true for things that are short in length but high in quality or value. Checklists or infographics can condense a lot of information into a small space. Someone might not feel justified paying lots of money for a product launch map (for example) but as a bonus would be perceived as very valuable.

Warning: While guarantees can be effective sellers, people who buy because of guarantees can become very shitty customers. A person who only buys because of a guarantee is a person who may not be willing to put in the work necessary to see success with your product or service. In a world where you want to reverse risk and get customers the best outcome possible, tying your guarantee to the things they need to do to be successful can help all parties.

To give a guarantee teeth you have to decide what you’ll do if they don’t get the result. Without the “or what” portion of the guarantee, it sounds weak and diluted. Note: This is what most marketers do. Bad Example: We will get you 20 clients guaranteed. Better example: You will get 20 clients in your first 30 days, or we give you your money back + your advertising dollars spent with us. This is a simple, but strong guarantee.