In making your offer, you have to make them want what you have so much more than the money they have to pay you to get it, that they will quickly do what you ask them to do in order to “seal the deal” and buy from you. Simple as that.

In the 25-question Client Questionnaire I gave you in Lesson 1, your answers to questions #2, 4, 5, 22 and 24 will give you some of the raw material you need to create your offer.
But, before we do that, think about, and then answer these two questions:

1) What’s the biggest promise you can make, that you KNOW you can fulfill?

2) What’s the MOST you can offer for the price you are asking, without hurting yourself?

It’s vital that you answer these two questions because, as a seller:

1. You might try to get away with making a smaller promise than you could. Maybe you’re afraid, and you want to play it safe. Or maybe you are giving in to your greed, and trying to get more than you deserve in the deal.

2. You might be trying to get as much as you can from the buyer, while holding back what you could be giving in return. You’re not really “going the extra mile.” If so, don’t worry. You’re just being human. (We are amusing creatures, aren’t we?)

Now that you know that about yourself, also please realize that if you act on these impulses, you will lose sales and profits!

So get over it, OK? Here’s how:

1) Make the biggest promise you can, that you KNOW you can fulfill

2) Give as much as you can for the price you are asking, without hurting yourself. In other words, give until just before you say “Ouch – I’ll LOSE money if I do that!”

There are exceptions to number #2 above—for example, “loss leaders.” These are offers you make to “buy business”, in which you intentionally take a loss on the front end in order to get a customer that will make you profits on the back end.

For example, record and book clubs give you tons of product for peanuts when you join. They happily lose money on the first order, because they know they will make money from your back-end purchases. Another example is giving away something for FREE in order to introduce yourself to a prospect.

If that’s true of you, fine. Create your offer accordingly. But most business people I know would like to make money on the front-end, back-end, in-between and forever. You can too! But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Let’s back up a bit.

Here are the 4 key components of the offer:

Product & Bonuses
Price
Terms
Guarantee

Each of these four key components have many elements that you must test in order to find the most profitable offer for your product or service.

Now lets’ look at each key component in turn, and I’ll give you some suggestions you can test to jump-start your thinking.

PRODUCT & BONUSES:

1. Basic Product or Service
2. FREE gift – for inquiring, trial order, or basic purchase
3. FREE bonus – multiple bonuses for basic order
4. FREE bonus – more bonuses based on size of order
5. Surprise FREE bonus for bigger purchase

PRICE:

1. Discount introductory offer
2. Discount for paying cash
3. Refund or rebate after trial
4. Early-bird discount – price goes up the longer they wait
5. Quantity discount

TERMS:

1. Cash or charge in advance
2. Bill-me later
3. Charge my card in 30 days unless return for refund
4. Cash, check, credit card, barter
5. Time limit – this entire offer expires within 10 days
6. Time limit for bonuses – order within ten days and get this extra free bonus

GUARANTEE

1. Promise refund for any reason at any time
2. Unlimited, unconditional lifetime guarantee
3. Time limit for refund – 30-day, 6-month, one-year, lifetime
4. Keep the bonuses just for trying even if you request refund
5. Double or triple your money-back if not satisfied
6. Performance guarantee – money back if you don’t make at least $____ within one year using our system

Now create your “Offer Architecture.” This means you make a series of offers that create a relationship with the prospect, then build the relationship through making a series of offers to upgrade them to a long-term buyer of your product/service.
Here’s an example of Offer Architecture you might want to emulate:
1. FREE offer
2. Introductory offer for your “flagship” product
3. Up-sell to your next back-end product
4. Offer your complete product line, catalog, etc.
5. Offer back-end support services such as consulting
6. Create joint ventures so that you offer the products/services of other companies who serve the same market you do.
7. Create joint ventures/affiliate programs whereby you offer your products/services to other companies’ customers in order to expand your customer base even further.
Orchestrate your Offer Architecture so that it proceeds in a series of logical steps as outlined above. In doing this, you are creating a money machine in the form of a customer base you continually make offers to throughout their lifetime.
As a baseline goal, you may want to create 10,000 prospects/buyers in your database. For example, you have 10,000 people who responded to your FREE offer; 3,000 bought your basic product; 2,000 bought your up-sell; and 1,000 buy your various back-end offers, including joint venture offers.
Do the math for your business. You may find, that if you get 10,000 prospects, and orchestrate your Offer Architecture properly, you are well on your way to creating a fortune. Hooray!

Remember the marketing biggie, “the money is in the list”? A joint venture is another way that you can make “truck loads” of money from your list. If you have built a list of people who love to garden (for example), and you come across a company that is totally awesome and sells gardening gloves, you could contact that company and offer them a “JV”, or joint venture.

You could tell them that you have a highly targeted list of members that have all opted in to your newsletter about mobile phone topics, and they would love these gloves! You could tell the glove company that you will write an endorsement for their product and email it to your whole list, IF they give you a percentage of the sales you generate. IF they agree, you write an email, click “send”. Your list members appreciate you looking out for their interests and recommending a great product, and they buy it! You then collect your money. The money REALLY is in the list!

This arrangement is called a joint venture, and it can help you make money from your list, OR you could pay someone else a % of your sales to offer THEIR list your product. Working together with people doing Joint ventures is an excellent way to leverage the lists of other people to generate HUGE income for you.

You guys have non-competing products, and both yours and his lists are likely to be interested in both of the items. You get to leverage HIS lists to make some money, and HE gets to leverage YOURS! You both make money by working together, in a JOINT VENTURE. Remember this concept when working online and you WILL be able to MAXIMIZE your marketing efforts and your income!