Selling high ticket offers: behind my US$75k launch

Transcript

Today I want to share the behind the scenes of my recent and most successful launch so that you leverage these learnings yourself in launching.  Even if you aren’t planning on launching anything any time soon, a lot of these practices are really applicable to marketing and customer service in any service-based business, to help you sell more at a higher price point, so please do listen along.

Hello and welcome to The Clare Wood Podcast, where myself and incredible guests share about money mindset, financial successes, and how to manage your money in a fun and practical way to create wealth and abundance in both your business and your life. I’m your host, Clare Wood. I’m a business coach and a money mentor. I strongly believe that money has the power to positively change the world. I can’t wait to help you transform your mindset around money, create a love of numbers, and build the business of your dreams so you can live a life of financial freedom, giving, and global impact.

Emotional triggers from talking big money

Whew, I am feeling SO freaking grateful for my latest launch.  I am welling up even now thinking about it.  So I wanted to share ALL the juicy details of this launch with you and also share some of my launch learnings, so that if you launch a digital product- in particular, a high ticket product, you can leverage some of these learnings.  

I should also talk about the elephant in the room here which is talking numbers.  I realise that me sharing specific numbers like this might feel really uncomfortable for some people.  Lean into that and ask yourself WHY.  Perhaps it is triggering because it seems like I am showing off.  Trust me, I am not!  I’m just sharing to show you what IS possible and share the behind the scenes, in case it is helpful to you.  Or maybe because these numbers seem so out of reach for the stage you are at in business right now that it feels really unattainable (trust me- it was not that long ago I felt EXACTLY the same- I remember less than 2 years ago reading about a peer of mine launching at $100k and I thought that would never happen for me!). Or perhaps you are surprised that I’m not doing bigger launches by now in my business.  And that doesn’t bother me at all.  Because it isn’t a race people!  Everyone’s business grows at different stages, and I am also really aware at how quickly businesses can take BIG leaps in growth in a short period of time and I know my business will be experiencing some rapid growth over the next few years.  I do want to take a moment to acknowledge that being a white person of privilege not growing up in poverty I of course have a lot of advantage over many others.

Whatever emotions around talking money are coming up, journal on it.  Why is it triggering you?  And then how can you re-write that story?

The ins and outs of my launch including the financials

Let’s start with what I launched and some of the specifics around the launch numbers.

In November 2020, I launched the second round of the Mind to Money Mastermind.  This Mastermind was created for 6 months as my private coaching kept filling up and I wanted to create a way to serve more people in a fully supported environment where they had not only access to me, but to other successful entrepreneurs to be inspired, to leverage their knowledge and to uplevel.  I’ve shared many times before that I invested in a high level Mastermind myself in 2020 and it was instrumental in the growth I had doubling my sales last year from the prior year and I wanted to share a portal like this with other people to help them to do the same.

The Mastermind is called the Mind to Money Mastermind because it is mostly about mindset.  About working through those limiting beliefs, creating an unshakeable belief that anything is possible, and also sharing the final piece of the puzzle, practical strategies around launching, marketing etc.  This is a high ticket product because the transformations that are possible through this work are literally life changing.

So diving into the launch numbers, I capped the Mastermind group for this round at 10.  The reason is that for this round I wanted it to be an intimate community.  Not a massive group of people that I didn’t know or that felt they could get lost in a crowd.  I wanted everyone to be seen and heard and feel supported.  At this stage I’m not sure if I will increase the prices or the number of people coming in for the next round as I can see there is such a strong demand, but whichever path I go down, for me I always want my Mastermind to feel like a trusted and supported community rather than a course.

So getting back to the numbers, the Mastermind completely filled with all 10 spots taken.  The Mastermind is priced at $997USD + GST a month with the Mastermind running for 6 months.  So 10 x $1096USD x 6 months = $66k USD or $88k Australian dollars as I know a lot of my listeners are Australian. 

In addition to that revenue, I also offered the Masterminders the opportunity to add a 90 minute one-off session with me where they could get a customised plan specific for their business and 7 of the Masterminders chose to take that up.  Another 3 people that undertook a discovery call with me that didn’t proceed with the Mastermind elected to do a one-off session as well, so in total there were 10 x one-off sessions at another $11k USD or $15k Australian dollars.

So adding together the one-off sessions and the regular Mastermind payments that will be received over the next 6 months, there is a total of $77k USD or $101k AUD.

In terms of recurring payments, it’s very unlikely that someone would break .  For a few reasons: 1) I have a really solid contract in place 2) The masterminders have been asked to give me any feedback throughout, if the Mastermind is not meeting their expectations 3) I have a waitlist of people who are ready to jump in if there was some sort of extenuating health issue or something along those lines. There may also be additional revenue if anyone chooses to upgrade to a private coaching package, as I offer additional one-off sessions during the Mastermind.

A few things I want to stop and point out at this time. When someone shares a big launch figure… dive into it a little bit more.  You might hear $77k USD and think I have that money sitting in my bank account, but it’s not like that at all!  This revenue will be received over 6 months, and for that I will be delivering 3 hours of coaching/ training a month and I spend HOURS prepping for our calls.  No joke.  I write meditations, I write notes, and sometimes I pull together presentations.  The Mastermind also get unlimited Voxer or text/ voice messaging access to me.

In addition to that, this is a gross figure. SO out of this amount, I need to pay GST (or goods and services tax that we have here in Australia) which is 10% plus personal income tax. 

Often as well in launches, people invest money into other things to support the launch, for example Facebook ads, a copywriter, a course delivery platform like Kajabi or Kartra, support from a virtual assistant.  This particular launch, I didn’t have huge incremental costs as I had set up most of the foundations last round. So I had a few hours for my VA onboarding everyone and tweaking the sales page, and I also sent all the Masterminders welcome gifts.  So my total costs for this launch were about $1,000 (haven’t checked exactly but that is about right).

So, something to consider when you hear people’s launch numbers – how much PROFIT are they making for this? 

Let me share an example.  The launch of my course million dollar money management, I spent a lot with my VA setting up the product page in Kajabi, I hired a copywriter to write the email sequences, I ran a bunch of Facebook ads.  And the launch revenue itself only JUST covered my costs of launching it.  At the time, I was devastated (my accounting brain was so wrapped up in profit), but now of course I know that I have this amazing course around making and managing money, ALL the tech set up and next launch will be far more profitable.

Remember; sales numbers are sexy, but they are not how much money someone has physically sitting in their bank account!  This is why the principles of money management and understanding profitability are SO important.

Who I targeted for the launch

So let me share a little about who joined the Mastermind and then which marketing methods magnetised them to this Mastermind.

I put a minimum turnover amount on the group of $100k sales per annum, and the reason is I wanted everyone in the community to be at a similar stage- likely at capacity for their service offering, and looking to scale.  I also wanted everyone to know that people in this community were already achieving a high level of success in their business.

Many of the amazing humans that joined the Mastermind are actually already running multi 6 figure businesses which is super exciting.

People that joined are from sectors- health and beauty, copy, branding, law, digital marketing and other service-based offerings.  The reason why this piece of information is important, is that through my marketing, I am super clear about who I serve and I believe this is one thing that many business owners do not do well.  GET SUPER CLEAR ON WHO YOU ARE CREATING YOUR PRODUCT FOR.  Then talk to them!  And don’t be tempted to talk to other markets as it will just be confusing.

 For my high ticket offers- private coaching and the mastermind, I have niched into the space of service-based businesses and specifically those at the 6 and multi 6 figure mark.  So check in now, who EXACTLY are you talking to?  And then talk to them and share content that will magnetise them.  Don’t be afraid to turn the wrong people away.  If you welcome in people who aren’t the right fit, it won’t serve them, it won’t serve you and it won’t serve others in the community.  So for example, I had several people book in discovery calls for this mastermind who weren’t at the 6 figure mark yet who asked if they could join.  I very politely said that it wasn’t a good fit (and pointed them in the direction of my course Million Dollar Money Management that is launching again soon as I know that will help them to scale).  It might be helpful in this process to write a very specific list of who your offering is a good fit for, and who it isn’t a good fit for.

The exact marketing strategies used for the launch

This is the juicy stuff you want to know!  HOW did you do the marketing Clare?  What emails went out, what was the sales page like etc? Don’t worry I’m going to share everything.

Truthfully there wasn’t a whole bunch of strategy behind it.  And my thoughts are… with high ticket, people are usually buying energy if that makes sense, so the sales page, the copy isn’t AS important when selling a course. AND most of the selling or your clients being magnetised to your offer should take place outside of the actual launch period! 

I have not had much growth in my email list or my social following over the past 6 months, so a lot of the sales came from my existing audience.  In fact, I am so proud of how both myself and clients of mine have been able to achieve significant growth without growing the email list, that I created an epic freebie that you should go and grab NOW via link in the shownotes –  9 strategies to grow your sales without growing your email list or paying for Facebook ads. 

I did 8 x posts to my Instagram account specifically mentioning the Mastermind.  If you want to have a look at them, they are on my feedback in October 2020 but to be honest they weren’t that great or strategic and were scattered amongst other posts. Essentially they covered – 2 x teaser posts about what the mastermind is, what it includes and why I created it and that doors were opening soon, a doors open post, who should join the Mastermind, who it is not for, some of the things you might be worried about if you joined (i.e. overcoming objections and fears around investing). I also did 1 x Instagram live where I spoke about the Mastermind, inclusions etc. And I posted to my stories most days about it.

I only sent 2 x emails to my list about it (and I think I mentioned it as a ps on 2 x other emails) – the two emails were a doors are open email and one “Is a Mastermind the right fit for you?”  I knew that the right people would lean into this offering if it was a good fit! 

I also mentioned it I think one or twice I mentioned it on the podcast.

Content ideas for a launch leadup

So what content can you deliver in a leadup to a launch or indeed for selling any high ticket offering?

• Show the transformation clients have experienced

Episode 71 of the podcast I interviewed 2 of the Masterminders from the last round about the changes and transformations that happened in them

Episode 79 I interviewed one of the other Masterminders who tripled her sales from the same time last year

• Serve the crap out of your existing clients

Of the 10 x places in the Mastermind, 2 of them were previous coaching clients and another 1 was a direct referral from a current client of mine.

I have a saying that when you are prioritising things in your business, number 1 is always to look after your existing clients!  My clients will often come back and work with me again, months or even years after we first worked together.  It is so much easier to sell to someone who has worked with you before than someone new.

• Deliver so much value in your free content that people KNOW you will BRING THE GOODS if they are actually paying!

It lights me up to hear of big growth that people have achieved in their business just from listening to the podcast and implementing changes in their business.  If you help people who aren’t even paying you, not only does it feel really great, but it makes people more likely to want to invest with you. You are much more likely to do the work and see big shifts if you are paying for it and doing it in a fully supported way!

• Make sure you are marketing through multiple platforms

I had 18 discovery calls for the 10 x places and I had another I think 8 requests of people that I didn’t proceed to discovery call with because we identified it wasn’t a good fit before a call.  These people found me from multiple sources, the main ones being- this podcast, Instagram, hearing me speak at an event, referrals, previous clients, hearing me on someone else’s podcast just to name a few. 

Something else I also did was have discovery calls in this process as I do for my private coaching as well.  For me discovery calls (or as some people call them, sales calls) are NOT a way to sell to someone.  They are simply a process of finding out if it’s a good fit.  In these calls I ask questions like ‘what are you wanting help with’ and ‘do you have any questions’ and then I’ll share a little about whatever it is I’m offering and see if it’s a good match. 

Having the launch mindset

The last but not least thing I want to share, which truthfully I think was THE most important factor in this launch is mindset.

I LOVED this launch.  Unlike some of my other ones that I had so much pressure on myself, this one was just beautiful and easy and flowy, a couple of last minute emails and social posts. I just had an absolute knowing that this Mastermind would fill easily and effortlessly.  I felt like this knowing and confidence was evident in the way that I showed up.  I showed up from a place of trusting that this offer would connect and without a sense of desperation around the launch. 

In business SO much of it is mindset.  That is why I have lent so much into using the tools around mindset, as I know that actually… what you believe is far more powerful than what you DO.  The strategies I shared above played far less a role in this launch than the mindset played!

The mindset work IS the work.

If you are wanting my support to create a truly abundant mindset, YES I am doing another 6 month round of the Mastermind which will be kicking off in July this year, and there are already a few people on the waitlist.  If you do jump on the waitlist, you’ll also get a bonus as a thank you for getting in early.  You can join that via the link in the shownotes for today episode.

If you can’t wait that long to start doing the work, I am kicking off my Million Dollar Money Management Course again in March so make sure you keep your eye out for that as I share all my best mindset and money management hacks inside this course.

To sum up today if you are wanting to sell high ticket offers with success:

• Your mindset is imperative
• Your marketing should take place primarily before the launch as it is more of a long term game
• Make sure that your clients get big wins- because if they succeed, you will succeed!
• Remember that when it comes to numbers and money, knowing the TRUTH about profitability rather than the big glossy numbers is your secret ingredient in business

Don’t forget to grab what I think is one of the best freebies I have ever created which is, 9 strategies to grow your sales without growing your email list or paying for Facebook ads. The link is in the shownotes for today.

I have shared SO much information freely in this episode, so if you loved it, please share it with your audience. 

Thanks so much for listening. If you love this episode, please share it with your audience and don’t forget to tag me on Instagram at @Clare_Wood_Coach. And also make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. Have an abundant week, and I look forward to talking to you again next week.