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The Truth About Pricing - Supporting Materials

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Pricing Mastery Checklist

Throughout The Truth About Pricing, there are quite a few tasks, steps, activities, and prompts to help you on your journey to pricing mastery. This checklist will allow you to follow along throughout the book and complete each section. This document is set up so you can use it yourself locally (by setting up a free account with Coda) and not have it impact the full template. Feel free to check boxes, write throughout, and use it however you need!
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Prefer a PDF? Download it here.
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PART I: SETTING THE STAGE

Chapter 2: How To Use This Book

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Connect, Share and Get Your Freebies:

Here are some options to stay connected (no pressure!) We would love to hear from you.
Tag and follow @thebrainybiz on Instagram, X/Twitter, Facebook
Tag and follow “Melina Palmer” and “The Brainy Business” on LinkedIn
Follow #TruthAboutPricing
Use #TruthAboutPricing to share insights, success stories, and anything else that has you inspired!
Follow #PricingQuestion on your favorite social channels
Use #PricingQuestion to ask Melina questions on social media and see what others are asking (and her previous answers)

Chapter 3: Pricing, Placement, and Psychology

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Consider (and remove) distractions

What might get in your way and disrupt your flow?
How might you create a ritual to get you into (and out of) “work mode”?

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Choose your note-taking method.

How will you take notes?
If physical, where do you keep the notebook handy?
If electronic, where is it? What is the name of the file?

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Become a curious questioner.

Where will you save your insights? You want to make it easy to find and scan through later. List out how you will save each type of insight:
Emails:
Photos (I take lots of pictures and screenshots while traveling and need a good system to be able to get them easily later):
Screenshots (if you have multiple sources — desktop, iPad, phone — have a plan for each):
Thoughts:
Other

PART II: BUILDING A FOUNDATION

Chapter 4: You

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Choose your business type.

Is your business one of
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Quality or
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Value
Why?
Why not the other?
If you aren’t sure yet, when will you revisit and decide?
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Reframe limiting beliefs.

Day 1: Spend at least 30 minutes writing all your preconceived notions and beliefs about pricing.
Day 2a: Review your list. Spend at least 15 minutes adding to it.
Day 2b: Reframe each item as a question to ask or statement to help you realize this isn’t necessarily true, using the table below.
Known Truth
Reframe It
Proof It's Wrong
1
No one would ever pay more than $XX for this
“What would make people value this so much that the price didn’t matter?”
Supreme Pyrex measuring cup, brick, etc.
2
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3
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4
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There are no rows in this table
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Chapter 5: The Customer

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Understand your ideal customer.

Ask lots of questions (What magazines do they read? Where do they hang out? What brands do they love? If they were a car, what make and model would they be and why?) For more examples, see chapter 5.

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Understand the experience.

When you consider your product/service/offering — where does this fall in the overall experience the customer is undertaking? HINT: don’t just think about what they do with YOU, because their experience is much bigger than that.
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Plot the points on the Nudgeability Quadrant (as a reminder, it looks like this:)
NOTE: remember these are micro-moments, so you want to break them down to their smallest components.
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Image 4_Nudgeability Quadrant.png
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Stay on their radar.

How might you connect with your customers before and between purchases?

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Find stories and ask for testimonials.

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List at least five customers you can reach out to:




Are there staff you should reach out to first?
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Yes
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No
If yes, who?
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Create a template (keep it simple!) asking for a story and/or testimonial.
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Send those initial requests!
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Where will you keep the feedback when you get it?
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Schedule how often you will ask for stories and testimonials.

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Stay curious.

Schedule out time for your team to add to the insights about your customer and ask more questions. This could be weekly (asking 5-10 new questions) or daily (1-2 new questions).
Where will you store the insights?
HINT: be sure to include the name of who added the insight and notes for WHY they put that there and what they mean by it.
BONUS TIP: Consider using video tools or voice notes to make it easy for people to share their thoughts more organically and not worry about writing it out. You will also get the added benefit of vocal inflection, gestures, etc. You can link to those in your spreadsheet.

Chapter 6: The Market

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Identify customer habits.

Revisit the Nudgeability Quadrant and list of micro-moments. Add in the habits and brain chemicals that might be important, as well as the cues that might trigger their behavior.
Habit and Chemicals
Contextual Cues
Why It Matters To Us
Where We Might Fit In
1
Daily chai tea latte (dopamine)
Drive by starbucks each day
A lot of people say they don’t ahve enough money to pay for a nutritionist, this is a good place to cut calories and expenses.
Once they are in the line it is too late (not very nudgeable) so we need to message before and/or after. Maybe a radio ad or some geofenced ads near the Starbucks?
2
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3
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There are no rows in this table
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Identify the competition and potential partners.

Evaluate your top five moments from the previous tasks and consider who the competition is at those points. List at least five competitors for each moment — no more than two can be direct (obvious) competitors.
Business Name
Status
Website
Pricing Model
Notes
1
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Open
2
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Open
3
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Open
There are no rows in this table
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Where will you keep this list?
What is the name of the document?
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Schedule a time review and update it.
Who is responsible for that task?
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Identify timelines and milestones.

Remember the fresh start effect — what moments matter? Age? Birthday? Time of year? Special events? Payday?
What is the name of the document and where is it saved?
Who is responsible for keeping it updated?
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When will you review and update it?
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Chapter 7: The Company

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Complete the “mug” game.

Brand
First Word That Comes To Mind
Price of Their Mug
What Makes Their Mug Unique?
1
Costco
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2
Disney
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3
Louis Vuitton
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4
Walmart
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5
Apple
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6
Netflix
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7
Tesla
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There are no rows in this table
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Reconfirm your brand type.

Which are you?
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Quality or
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Value
Why?

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Consider your model.

Which are you?
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Membership
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Subscription
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Buy when you need it
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Mix
Explain:

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Consider your discount plan.

Do you offer discounts?
Why or why not?
If you said yes, what if you didn’t?
What types of discounts do you offer? Why?
What ones will you not do? Why?
How long will they run?
When will they end?

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Consider a satisfaction guarantee.

If you were to offer a satisfaction guarantee, what might that look like?
How could you make one work?
Where can you showcase it to help your potential customers feel good about buying?
Will you offer a satisfaction guarantee?
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What are the important parameters?

Chapter 8: The Offer

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Consider your options.

What do you want to be known for?
What is the pain point this product or service is going to alleviate for the customer?
If would will only get one thing from you, what should it be?
Complete the meeting with your stakeholders outlined in this chapter.
What is your agreed upon focus area from that meeting?
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When will you follow up?
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Who is responsible?
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Any important notes:

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Choose your focus.

What is your best offer?
Why is this your most important thing?
What would be most likely to distract you?
How will you keep yourself from getting distracted?
Who will hold you accountable?

Chapter 9: The Numbers

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What do you really need?

Answer the questions based on the type of business you are. There is an in depth explanation of each in the chapter if you need it.
SERVICE-BASED BUSINESSES
How much money does your business need to make this year?
How much would ideally come from the offer you are focused on now?
Ideally, how many hours would you work per day or week?
How many clients can you realistically work with in a day/week/month and do your job well?
How many clients would you have per year if your schedule was filled to your maximum desired capacity?
Divide the revenue you need to generate next year by the number of clients—how does that compare to what you are currently charging (or were planning to charge, if this is a new venture)?
How many new clients are you looking to add per month (or over the year) to hit your numbers?
PRODUCT-BASED BUSINESSES
How much money does your business need to make this year?
How much would ideally come from the offer you are focused on now?
Ideally, how many hours would you work per day or week?
What is the realistic quantity of products you can create or package daily, weekly, or monthly without compromising your well-being?
How many units can you sell per year?
Divide the number you need to make next year by the number of units you can sell—how does that compare to what you are currently charging (or are planning to charge, if this is a new venture)?
How many monthly (or annual) sales do you need to hit your goals?

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Look forward and backward.

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Step 1: Take at least 15 minutes to consider what you want your business to look like 5 years from now. Really take the time to imagine...if everything is flourishing and you are living the dream—what is that like? How many customers or clients do you have? Where are you selling? What are your days like? Do you have a team, are you a solo operation, or are you using contractors? How much free time do you have, and what are you using it to do?
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Step 2: Are these responses you gave in the questions above leading you to where you want to be five or ten years from now? If not, what needs to change?
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Step 3: Reflect on everything you have done up to this point. Now that you have looked at the numbers you plan to charge, does your pricing align with the customer you are targeting and what they value? Or with how you plan to brand your company? If anything is off, take the time to revisit whatever areas need to be tweaked to fit your goals. It could be any (or all) of the sections. Ideally, you have learned some things along the way that can inform some of the decisions you made earlier in the process. Take some time now to see where adjustments should be made so you feel really good about how everything is aligned before you proceed.

PART 3: APPLYING IT

Chapter 10: The Framework

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Choose your priming words and image inspiration.

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Review the full list of priming words in the chapter. List your top 10 words:









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Search each online (what images come up? use them as hashtags, do you like what you see? check the thesaurus for related words that you might like better)
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Select your top 3 priming words and an image for each.
Word
Explain the Image
Link To Image
Notes
1
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Open
2
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Open
3
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Open
There are no rows in this table
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Choose up to three social proof tactics.

Seven main categories: Customers, Experts, Celebrities/Influencers, Masses (Wisdom of the Crowd), Friends/Personal Connections (Wisdom of your Friends), Certifications, Earned Media
MY RECOMMENDATIONS BY BUSINESS TYPE:
Value Businesses: masses, customers, friends and personal connections, earned media.
Quality Business (LUXURY): celebrities and influencers, friends and personal connections, earned media
Quality Business (KNOWLEDGE, EXPERTISE, SUSTAINABILITY, CSR, R&D, INNOVATION, ETC): experts, certifications, friends and personal connections, earned media.
What types of social proof will you use, and how will you leverage each?
Type of Social Proof
What Could You Do?
Where?
Notes
1
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Open
2
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Open
3
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Open
There are no rows in this table
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Get them talking.

Use the peak-end rule to evaluate your experience.
What are your negative peaks? How can you remove/reduce them?
What are your positive peaks? How can you boost them up?
How can you incorporate surprise and delight?
What is your true end? How can you make it just a little better?
TIP: Revisit your notes from Chapter 5 (Asking for stories and testimonials). Use the template you drafted then to ask for testimonials once you have the experience optimized (at least remove the negative peaks first, as explained in the book).

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Get the brain to take ownership.

Quality brands — how can you be part of their identity? Look for ways to be part of someone’s “I am...” statement.
Value brands — how can you create FOMO?
Do you have any times where you are overpromising and underdelivering? How can you clean those up and look to flip from the rage of loss aversion to the benefit of surprise and delight?
How does loss aversion come into play with any items you may be discontinuing?

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Find ways to give generously.

How can you incorporate reciprocity into your brand? Make a list with at least 27 items (get creative! use inspiration from the book).

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Find and incorporate your scarcity.

Four types: time (“today only,” “flash sale,” and special coupons), demand (“sold out”), supply (limited quantities, small batch production, high-quality items that are sustainably sourced), and/or limited editions (holiday prints, nostalgic colors).
MY RECOMMENDATIONS BY BUSINESS TYPE:
Value Brands: time, demand, limited editions
Quality Brands: supply, demand, limited editions
Type of Scarcity
What Could You Do?
Where?
When?
Notes
1
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​
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Open
2
​
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​
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Open
3
​
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Open
There are no rows in this table
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Say it another way.

Find a way to try out each of these reframes for your best offer. Even if you don’t end up using them, it is good to practice and see how it could work.
Make it a gift:
Find the rhyme:
Say it simply:
Be precise:
Replace if with when:
Shift from anyone to everyone:
Use “you”:
End on a question:
Other:
TEST SOME REFRAMES!
Pick one thing at a time and keep those tests small. For example, change the subject line and leave the rest of the email the same or change the color of a button and leave everything else the same.
What will your first test be?
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Where will you record your results?
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When?
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How long will the test run?
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What is the goal?
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Chapter 11: The Choice

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Create your nudges.

Use the nudgeability quadrant and other tasks from Part II.
Zoom in and out on the highest priority nudgeable moment (which you selected in the “offer” chapter).
Determine the behavior you want from this moment and where/how the customer might err if not nudged.
Create your nudge for this moment.
Repeat steps 4-7 until all your important nudgeable moments are optimized.
Micro-Moment
Nudgeability
Desired Behavior
Potential Error
Nudge
1
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2
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3
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There are no rows in this table
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Build the choice before the choice.

What is the consistent communication you will send that will encourage your customers to engage with your brand on a regular basis (lead magnet, newsletter, text, etc.)?
How often will/do you send it?
How is it creating consistent, tiny moments of “yes” (self herding) to get them in the habit of saying yes to you?
Where do you maintain your list (needs to be outside of social media)?

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Create a wingman.

What makes your best offer the best?
List its features and benefits:

Compare those with the values of your customer (HINT — don’t forget what type of business you are!)
What are the most important crossover points between what the customer values and what you listed in the features/benefits? Use these to outline the wingman product or service (remember, it’s main purpose is to make the best offer look good, but it should be something you would be delighted if someone did buy).

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Set your anchors.

What price are you thinking of charging for your best offer?
What is your high anchor (It is often the wingman, but doesn’t have to be)?
What price feels like a good high anchor?
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Practice talking about it (your pitch) and write it out.
Are you feeling nudged toward the best offer?
How might you adjust the numbers to help accomplish that?
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Consider including a bundle — how might that work? Remember, you don’t need to discount.
Value brands: Is your full price the anchor when running a sale?
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Yes
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No
Are your font sizes on price tags working for you?
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Yes
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No
Why or why not?
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Is the experience lined up on a website, etc. to showcase the high anchor first?

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Choose one unrelated item.

Not everyone will need one, but it is a good idea to at least consider it and see how it might work for you. Do some mock pitches with and without it to see what is really compelling to someone who isn’t as close to the business.
If you did have an unrelated third item, what would it be? How is it different?
What might its price be?
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Is it your high anchor?
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Yes
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No

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I know my best offer, its wingman, the unrelated item, how we will use the high anchor, and the prices for each.

Our best offer:
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It’s price:
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Our wingman:
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It’s price:
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High Anchor?
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Our unrelated item:
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It’s price:
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High Anchor?
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Planning to use the unrelated item?
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Why or why not?
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Chapter 12: The Placement

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Put it in a chart.

In general, the high anchor should be on the right.
Is your “best offer” really clear? How can you leverage social proof or other callouts (colors, etc) to draw attention to it?
Do you have punctuation overload? Consider removing decimal points and commas to reduce the pain of paying and help the number feel smaller (even if you round up).
Check out how the numbers look next to each other — are you nudging toward the best offer or should you make some tweaks?
Remember the example from the book:
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Screenshot 2024-01-10 at 7.27.48 PM.png
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Decide if you will list your prices on your website.

Remember, you aren’t required to do anything. However, whatever you feel like you “have” to do (for whatever reason) I highly recommend you consider what it would be like if you did the opposite. How could it be great? How could it be a great value to your customers? How would you make it amazing? Write out your thoughts here:
Will you list your prices on the website?
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Write it out.

Revisit your priming words. Definitely use them with the best offer — adjectives and descriptive words are your friend! Really pull the reader in to make it clear this is the best offer.
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Explain the best offer (75-100 words):
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Explain the wingman (50 words):
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Explain the unrelated item (50 words):
REMEMBER: Your high anchor needs to come FIRST, and you want to be sure the language ties together well for the potential buyer. (i.e., they don’t need to be listed in the order above and you will likely need some sort of introductory text and a way to close out the message, which reminds me...)
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What is your call to action? Write it here:

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Say more with less.

In the last task, you wrote out your best offer’s description in 75-100 words. Now, you are going to gradually step your way down and write it in less and less words to see how the most important points emerge.
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Write the description in 45-50 words:
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Write it in 23-28 words:
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Write it in 10-12 words:
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Write it in 3-5 words:
Once you have completed the exercise, review your original description of 75-100 words. Is it as clear as it should be? Could it be more compelling?
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Optimize your 75-100 word description for the best offer:

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Create a script.

Sometimes, you need to say your pitch out loud. That could be over the phone, in a meeting, at a networking event, or even a video on your website or social channels or in an advertisement. Keep in mind everything you’ve done so far and write out your script:

Here are some samples and templates if they help.
SERVICES EXAMPLE SCRIPT:
“There are two main ways people work with me, and it really depends on your preference and personal style. First is in person, where we sit down for a full day and work through all the options together. That is $5,000 for the day plus travel. Other clients choose to do a series of Virtual Strategy Sessions, which are $500 dollars each. Based on our conversation, I have outlined eight to ten items right off the bat that we could work on during those sessions, so I would recommend a package for you if you go that route. Most people opt to precommit to a bundle of sessions up front because they are discounted by as much as 20 percent each. What sounds like the best option for you?”
SERVICES EXAMPLE TEMPLATE:
There are
​
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main ways people work with me. First, is
​
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. That is $
​
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. Other clients choose to
​
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, which is $
​
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. Based on our conversation [make a recommendation and make it clear they will get value from working with you], most people
​
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. Which of these sounds like the best option for you?
PRODUCT EXAMPLE SCRIPT:
“We have two swing set models available. First is the Ultra Deluxe. It has a super- fast slide, a rock wall, and two swings, which you can customize with your kids’ names and favorite colors. It is $8,000. Second is the Fantastic Fun, which also has two swings and a fast slide, but instead of a rock wall, it has a playhouse. It comes in three different colors and is our most popular model at only $5,999—and we have payment plans for as little as $99 per month. Which sounds like the best fit for your family fun?”
PRODUCT EXAMPLE TEMPLATE:
There are
​
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options available. First, is
​
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which features
​
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. That is $
​
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. Other clients choose to
​
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, which includes
​
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and is only $
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and [if applicable] we have payment plans for as little as
​
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. Which of these sounds like the best option for you?
REMEMBER: If you don’t like any of these, or they aren’t a fit for you for any reason, they are not a perfect fit for anyone. The goal is that you can see the concepts laced throughout and can use them as inspiration to set up scripts for you and your team.

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Decide if you will offer payment plans.

Remember, you are never required to do anything, so you don’t have to. But, if you do, be sure you know why you are doing them. How are they valuable for your business and for your customers?
Will you offer payment plans?
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If so, what are the terms?
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