On this episode Russell talks about the second step of the funnel hacker onboarding process, the value ladder. Here are some cool things to look for in this episode.
So listen here to find out how to get customers to ascend the value ladder so you can get more of what you want out of your customers.
---Transcript---
What’s up everybody, this is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to video number two here in our Funnel Hacker Onboarding series inside the Marketing Secrets podcast. I hope you guys enjoyed yesterday’s podcast talking about why funnels, why they’re important. Today we’re talking about the value ladder.
Alright so with that, before I show you the video, a lot of times when people think about value ladders, because I think the way I explained it in the Dotcom Secrets book, I talk about going from funnel one to funnel two, to funnel three which is true, but for most people, they spend so much time mapping out the value of, “this is where I’m going to go in the next 20 years. Eventually I’m going to do high end coaching and then I’m going to coach the president of the United States. Then I’m going to become the president of the United States….” They’re going so deep in this huge value ladder, which is good so you understand where you’re going, but it comes down to the micro. What’s the value ladder here, when someone hits my landing page? What’s the value of getting them here, when they opt in, what’s the value?
So that’s what this training is about. It’s kind of micro level of value ladders and how they kind of work together. So let’s watch that clip right now, I hope you guys enjoy it. We’ll see you on the next episode:
Alright welcome back. In the last video we talked about what is a funnel. By the way if you haven’t had a chance to read the Dotcom Secrets book, I would recommend it because this what we go deep into. What is a funnel? The whole concept of whoever spends the most money to acquire a customer wins, is all talked about in here. We talk about funnel structures and it’s a really good book to help you understand the strategy behind funnels if you don’t have it yet. So click on the button down below, there’ll be a page where you can go and get the book, I think it’s $7.95 shipping and handling. But that’s what this is all about, to help you understand funnel structure better.
Now one of the core concepts inside of here that I want to share with you, because it’s such a key to understanding how funnels work is a concept called the value ladder. The way the value ladder works, if you look at this image right here, on the left hand access you have value. This is how much value you’re giving someone. As the arrow goes up, the higher the value is. On the bottom access it has price. And as you go to the right the price gets more and more expensive.
Now most business owners, the most ideal thing would be able to provide the most amount of value for somebody and get the most amount of money. For example, we have a coaching program that we charge a million dollars to create somebody’s funnel for them and that’s amazing. In a perfect world I could go to every single person and be like, “Hey, its a million dollars, I’ll create a funnel for you and it’s going to be awesome.” And the problem, if I walked up and saw you on the street for the first time and I was like, “Hey my name is Russell Brunson, I know I look like I’m 11 years old, but if you give me a million dollars, I will build a funnel for you.” You’re going to think I’m insane because I’ve provided zero value to you at this point.
Yet that’s what a lot of us as business owners are doing. We’re coming and we’re pitching our most expensive high thing and shooting for the fences but people have not received value from us, so they don’t want that. So if you look at how businesses work, they move this thing called a value ladder where initially when someone first comes into your world, they’re kind of testing the water and feeling things out. So what you want to do is try to provide value for them, right there, for free. And if they get value, if they dip their toy in the water and they’re like, “Wow, that was really cool. I had a good experience with so and so.” And they receive value, us as humans will naturally want more.
We’ll start ascending up and say, “That was a really good experience, what else do you have?” and we’ll move up the value ladder where you have a chance to offer them more value, but they’ll give you more money. And then if they receive value at that level, they’ll naturally want more and they’ll keep moving through this ascension until you either stop selling them something or until you offend them.
And that’s how business works, so you understanding the process of this value ladder, and you know this in the real world. If someone came to you the first day and said, “What do you do for a living?” You would tell them and try to explain some stuff and try to give them something like, “Oh cool, that’s awesome.” And you build some rapport and there’d be some value there and then the next thing you do is offer them something else.
It’s the same thing, if and when you met your spouse. The first time you met them, the first thing is you ask them on a date. And you provide value. If you have a good time on the date then you go on a second date and it keeps going on until you get married. There’s this logical progression. Yet, for some reason online we all forget that. All these common sense rules fall out of the world because we’re like, “They’re pixels and things and it’s traffic.” No, it’s people and you have to understand that.
So what happens is every single funnel is a value ladder. When somebody comes to my very first page I’m saying, “Hey, my name is Russell Brunson. I want you to give me your email address.” If I stop there, you receive no value. Why would I give you my email address? If you come to the page and I’m like, “Hey, my name is Russell. I wrote a really cool report called blah blah blah…” Whatever it is and say, “I’ll give you this report for free, just give me your email address and I’ll send it to you.” And you’re like, “Huh, okay.” You give me your email address, I send you this report., you get the report and get some value, you’re like, “That was really, really good. Russell’s a cool dude.”
Then on the next page in the funnel it’s like, “Hey, I sent you the report. Go check it out. I think you’re going to love it. But while you’re here I want to make a really special offer to you…” And try to provide value again, “Normally I sell this thing for blah, but I’m going to give you a special discount because you’re here right now.” Or whatever that thing might be. Because you’re a first time subscriber, normally the first thing I want to sell you is this thing. A lot of times in my business we do books for really cheap, or we do, if you’re an offline business maybe it’s a free exam, whatever it is. Something you’re providing value. If someone gets that, they buy the next thing.
And then the next page is like, “hey you just bought my book for $7.95, the book’s coming, you’re going to love it but some people like to learn in a classroom situation. I have a home study course that’s this.” Or whatever that thing might be. Same thing works in ecommerce. People always tell me, “That works in information but not in ecommerce.” But the same thing works in ecommerce. One of our number one Clickfunnels sellers right now, he built a huge funnel, it was one of the most successful funnels I have ever seen and it started with a flashlight. “Hey this is a tactical flashlight. Would you like to buy it?” and people bought the flashlight and they started thinking, how else can I provide value to this person? He started bringing them through a value ladder.
He said, “Look, you bought a flashlight for this price, how would you like a second one at 50% off?” and boom, like half the people said yes. He’s like, “Hey, now you got this flashlight do you want a kit? Like a carrying case we can put it in?” and people were like, “Oh yeah. Sure. Yes.” And boom, it took them to the next thing. And he kept thinking how else do I provide value? “Do you want rush shipping?” “Yes.” “Do you want this?” “Yes.”
So the value ladder is always thinking about that. So every time I’m working on a funnel, I’m thinking about this. Somebody, they see an ad, they see something, they click on something, they come to my page, the first page in my funnel and I’m thinking how do I provide this person value? What do I want in return? I want their email address or maybe their credit card, want them to register for a webinar, whatever the action is on that page, I’m thinking how do I provide value to this person?
And if I do it in a cool way and they connect and have a good experience, guess what? They’re going to want to buy again and again. And that’s how you build a business the right way.
So as we do more and more of these trainings, we’ll go more into value ladder because the value ladder is happening in a bunch of different places. It happens inside your funnel. Every page in your funnel is the next step of a mini value ladder. Also, we’ll talk about this in the next major training, after someone goes through your first funnel, usually we have a second funnel and that’s a bigger piece of the value, it’s kind of like the micro and the macro. These things are happening all the time, but for right now I just want you thinking about that.
Every single interaction you have with somebody, you need to provide them value. And then if they like that they will naturally ascend up and want more value and I can charge them more. If they like that I can provide them more and we keep taking them through this process. That’s how I can go right now and get people to pay me a million dollars to build a funnel for them, because I’ve provided value at all these levels.
I provide value through my books, through my software, through my training, through my events, now when it comes to them it’s like, “Yes, I trust Russell. I have rapport with him. He’s awesome. I believe that he will do what he’s going to do.” And now they’re willing to invest the big money.
For your business it’s the same thing. You gotta start thinking through that. I want you guys to understand that concept of the value ladder. Your homework for right now is map out a value ladder. This is not talking about all the products and services you might sell over the next ten years, I’m talking about just this initial funnel. The funnel you started building in the last walk through, you have all these different pages right, depending on which funnel you picked inside the cookbook.
I want you thinking, if someone lands on this page what’s the value I’m providing them in exchange for whatever is happening, their email address? If I go to the next page, what’s the value I’m providing in exchange for them to give me their credit card? What’s the value I’m providing to get them to buy the upsell? What’s the value to get them to register for the webinar? Whatever that thing is for your business, I want you thinking through that and writing out every single, look at all the pages in that funnel and think through what’s the value ladder I’m taking them through inside of this funnel?
And that is the key. In the next video we’re going to talk about now that you got the value, how do you structure the offers. The next video will be about the copy to sell the things on the pages. But right now I just want you conceptually thinking what do you have to offer people? Of all the products and services and ideas and the things that you have, what’s the logical progression you can take somebody through to give them more and more value, so they can build a relationship with you? So they can buy your products, buy your services and you can change their life. That is the goal.
So that is the assignment right now and the other thing is if you don’t have a copy of this book yet, I highly recommend the weblink down below to go get it. And again, this will teach you all about funnel structure, it’s going to teach you about value ladders, a whole bunch of other things. This will help you understand the strategy of funnels in a much deeper way. So get the book if you don’t have it yet as well. Thanks so much. See you on the next training.