How To Set Up Payment Options & Incentives For Your Membership – Episode 73

Melissa:  So we're going to move to Laura is next.
Laura: My question is, and we had talked about it another course that I'm in with you, mine's going to be the higher end, not quite the a thousand dollars a month, but  I'm going to give them the option, whether they pay upfront for the year or monthly. And do you give some kind of bonus or discount if they pay for the year upfront?
Melissa: Good, good .
Paul:  Great question. Now I'll bring it over to bill.
Bill:  Yeah, I think there's nothing wrong with looking at alternative ways of doing that too. if you think that it's more appropriate in your space to do quarterly or semi-annually or three times a year what's wrong with that.
The program that I'm going to be launching, I am actually seriously considering doing either an annual or quarterly that way.It gives a little bit more of a commitment, but it's not like that big daunting, you know, a whole year all at once for people.
Paul: Yeah. That's great. So anyone else?
Melissa: Yeah.  really about knowing your audience. And I do like that just to kind of wrestle around your head,like who your audience is and if it is something that's, we're dealing with, like accountability and coaching, because I know that's kind of your space, that quarterly option, that could be something else to think about and how, again, people just need  different options.
Now you don't, you want to be careful not to get so many options.And it's like this whole buffet, and then they don't make any decision, but giving them just a couple of different options to choose from. Because again, everyone's in different financial places. Some people they don't like to have that monthly, they just like, they make a commitment, they want to be one and done pay in full and then,you know, just be in it and others, they need that monthly just to account in their billing.
So, but I think it's knowing your audience and who they are and how you're going to serve them too.
Paul:  You hit on a different piece as  well. And I'll speak into that . Is if your business model is like Apple and you're all about like no discounts whatsoever and maybe that's your positioning.Cause a lot of people will take a hard line on that.
Then instead of looking at, you know, paying in full, having an incentive on a discount, you might add an extra call. You might add a discovery call. You might have a one-on-one element or a bonus course that they have access to that they normally wouldn't. So you'll see a lot of programs that it normally goes one direction or the other.There's either an incentive financially that, "Hey, if you make this commitment for a longer period of time,  here's a slight advantage on the pricing" or they typically go the opposite direction and they'll, they'll put some type of incentive piece, like some type of bonus that's in there.
And I think because you are,you know, for any of us that are doing higher ticket, like  in you are in that coaching element that by having at least some type of longer commitment comes back to what we were talking about on our other question is that, you know, it gets rid of the people that want some magic transformation, like the first call they're on with you,  just, it's going to take those tire kickers and those people that want the magic pill, you know, type type answers, and it's going to sway them away.
And, but what it'll do is it'll appeal to people because in that, as an example, if you did a three month, you can talk about transformation,like, you know, the steps you're going to do. And as three months that they're going to see the results where we can put this in the health space, how many of us have driven by signs it's like lose "30 pounds in 30 days".
 And it kinda like, okay, you know, that's not that doesn't sound healthy ish.You know, that's kinda crazy, you know, but could that technically been on in six months, could that be done? Depending the person, diet and exercise.
So, but it just something that, depending on the transformation that you're promising and depending on how the program and how you have it set up,you know, be realistic yourself. Like, what's it going to take because you do want a successful transformation. You do want somebody to go through that.
So especially on your end, when you're, when you're doing a little bit more coaching, a little bit more higher up where other memberships are set up in those 30 day cycles, that people are getting transformation or,or within that 30 days, like at a lower level where you're doing coaching. So it's going to be a little bit different on that end.
The only other thing that I'll mention is that whenever it comes to pricing models, there's no rules. There's no, we can all sit here and make up, you know, all kinds of different things.Oh, statistically, this is what works better than this. And it's like, yeah, have this statistics that are always done around all over the place, or like from some imaginary statistical you know, place that everybody just pulls things out of the air, but you believe it because somebody repeated it and that person doesn't even know where they got it because somebody else repeated it.
So It all comes down to testing, you know, marketing, you'll hear us say it a million times. Marketing is testing. So you put what you believe you want to do in the market and see how the market responds.
Laura: I do like the incentive because I'm thinking, why didn't I think of that? Because that's what I did with the other program.I, three months is, you know, I did incentives. They pay upfront and they get an extra bonus or something.
Paul: You’re welcome.
Melissa: Excellent.