Even if rarely purchased, a premium one-on-one offer serves as a powerful value anchor. Its high price tag transfers a degree of perceived value to your more accessible, scalable products. To work, you must confront the high price directly with prospects before offering a downsell.
Related Insights
When selling high-ticket services, don't raise prices incrementally. Instead, make a significant jump (e.g., from $3,800 to $8,000). If it doesn't sell, you've gained valuable market data and can simply re-price the next cohort. The upside of finding a new price ceiling far outweighs the risk of a single failed launch.
People gravitate toward the middle option when given three choices, a bias known as extremeness aversion. To sell more of a specific product, frame it as the middle choice by introducing a more expensive, super-premium 'decoy' option. Its role is not to sell, but to make the target option look like a reasonable compromise.
Introduce a significantly more expensive, highly customized version of your service alongside your main offering. This price anchor makes the actual product you want to sell appear like a fantastic deal, even if it has a high price point, thereby increasing conversion rates.
To sell more of a $300 package instead of a $200 one, introduce a $500 option. Most won't buy the decoy, but its presence shifts the customer's reference point, making the $300 package appear more reasonable and valuable by comparison.
Involving prospects in designing their own solution builds a sense of ownership. This "IKEA effect" increases the solution's perceived value, justifying a higher price and neutralizing competitor discounts, even when the final cost is higher.
When a new KFC premium product wasn't selling, they doubled the price instead of discounting it. This aligned the price with consumer expectations for a premium item, signaling quality and causing sales to soar. Low prices can imply low quality for high-end goods.
Counterintuitively, selling high-value solutions to wealthy individuals or large companies often involves less friction. Affluent buyers with significant pain points focus on the value of the solution and have the budget, simplifying the sales cycle.
The math behind a high-ticket offer is often misunderstood. Since these services are typically 100% margin, a small number of buyers can drastically outperform the profit from your main product. A 10x priced offer sold to just 10% of customers can double revenue and triple profits.
Price sensitivity decreases when customers have absolute clarity on what they're buying, when technicians present options with confidence, and when the business consistently provides multiple choices. These three "C's" build perceived value, allowing for higher prices.
Position a premium, in-person event as the aspirational pinnacle of your brand. Even if most customers can't afford it, its existence builds immense credibility and social proof. This "legitimacy anchor" makes your more accessible digital products an easier sell.
