Picture this:

You’ve just bought someone a super thoughtful gift.

A nice necklace for your girlfriend.

A pair of theatre tickets for your mum.

A lovelyyyyyyyyyy jumper for your brother that he’s definitely going to wear and not ask you where the receipt is so he can exchange it for a new Xbox game…

But now you’ve got a choice.

You can either hand them that gift as is - still in the crinkled up plastic bag they gave you at the shop.

Or, you can take an extra 2 minutes, go grab some nice wrapping paper and tie a little bow around it.

The core gift will still be the same, of course.

But their perception of its value and the thought you’ve put into it will be wildly different between the two scenarios.

Now, if you’re having a rather slow morning, still waiting for your kettle to brew and chug that first cup of coffee and haven’t yet realised where I’m going with this analogy, I’ll spell it out for ya:

The gift you have so lovingly bought for this person is your core offer.

The packaging - the way you present it - is it’s perceived value.

Because you could have the most valuable offer in the world, but if you present it like shit, you’re really doing yourself a disservice and, more importantly, drastically reducing the prices you can legitimately charge people for it.

So, in this post, I’ve decided to brain dump every single way I could think of to increase people’s perceived value of your offer (and hence charge higher prices) without changing a damn thing about the promise you make.

Instant ROI.

Very little effort to achieve it.

Ready?

(It’s gonna be rapid fire because I have a workhop for 20+ people to prepare for in 3 days’ time - so I hope you like fast-paced).

Here’s the 13 ways I came up with in 9 minutes this morning:

1) Curtain offer

Don’t reveal your offer in public.

Sure, give some juicy details away to create some initial intrigue.

But force people to contact you individually if they want the full scoop.

This has two benefits:

First, when people actively contact you to find out more, they mentally “buy in” more than if you’d just presented them your offer on a silver platter from the get go.

Second, it also allows you to tailor your offer to each individual prospect. And personalising your offer massively increases perceived value (duh).

2) Map it out

60% of humans are visual learners.

If you aren’t including some sort of diagram or flow chart to illustrate how your service takes someone from A → B you are missing out on an unbelievably easy way to increase perceived value.

3) Make ‘em queue

Ever go to a theme park and there’s no queue for any rides?

It’s fun at first, but after a while you start to miss the anticipation of standing in the queue (at least for a few minutes) and getting excited about the ride to come.

It’s the same with your offer.

Whenever you begin a new client cycle, don’t release your offer publicly at first.

Open up a waitlist.

Let some momentum build up and THEN release it.

Being able to say something like “12 people already registered” will massively increase perceived value and hence the price you can charge.

4) “Sorry, we’re full”

The fewer spots you offer, the more scarcity you create.

Scarcity up = higher prices.

Simple supply and demand.

(You’ll also be able to deliver far better results and get better case studies if you limit yourself to just 2-3 clients at a time…)

5) Ticking time bombs

People are waiters.

Always waiting for the right time, always waiting for tomorrow.

Unless you give them a reason to act TODAY and create a sense of FOMO with a hard deadline, they’ll never bite.

“Doors close in [insert timeframe]” is a good place to start.

6) Close the door on your way out

Got a subscription or recurring offer?

Make it clear that if you leave, you’ll be unable to rejoin for, say, 12 months.

This will increase LTV of the customers you do get and also mean the people that do sign up are far more likely to take it seriously (and hence get better results you can use as case studies down the road).

7) “Sorry mate, this is a private party”

Exclusivity is everything.

Don’t open your offer to anyone and their dog.

Make it abundantly clear who your service is NOT suited to.

This both increases perceived value and also saves you from wasting time with a bunch of people you really can’t help.

8) Put out the flames

No matter how good your offer, people will have doubts.

Will this work for me?
What makes this different to [other service]?
When will I start to see results?

Quell these burning questions with a powerful FAQ section at the end of your offer → instant trust increase → perceived value up.

9) “Follow me this way, sir”

Imagine going to a restaurant and they don’t tell you where to sit.

You’d be completely taken aback for a while wouldn’t you. And you’d probably start to lose faith in the level of service.

But it’s the same with your offer.

Lay out the exact steps they’ll go through as soon as they’ve paid and start working with you.

This will immediately instil confidence that you’re not some cowboy about to do a runner with their hard-earned cash.

10) I’m not like the others

There’s a million people offering the same service as you.

But most of them are (unfortunately) shite.

Drill into their deficiencies, which the person you’re pitching to has probably experienced in the past, and use these to position yourself as the knight in shining armour that’s come to save the day.

(FYI - this one only works if you are genuinely good at what you do, lol).

11) You are not a cost centre

Your service isn’t an expense.

It’s an investment - something that’s going to give this person a better future (at least it should be…)

Start framing it as such.

12) Up, up, up we go

The world has just gone through a massive inflation cycle.

Prices of everything are increasing rapidly.

And when this happens, what do people do?

They buy stuff today because they understand that tomorrow it will be more expensive.

You can use this same logic with your offer.

Threaten (legitimately, I might add) future price increases and you’ll give people the kick up the arse they need to buy today and not put it off til “next time”.

(FYI - there’s a science to future price increases, but that’s for another day…)

13) “For just a cup of coffee a day”

People can’t conceptualise “$100/month”.

But they can conceptualise “for the same price as your daily coffee” ($3.30 × 30 days = $100/month)

So relate your pricing to something they already spend frivolously on and demonstrate why yours is the far superior investment.

Well, there you are guys.

13 ways to instantly increase perceived value of your offer.

But of course, none of these will work if your core offer itself is unclear (you can’t polish a turd and all that).

So if you feel like you don't know what to offer, who to offer it to or how to make it stand out, then I'm here to help.

Come join me in The Beadle Newsletter for daily insights into how to build a personal brand that sells itself.

I'll see you there.