Episode #106: 4 Key Elements of an Aligned Offer (That’s Easier to Sell)

Ruth Poundwhite 0:00
Creating aligned offers can be game changing for you and your business. Even if you’ve already gotten offers out there, I hope that this episode will help you run them through the filter of whether they are supporting the ultimate vision that you have for your life. Aligned offers have done so much for me in terms of sales, and in terms of how I feel about my work. So I’m sharing with you four things that I see as key to both creating them or to feeling better about and selling more of your existing offers. Your you’re listening to quietly ambitious with conversations about how it really feels to build a business that honours your whole self unapologetically. And that includes who you are, how you feel, what you really desire, the impact that you want to create, and importantly, the money you want to make. I’m your host, Ruth Poundwhite. And my superpower is supporting sensitive and ambitious humans to make more money by fully expressing and owning all of who they are. Let’s dive in.

Hi, and welcome to another episode of The quietly ambitious podcast. So all I’m going to talk about today is four key elements of an aligned offer. And I just want to say that this is useful for you if you’ve never created an offer before. But it’s also helpful even if you already have offers because there’s a difference between any old offer and an aligned offer, the benefit of creating offers that are aligned that is, they come from your heart, there’s something that you can truly get behind there something that you enjoy delivering. And that you can really connect with when when you sell. The difference between an aligned offer like that, and any other kind of offer is the energy that goes into it. The way that you will show up and talk about it is different, is powerful, is effective, and will connect with your right people. Basically, you’re going to show up and be the right person for your right people in the way that you talk about it. And the energy you have when you deliver it also is the most powerful because it is right for you, you enjoy delivering it and therefore you will get better results for your clients. Now, I am kind of talking about coaching, mentoring, courses, that kind of thing. But what I say will probably apply to other kinds of offers too, but just bear in mind that they’re the kind of specific offers I’m talking about. So yeah, no matter what stage of business you’re at, use this as a little audit of your offers, see if it feels true to you and the way that you’re doing things. And listen to any nudges you get about where your offers might not be fully aligned. Because that’s where you get to lean in to the magic, you get to lean into innovating, doing it your way, really being unique in your offers, and really creating something that you can get behind in all ways. And by the way, what I’m about to share in this episode is a very condensed and streamlined version of my aligned offers Experience course, which is currently only available to anyone who works with me in my rest and rise group programme and get access to my library of exclusive content as well as all of my other courses and products as well. And obviously my one to one clients get it too. So yeah, if you want more of this or if you want to work with me personally on this stuff, rest and rise group programme is the way to go. Okay, so let’s dive in. So the first thing I want to say about creating truly aligned offers is that you have to start with the transformation. This is so much easier said than done, because most of us want to start with what do my people want? What can I get away with doing? What might I be able to make money for? How can I create an offer that brings in the money I want. And you’re not wrong for approaching it from that angle? Because of course we want and need to make money from the offers that we create in our business. But as sensitive or quietly ambitious business owners, I think that starting from the transformation is the kind of magic piece of the puzzle. So what do I mean when I say starting with a transformation? I mean, thinking of the thing, thinking of the journey, thinking of the transformation that you want to take people through, like what is in your heart that you want to create for people, what experiences do you want to create? In what ways do you want to change their life for the better? And by the way, I’m aware that this can feel pretty audacious, you know, it’s big, bold language like how are you going to change people’s lives. But at the end of the day, if you’ve got a course, if you got a programme, if you’ve got a coaching service, you are in the business of changing people’s lives in some way, big or small, you know, profound or, you know, frivolous ways you are in the business of changing people’s lives. So start with the transformation. And let me give a little bit of an example about what I mean by this. So there’s two things that come to mind when I first started a group programme, the transformation that I really had in mind was my own journey. In fact, pretty much everything that I create is based on some part of my own journey in my past. So when I created my first group programme, it was called rise at the time now it’s changed a bit, and it’s called rest and rise. When I first created it, I had it in my heart that I knew, I wanted to create a group programme, especially for sensitive business owners, because I knew that it was such a key part of my own journey to owning who I am, to be in a community of like minded people, to be seen, to be witness to be able to lean on them to be able to see that they have the same kind of struggles and thoughts as I did. So when I created my group programme, don’t get me wrong, I had a lot of fears about stretching into a new way, like I’d only been working one to one with people. And you’ve been doing kind of less hands on courses at that point. But I really started with the transformation with that programme, it’s probably the first offer, I created that I was so in tune with the transformation. What it was that I knew I wanted to support people with why it was I was creating it in the first place. And it really served me very well when I came to sell that programme and deliver that programme. When I was selling it. As is often the case, with certain things that we sell, what happened was people did not sign up until the very last minute. And I had all the feelings about stretching myself for this new kind of offer. But knowing what the transformation was, was what enabled me to keep tuning back into why I was selling this in the first place. It’s what enabled me to feel into what I wanted to communicate with my people about it. And they kept showing up. And I was able to show up in service of the transformation, which I am going to talk about as a bonus point at the end of this. So starting with the transformation was super powerful for me then. And since I experienced what it was like to have such a clear intention, about the transformation. And by the way, I should add here that obviously, we can never guarantee a certain transformation, we can’t know that that’s all it’s going to be about. Also, it will absolutely potentially change when we start running it, which was definitely the case of my group programme, like I’ve learned so much running different rounds of my group programme, I’ve worked with a lot of people, both one to one. And in groups since I first created that I think that was the end of 2019, I first created that, that I know like my transformation has changed as well. And that’s fine. We can’t guarantee it, we don’t know it’s going to be fixed. But it’s really helpful if we can tune into the truth of the transformation that we want to enable for people at the time. So that is the first tip, a piece of advice I have for you in creating aligned offer always start with the transformation even above starting with what you think people will buy. Because as a sensitive human, you need to feel good about it, you can’t just do something just because it’s going to be the thing that earns you money, because you won’t be able to get behind it energetically. And it will affect the way you show up for it both in selling it and in delivering it. So start with the transformation. Number two, I want you to let go of the rules about how you think you have to structure and deliver this offer. So what I see a lot, especially with sensitive business owners is that they create an offer based on transformation that they feel excited about based on something they genuinely care about. But what becomes draining when it comes time to sell the offer. And deliver the offer is one of two things. And I’m going to talk about both of these things. Number one is the way in which they’re delivering it. Everything that they’re putting into it to deliver and number two is the price. So let’s start with letting go of the rules in terms of how you deliver it. So I would invite you just to get curious, get a little bit inquisitive. Do a little bit of journaling about what rules you think you should you have around offers that you create. So this could be based on what you either assume your people will want. It could be based on feedback you might have received in the past. It could also be based on what you see other people doing The kinds of things that they include in their offers. So for example, one rule that you might have is I have to have a Facebook group for my course. Or another example you have is I have to do live calls for my course I have to deliver it live.

I’m not saying that having a Facebook group is bad for calls or delivering things live is bad, like I do both of these when it feels aligned. But that’s the key point it has to feel aligned in any specific offer. So obviously, now I’m kind of talking about courses. But you could think about this in terms of one to one services as well. Just because you see everyone else offering in between support, does that mean that you have to offer in between support as well? So these are the kind of rules that you have about delivering that I would invite you to get curious about? I would invite you then to tune into how you feel? How do you want to honour your personality as a sensitive human when you deliver this offer? And how do you want to deliver it in service of the transformation, sometimes those two things will be the same. Sometimes there’ll be a little bit of conflict, sometimes you think, well, actually for the transformation, I should offer them all the support. But for my energy, I don’t want to offer them all support in between. Firstly, you get to compromise. And secondly, you also get to question whether there’s really a conflict there at all. So sometimes offering all the support we think can be the way to support people in service of the transformation, but actually leaving more up to them. Giving them more space to figure things out for themselves can actually work in service of the transformation as well. So that is the second thing that I wanted to share with you about creating aligned offers, really being aware of what rules you think you’re giving yourself and choosing a way to deliver your offer or programme in a way that really supports you that you can really get behind. Because Believe you me when you create an offer, and you’re adding in extras that you actually don’t want to do, you’re going to dread that every time it comes to do these things, you’re going to potentially resent the clients, you’re not going to enjoy the offer. And if you don’t enjoy delivering it, you’re not going to get the best results from your clients at all has a ripple effect.

Number three, like I mentioned, is the price, the price for your offer has to be aligned, it has to be aligned both to the transformation that you’re offering, it has to be aligned to the energy that you are putting into delivering it. And the caveat that I want to add to this is that don’t think that you have to charge less if you’re putting less energy in really important. It’s not about time for money. It’s about the energetics, which is is a different thing. It’s about how you feel about what people are paying. It’s about whether you’re feel excited when those sales come in. And when I’m talking to clients about putting together their offers and choosing a price for that offer, I always encourage them to play around with a few different price points, go a bit higher than they thought maybe go a bit lower, go very much higher play around and see how it feels in your body. And I do have a whole podcast episode all about pricing, which is probably going to be really useful for you to listen to in relation to this. But I just want to make it clear that you have to charge what is an energetically aligned price, otherwise, you won’t feel good about selling it and you won’t feel good about delivering it. So an aligned offer means that you are well compensated for the transformation that you deliver. But equally, there are times when you will come up with an offer and you will feel totally aligned to sell it for like a no brainer price. Like I have created. I think I’m thinking of example, like my journaling for launches is a mini course. But actually it’s really powerful. The exercises I include now are so powerful. And they’ve supported me to really show up and sell stuff in a really powerful way and literally get results with their, you know, the sales and the earnings. But when I first created it, it just felt so fun and aligned for me to sell it at a really low price. And it still is at a low price. I’ve raised it a little bit, but it’s still really affordable. So just know that sometimes that can feel really aligned to there’s definitely a place in your kind of ecosystem of offers to have these fun, low cost but high value offers. I just encourage you to question it. If that’s all you’re doing. Like in an ecosystem, it all has to support each other. That’s the definition of the ecosystem of offers. Again, this is something I really talk about a lot in the exclusive trainings for my restaurant rise group programme, and I want to own clients. But basically an ecosystem of offers means that each offer supports each other. So when you’re talking about the lower cost offers that actually are really good value for your people. They’re supporting the higher priced offers, because they’re getting people into your world. They’re showing off what you can do that giving people a feeling of how you work. And then getting people intrigued about the higher priced offers. If you only have lower priced offers and you’re undervaluing your work that ecosystem can fall apart. Now, obviously, there’s no hard and fast rules for every single business owner. But this is generally what I see really important that you are charging enough for your main offers, and especially if you’re doing one to one work, but yeah, and aligned price can be, is usually I would say, in my experience of working with a lot of sensitive business owners, the aligned price is often higher than what you thought first thing, but sometimes it can be aligned to charge less as well. So there are three things that I really want you to know about creating aligned offer, starting with the transformation, delivering it in a way you can get behind and letting go of the rules of how you think you need to deliver it, and choosing an aligned price. And the fourth kind of bonus thing that I just wanted to touch on, because it’s kind of about creating an offer. But it’s actually more about selling it, which I could go into a whole other episode about this. And obviously, I’ve got all my like my whole aligned offers course like does have a whole module on launching and aligned way and also the rest and rise. Exclusive trainings has like roadmaps for how to launch in different ways that feel aligned. But just to put it out there. When you are launching your aligned offer, I want you to launch it in a way that does justice to the transformation. And here’s where creating your offer. Starting with the transformation becomes really powerful when it comes time to sell it. Because when we are selling, especially in a launch, we can feel the pressure, we can feel the stories coming up to the surface, we can feel the self doubt coming up to the surface, I think that’s a very normal thing. And at the same time, when we consider the transformation that we created, offer, in in service of when we start to think about how do I do justice to that transformation, it makes the launch less about us as individuals and more about the thing that we’re helping people with. So when I say launch it in a way that does justice to the transformation, I don’t just mean the things you say about the thing that you’re launching, I also mean showing up showing up even when you’ve started to think maybe I’ve talked about this too much. Because when you focus on yourself, it’s really easy to think you’ve talked about it too much. But when you focus on the transformation, it’s so much easier to go, you know what this can change people’s lives. So I’m going to show up for my right people, it’s okay that it’s not right for a lot of people in my audience, I’m going to show up and share it for the people who are on the fence who are almost ready to join, I’m going to show up and share it for that one person who’s really thinking about it, but just needs a little bit more information to nudge them over that line. So that’s the fourth bonus point launch it in a way that does justice to the transformation. Like I said, this episode is a very condensed, very simplified version of the exclusive training the aligned offers experience, I used to sell it on its own, but now it’s just a part of restaurant rise, and one to one. So if you want more of it, if you want to work with me directly on this stuff. And like I said, this is not this isn’t just for like newbies, this is for you, when you’ve already got offers out there to make sure that your ecosystem of offers, they’re all supporting each other, to make sure that all your offers are aligned to make sure that you’re doing the work you love in the way you want to do it, then have a look at rest and rise. It’s open now. And I would absolutely love to work with you on making sure that your offers are set up in service of the vision you have for your life and business. And let me know what you thought about this. Did you get any nudges as you’re listening? Did you hear something that I said that made you think maybe I need to change something about my offer? I would love to know if you did send me a message on Instagram at Ruth Poundwhite will send me an email Hi at Ruth poundwhite.com and go check out rest and rise Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash rest. It is the programme the group programme for sensitive business owners who want to create a business in alignment with the life that they desire for themselves in a way that honours your whole personality unapologetically. So have a look at that at Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash rest. And I hope you found this helpful like creating aligned offers is my thing. It is my thing with my own offers. It is my thing with my clients, I could talk about this stuff all day, I am so passionate about the difference it can make to put things out there that are totally aligned with you as a person. And that might mean you’re doing a bit differently to other people. And that can feel a little bit uncomfortable at first but it is so so worth it.

Thank you so much for listening to another episode of quietly ambitious. If you have a moment to rate and review know that it really does make a difference. And if you’d like to carry on the conversation, then you can connect with me on Instagram at Ruth Poundwhite Join me in the Facebook group or my personal favourite. Sign up to my newsletter letters to quietly ambitious humans. Just go to Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash newsletter to subscribe and keep doing what you’re doing because your work really does matter.