I was recently listening to one of these internet business guru, people talk about sales. And they were describing something they called a value ladder. The concept of a value ladder is pretty simple. It's one of those things that once you know about it, you can
see it everywhere. Basically, it's a way to structure your offers so that they start low and increase in price over time from that first bit of brand awareness where you might be offering something for free in exchange for, let's say, their email address to a premium offer, where they're hiring you for a full session, or they're joining your membership or whatever. The idea is that this is an effective way for you to build trust and maximize the lifetime value of each customer.
And it's a smart concept that I wanted to bring to the podcast here. But it's also one that I think can be pretty badly mishandled and abused if you're not going about it, right. So today, we're talking about value ladders, how to build one in your business, and how to make sure you don't fall off. Welcome to this can't be that hard. My name is Annemie Tonken. And I help photographers run profitable, sustainable
businesses that they love. Each week on the podcast, I cover simple, actionable strategies and systems that photographers at every level of experience can use to earn more money in a more sustainable way. Running a photography business doesn't have to be that hard, you can do it. And I can show you how. You've heard me talk about the importance of trust here on the podcast. In fact, that's the title of Episode Three, the importance of trust. But Forgive me for talking about it a bit
more here. And now because it really can't be overstated. having a hard time booking new clients do a trust audit, or your brand and your voice and your messaging and your pricing all consistent with one another. If the answer is no, you're not giving someone a reason to trust you with their important memories and their money. If you're getting lots of pushback from the clients who do hire you, you know, if they're trying to art direct or change your policies, it's also time to do a
trust audit. Maybe you're not communicating the process or your own confidence in a way that inspires them to trust you and trust your process. Now, I know that this can be a frustrating answer to your business questions because no one gets to build trust in a day, right? Even though you can't truly solve the trust issue quickly. Sometimes a trust audit will uncover some gaping holes or issues that you can solve or at least, you know,
begin to mitigate quickly. The other solution, which needs to be something that you do in addition to not, in lieu of the other stuff, is to build yourself a value ladder, which is a way of giving your potential clients a path to trusting you that doesn't just rely on time. If the only thing that you offer is a super high end session, like the full shebang, then you can pretty much assume that most people are going to need to interact with your brand a lot before they're
willing to hire you. I mean, yes, maybe if they have a referral from a friend or they read 105 star reviews on Google about you, maybe then they'd be willing to take that big leap right off the bat. But again, where's that social proof coming from? It takes time. On the other hand, that first rung of the value ladder is a way of getting your foot in the door. It's saying, hey, trust me with just this small thing, your email address, or your time for a phone call or a low cost
session of some sort. And then all you need to do is show up and knock that opportunity out of the park. In fact, let's get meta and talk about this podcast for a minute. Yes, I love teaching and I love helping photographers succeed. But also Yes, I run a business and I sell things and I need to make money to support my family. This podcast is one of the ways that I build trust, it is a free rung
on my own value ladder. So I show up every week and I deliver value and I hope that some of you will go on to climb the next rung, which is to trade in your email address for my free simple sales masterclass. My goal on the low rungs of this particular value ladder is that you think to yourself, if she's delivering this stuff for free, or just for giving her my email address. Imagine how great her paid stuff
must be. And it is. Because the important thing about building a ladder is that you start with a very sturdy first step and then make each higher rung even sturdier than the one before it. That sturdy first step is crucial. You need to show up as your best self in whatever form that is, even if it's free.
Free. Or if it's such a crazy value that you sometimes wonder if it's worth your time, as long as you're being intentional about how you're choosing to give that value, like, not just taking random unpaid gigs, because someone's going to give you photo credit. As long as you're giving that value to people who might be willing to climb higher on your ladder, your efforts will eventually pay
off, but they won't pay off. If you half assed the first rung, no one will take another step up a ladder, if they don't believe it's strong enough to hold them. And if you lead them up a ladder that gets weak at the top, if you're higher paid offers are actually less good than your free or lower paid offers, your business will never last. So the first rule of not falling off the value ladder is creating a ladder that's strong every step of the way. But I'm guessing that most of you already know
that. And if you have any kind of ladder in place, you're probably already delivering at every level, where you're more likely falling off is kind of the reverse issue. And this one's a little bit trickier. This is where you are so concerned with impressing your clients with that first rung that they never bothered to step
up the ladder at all. This is the photographer who is doing 30 minute mini sessions and delivering all the images for a quarter of the price of a regular session, then wondering why no one's ever booking a regular session, or the photographer shooting full sessions at rates that they know aren't profitable. and hoping that I don't know they'll magically wake up one day feeling confident enough to raise their prices. The issue here is the value part of the
ladder. Because although each step has to be sturdy, it also has to deliver the right amount of value higher than the lower rungs and lower than the higher rungs. Let's use my own photography business as an example. Now that I've been in business for 11 years, and I have good SEO and lots of referral work and brand recognition, and all the other stuff that really only comes with time. I don't have tons of lower rung offers, but I still do periodically put them out
there. And these days, typically that's in the form of an auction donation. Now, I'm pretty choosy about the auctions that I contribute to. They're typically local schools or preschools where my Bluebird clients send their kids. And I'm very intentional about the offers that I make at those auctions, I have to tell you, I see a lot of photographer offers at auctions where they are giving away full sessions. And I always kind of
cringe. The truth is that whereas you can find a good client at an auction, I have found many over the years, when you put a full session with all the files and all that sort of stuff out there as an all in one package, you will often end up with a client who first of all may not be a good fit for you to begin with. But second of all, probably paid a fraction of what you typically charge to win the item that you put in the auction. And then later when they find out what it normally
costs to hire you. They just kind of disappear. So you get that one session with them. Let's say they paid $200 for that. And you'd typically charge $1,000. There, the value is kind of set in their mind, even though that's not fair. It's at an auction. That's the way it works. What I do instead, is that I offer a three hour group photography class that I call
cameras and cocktails. And I created this class years ago, I write up the auction item as a fun and useful alternative to a moms night out and I go to the hosts home and teach six to eight friends how to take better pictures of their kids. They invite their friends over who are typically other moms, because they are sort of pre qualified as an auction attendee. Their friends are typically kind of pre qualified. The class took me a long time to put together It is very high
quality. It's full of great information, and I show up a bottle of wine in hand and 100% ready to represent my brand. Everyone in attendance gets prep emails ahead of time they get goodie bags at the end, and I send out a follow up questionnaire asking for feedback and all that sort of thing. So they all have my contact information. They all get to know me for three hours. And I actually go so far as to offer additional email support for any questions they may have
down the road. Every once in a while I get an email about it, no big deal. It's usually Hey, I'm thinking of upgrading my camera, what would you recommend? The point is they feel very taken care of, but I'm not trying to actively sell to them. What I am trying to do is intentionally showcase the next
step up the ladder. So all throughout this three hour presentation I You know, referencing the work that I typically do, I'm showcasing my best work when I'm showing them examples of various concepts that I'm teaching. And without being pushy, I am inviting them to take that next step. One of the items that I put in the goodie bag that everyone gets is a gift certificate for $50 off a session fee, if they book me
within a year. And it was a while ago that I last tabulated this, but I want to say that something like 60% of the people who have attended those cameras and cocktails, classes over the years have gone on to hire me at some point down the road. And the rest of my ladder, you kind of already know about my standard sessions are relatively expensive for my area, but I'm actually creating kind of a small value ladder inside my
offer. Because with simple sales, they start by paying that smaller session fee, and then purchasing a collection only once they've had the chance to see the results of the session, right. And then the final rung on my ladder, once they come through a session is inviting them into the membership. So those of you who have taken revenue on repeat know that my members actually pay less than my first time clients when they're going through the simple
sale system. But rest assured that is still a higher rung on the ladder. Why? Because they're signing up to pay that amount over and over and over year after year. So their lifetime value to me is quite a bit higher. And although I'm not making as much money all at once, I am trading a little bit of money in the short term for a ton of stability and predictability, which is extremely valuable to me as a
business owner. And giving them that price break, along with all the other perks my members get is my way of encouraging them to take that next step up the ladder and make that next commitment. So this week, I want you to think about what you offer your clients in terms of a value ladder. Do you have a way for people to take a small step with you before they have to
dive in headfirst? If you do, are you ensuring that your ladder is strong throughout and that each of your rungs is built to encourage someone to take that next step up? If you've got a value ladder that's working really well for you, I would love for you to DM me or send me an email about it. I would love to feature your story to Well, that's it for this week's episode of this can't be that hard. I'll be back Same time,
same place next week. In the meantime, you can find more information about this episode along with all the relevant links notes and downloads at this can't be that hard comm slash learn. If you like the podcast, be sure to hit the subscribe button. Even better, share the love by leaving a review on iTunes. And as always, thanks so much for joining me. I hope you have a fantastic week.