Treat Your Business

119 Creating Irresistible Programs & Packages

• Katie Bell • Season 1 • Episode 119

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Welcome I'm recording this episode just hours before flying to Dubai (talk about dedication to consistency - 119 episodes and counting!). This topic came up prominently in our recent client Q&A calls, and I knew I had to share these insights about offers, promotions, packages, and programs with you all.

Episode Summary In this episode, I dive into the challenges our industry faces with pricing, particularly post-COVID, and why we need to shift from a pay-as-you-go model to value-based programs and packages. I share my thoughts on creating irresistible offers that make your clients feel silly to say no.

Key Takeaways 🎯 The industry challenges:

  • Rising delivery costs (supplies, heating, lighting, rent)
  • NHS salary competition
  • Squeezed profit margins

💡 Why pay-as-you-go doesn't work:

  • Not sustainable or predictable
  • Requires weekly sales conversations
  • Doesn't facilitate best client results

🌟 Creating a Grand Slam Offer:

  • Focus on outcomes, not sessions
  • Include clear guarantees to reduce perceived risk
  • Value stack with additional benefits
  • Create urgency through limited spots or special bonuses

💪 Pricing Strategy Tips:

  • Stop competing on price alone
  • Sell transformations, not just appointments
  • Make packages cost-effective while protecting margins
  • Add value through additional resources (guides, apps, etc.)

Action Steps 

✨ Review your current pricing structure ✨ Identify your clients' desired transformations ✨ Create compelling packages that solve problems ✨ Add value-stack elements to your offerings

Resources & Links Want to learn more about implementing these strategies? Check out our Thrive programmes where we teach these exact methods. https://join.thrive-businesscoaching.com/evolveprogramme

🎬 Next week: Tune in to learn about paying yourself as a director vs. an employee!

Treat Your Business podcast is proudly sponsored by MBST, the groundbreaking technology revolutionising recovery and rehabilitation. Offering a non-invasive, drug-free solution for musculoskeletal conditions and nerve injuries, MBST works at a cellular level to stimulate regeneration. Expand your services and deliver long-term patient improvements without increasing your workload.

Learn more at mbstmedical.co.uk. 

Katie Bell: [00:00:00] Welcome to this week's episode of the Treat Your Business podcast. I am super excited to be here But I'm going to be really transparent with you guys. I am flying to Dubai in circa five and a half hours and I am In my recording studio, getting this podcast episode done because I totally forgot that we get an episode out every single week and we have done 123 episodes on The Bounce now.

Week on week, whether I'm here or not here, or on holiday, or in the country or not, we have delivered. And next week will be no exception. However, I will be horizontal lying on the sunbed when you are listening to it. This might be 10 minutes, this might be 15 minutes, I don't know what I'm going to talk about.

But here we are. No, I do know what I'm going to talk about because this is something really prominent that's come up on our client Q& A calls that we've had this week. So for both levels of program, we get all of our clients together. They [00:01:00] have up to, between the two programs, four and a half hours a week of access to us where they get to come on, ask questions that are going to help them move forward in their business.

And one of the things that we've been talking a lot about recently. And this is because we, a lot of us are going to have an impending price rise coming up is offers, is promotions, is packages, is programs. And I thought, do you know what? I need to talk about this on the podcast because there's some key things that I want you to know.

So without further ado, let's just see how this episode goes because I have literally got no time at all. I need to be leaving the airport. Let's talk about programs and packages. 

Welcome to the treat your business podcast with Katie Bell. I am Katie, and this is the place to learn the strategies, tactics, tools, and mindset needed to build your clinical studio into a business that gives you the time, money, energy, and fulfillment you want and deserve. My team and I work every day with overwhelming excitement.

like you to shift them from a business that is a [00:02:00] huge time and energy drain and is not giving them the income they want, to confident clinic owners that are making money, saving money and getting time back in their lives. So if this sounds like something you want, let's dive in. 

Okay one of the big questions that we, or one of the big challenges that we are facing as an industry, and this has, I think, been highlighted because of COVID.

I can't believe I'm still saying that C word. But what happened pre COVID is that we were all, we all had, I wouldn't say relatively low, but we had manageable delivery costs within our service. During COVID and after COVID, we've seen some things happen. We've seen price hikes, not just like a bit, double, triple in terms of our cost of delivery.

So our supplies, our heating, our lighting, our rent, our rates, everything has just shot up. Coupled with the NHS, God I love you, but wow have just Hyped up salaries, [00:03:00] deserved, fully deserved, totally get why we need to do it. But what's, what that's done to the private industry is meant that we have been left in this massive catch up scenario where our salaries are now sitting way below what they could be being paid in the NHS and the NHS obviously have the ability to give them more pension contributions better sick pay benefits, maternity, paternity, all those kind of things that a big corporation, or I say could give you, the NHS is actually running in a complete and utter shambolic way.

So perhaps they can't do it, but they are doing it. So here we are. And what that's meant for us in the private industry is that how do we become attractive to come and work for when. It's really been difficult for us to catch up with what salaries now are in the industry, in the private industry and also in the public industry.

And so what then has happened is our prices cracked up out of COVID because we were all suddenly [00:04:00] putting a bit of a PPE charge in there or we felt like we could just elevate them slightly. But people's prices have gone up like a pound, two pounds, maybe even five pounds. But it's nowhere near what's happened to the cost of us delivering and running our businesses.

And so we've been left in this hole where basically the only person that is being impacted right now is the business owner. And I'm going to record another episode just after this is going to go out the week after I come back from Dubai, I'm an organized person. I haven't now got four hours and 42 minutes to get to the airport. But I'm going to talk about, are you paying yourself like an employee or as a director? , And we're going to, we're going to dig into what that actually means. But ultimately, everybody else has had a pay rise but you in the company, or lots of your team are now asking for more money. And so our margins have been squeezed and squeezed and squeezed and [00:05:00] squeezed.

The reality, for us to get back to anywhere near the profit levels that we were making, we would have to completely change our business models, or we would have to elevate our pricing quite considerably. Many of our clients we are on a massive mission to up level what our industry charge is. We are a nation that does not object to paying a consultant to, 290 for 15 minutes of their time.

Again, I'm not complaining. Great. They do a great job. They don't have any issues with charging us that amount of money. And equally we have no issue paying 1, 000 for about 7 minutes of the vet's time if our dog gets injured or is unwell. We are an, we are a nation that is catching up slowly in terms of our investment in our own health, but we're also an industry that is lagging behind and this is representative of our insurance companies and what they pay us, 35, 40, 42 quid for half an hour, plus all of the paperwork, plus the [00:06:00] invoice thing and everything else that has to go on is an absolute joke.

And the quicker our industry all get on the same wagon and stop allowing that. We have stopped working with Bupa completely for this reason. I will refuse to be paid that level when I've got fabulous team members who are very experienced, who are great at what they do, and we are being charged out at an appalling rate.

Anyway, I'm going to digress there, but the thing that this leads me on to is talking about how do we price things in your business because what we very much promote within our coaching and how we advise clients is if a client can't be, the problems can't be solved in one session, why is it that we are still running a pay as you go model?

Pay as you go is not sustainable, it's not resilient, it's not a predictable way of running your business, and it creates crap conditions for delivery. It [00:07:00] means that you've got to have a sales conversation every single week. And frankly, physios, osteosports therapists, I love you all, but we are shit at selling because we hate money conversations.

Again, I'm putting us all in one, one basket there, but this is what we see in our industry. So then we're like, okay, you've got to have a sales conversation every week, rather than just actually, what is it that the client needs to get the results that they're looking for and facilitate that within your programs or your packages.

If a client's problem can't be solved in one session, stop offering them one session. It does nothing for your reputation when that client cancels after two sessions because something's happened, the kid's got sick, the dog got sick, the car broke down, and then they just forget to come back, and they meet their friend on the street, and the friend says, oh, weren't you seeing the physio's about your back?

And that person goes, yeah Yeah, I wasn't really making a huge amount of difference actually, so I just stopped going and it's Oh, okay, where is the problem here? The problem is [00:08:00] actually the physios just didn't have enough time to make the difference that they needed to make, but they also didn't facilitate the best possible results for that client.

So I want you to really think about how do we create? Irresistible programs, irresistible offers, packages, ways of working with our clients without falling into the trap of just competing on price and feeling like you're having to discount all the time to get to offer, maybe more programs more treatment sessions within a program.

Many clinic owners assume that if we just lower the price of the packages, it will attract more clients. In reality, what we're, what's happening is we're just competing on competing on prices just like a race to the bottom because patients, clients, whatever you want to call them in your clinic, they don't buy physio sessions.

They don't buy massage sessions, they don't buy Pilates classes, they buy outcomes, they buy transformations, they buy [00:09:00] solutions to their problem. So if your only differentiator is price, you're always going to stroll with margins and sustainability. Instead, we should be thinking about selling sessions, selling results, selling convenience, selling certainty.

Now, there's a, I love Alex Hormozy, and he defines a Grand Slam offer as an offer that is so compelling, your ideal patient feels silly to say no. And what makes up a Grand Slam offer is a combination of a few things. It's like a big promise. That generally is outcome focused because that's what our clients are looking for, an outcome.

It generally has quite a clear guarantee. So what this does is is reduce perceived risk. I'm going to give an example. If you don't feel a 50 percent improvement within X sessions or within the first session [00:10:00] or Tuesday, whatever, we'll give you a complimentary session or we'll just refund you the whole amount.

And now I know lots of you are going to be switching off at this point because you're like, Oh, no, we can't do that. But I need you to just know that when you offer a big promise, a clear guarantee, and you value stack and you create urgency, the number of refunds that you will actually have to issue will not be outweighed by the increase in sales that you make.

When we, the other thing I said is value stacking. So things that enhance the offer. The best thing to do with this is to write like a list of problems that your clients have and therefore what is the solution? Is it that they're going to get a personalized tailored rehab program? Is it an access to an exclusive workshop?

Is it priority booking? Is it, , guaranteed appointments within 24 hours. Is it 24 hours unlimited email and phone support? There are so many layers you can add in to a offer, a [00:11:00] program, a package, that means that we're not just going, this is a one session price and this is a five session price.

And then creating urgency. So it's do we have special bonuses for action takers that, that purchase on the day? Do we have limited spots on this certain type of program or package? So a Grand Slam offer is like thinking about all of these different components so that people can't make just a price decision, price dependent decision.

They have to It's almost impossible to compare, and we also want to make it cost effective. Absolutely. But what we encourage our clients to do is let's look at your margins. Let's look at what you actually need to be selling these sessions at, the minimum that we can go to. And we work on a principle that the more they buy, the more cost effective it becomes.

But it doesn't mean that we're going then below where our margins allow us to. It means we elevate our pay as you go price above it. I guess that the key thing here is, if you can't solve a client's problem in one session, [00:12:00] stop offering pay as you go. Think about what intensity and frequency your client's need in a, in the form of treatment but that doesn't always have to be one on one exchanging time for money because there's so many other ways we can serve clients that cost you relatively no money but serve them in an even greater way.

I'm going to give you an example and this is can be definitely relevant for those of you who work with clients who perhaps are maybe on a back pain program with you and because they've got chronic back pain and they Part of that is that they need to really focus on their nutrition and their hydration, okay?

That's one of the things that we know if they were at optimal weight, that would help reduce their back problem. If they were, or back pain, if they were hydrated more, we know that generally. It's very helpful when it comes to soft tissue healing and generally just being a [00:13:00] healthier version of yourself.

So there's all of these things that you know, clients would benefit from, but it doesn't mean that we have to deliver this on a one to one basis. Is there that you could create a a back pain specific nutrition guide that's once you've created it once it's an asset that you can roll out every time you sell one of these programs, but it's an additional benefit.

And that guide would cost somebody some money if they were to just pay for it ad hoc. So when you add all of these things in that would cost money, it's suddenly the value of what you're delivering is way more than just five or six or eight sessions. So instead of offering you just get an initial assessment for 80 quid or you then move on to our six session program, it could be that you have your initial assessment, which is a cost.

And then if suitable, we'll move you into our fast track back pain program, which is about getting, [00:14:00] pain free, reduced pain in X amount of weeks and back to playing the sports that you love, depending on who you want to work with. or we keep working with you until you do. So this comes with six sessions, a personalized rehab plan, some home exercise app access, a bonus deep tissue massage session.

We cross refer in our clinic because we can. We have employee team that allows me to do this. We give them a full class pack for Pilates. We give them a one to one rehab session in our jungle gym. We build that into the value of the program. Have a look at how you're pricing in your clinic, and are you just pricing?

Here is five hours of my time, and that is five hours times that amount is what the package is. Wrong way of looking at it, because you're just competing on price alone. It's a losing strategy. Patients want outcomes, not just appointments. When we craft this Grand Slam offer, it helps position your clinic as the go to solution [00:15:00] rather than just oh, another option.

So you've got to start by identifying the state B, the transformation. You've got to look at what risks what are the objections that your clients might have when they join your program. And think about what guarantee we can offer that works for you. And I promise. The number of refunds that you would actually have to do.

I'm going to caveat this with, you've got to do a fucking good job. If you're not doing a good job, be better at what we do. But the amount of refunds that you will actually be asked for will be tiny compared to the number of increased sales that you will make because you have removed risk, removed the risk.

And you need to create some urgency. So this is about revamping how your pricing looks. It's, we've got five weeks until, four weeks until April, where many of us are going to have to elevate our pricing because of the minimum wage increase the national insurance changes that have happened or just everything is going to be [00:16:00] increasing.

And therefore, if you want to continue to protect your profit, you're going to have to do the same. So this is a perfect opportunity to not just elevate your prices by a pound, but really revamp what your pricing looks like and how you work with your clients.

This is what we work on in Thrive. This is what our clients need our help with. It is not an easy thing to just fix. There's lots of different things that we need to consider in terms of working, how you logistically implement it in the clinic, how you train your team, how you get them on board with this new pricing, how you elevate their mindset, how you cascade that message to your client care team, how you get your software to implement this.

There's a lot to think about. So give yourself the time to do this. But if you are struggling, know that this is what we are teaching within our programs. And this is what we are encouraging all of our clients to move towards. Because it [00:17:00] transforms their clinic's reputation. It transforms their profit margins.

And it allows you as the owner to be paid like an owner, not like an employee or an employer where you're the last person to get paid. And if you want to know more about that, tune in to next week's episode, because I'm going to talk a little bit more about are you paying yourself like a director, like an owner, or are you paying yourself like an employee?

When was the last time you gave yourself a pay rise? If that sounds good to you, then tune in for next week, but for now, I am going to go and fly to Dubai! See ya!

 

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