What is a Value Stack?
Value stacks are our offer’s way of speaking to our client to tell them what we do and what we charge. Too often, it’s overvalued or under-paid. Enough of that nonsense.
They’re a sales tool – a way to overcome objections, make you stand out from competitors, and for getting out of hourly rate negotiations when the hourly rate isn’t sufficiently aligned with the value and results that you can provide.
Value stacks tell your client what they get, what’s included, and how you are layering different kinds of interactions and engagements to bring value. You want people not to compare on price or investment, but on the perceived value and the declaration of the results and outcomes.
Thus, a value stack (or an offer stack). It’s like Lego. You’re putting pieces together to build a thing.
Let’s look at an example:
If I was a personal trainer, I could sell personal training sessions at $60/hour, or I could create a value stack like this:
- 20 minute consultation to make sure we are a good fit.
- Intake questionnaire & assessment.
- Flexible scheduling.
- My easy breakfast idea recipe book.
- One 60 minute intake session.
- Four 30 minute follow up sessions.
- Locked-in, discounted follow up session rates for one year
Then, you bundle all those separate pieces up into a package that is $600.
So instead of just saying, “Hi, I’m a personal trainer, I charge $60/hour” you are really saying “Hi, I’m a fitness professional, this is my $600 jumpstart program.”
What you are doing is drawing a picture of what working together is going to look like and feel like so that potential clients can’t reduce your work, your services,or your value to dollars alone. You are worth more than a race to the bottom on pricing.
When Value Stacks Go Bad
Eventually, the stack evolves. It becomes bigger, more impressive, and more varied. The longer you have been around, and people have been signing on-board, the more you may feel pushed to offer in order to “sweeten the deal” and keep your offer irresistible to repeat purchasers.
Let’s say you’re a life coach.
- Year 1, you have weekly coaching and an annual retreat.
- Year 2, it’s weekly coaching and a Facebook community and 2 events per year.
- Year 3, it’s 2 calls per week, quarterly retreats, bonus sessions, and a Facebook community with 24/7 Voxer access.
That escalated.
Quickly.
Both in time, expenses, and overhead. Maybe your prices are rising as well. Maybe it’s fine.
When does the act of reciting a list of inclusions hurt you? Harm you? Misrepresent you? Actually become a disservice to your client?
Become a complete and utter ego stroke instead of helping your client get results?
Simple.
Your value stack becomes ineffective when it’s all about you and your ego and not your client’s results or journey.
Things to consider when creating, or reviewing, an offer’s value stack:
- Does it have substance? Or, is it lots of ‘fluff’?
- Can success be measured or is it nebulous? How do you know if it’s providing value?
Examples: Offering community, introductions, ongoing support. Is it framed in such a way that your client can check everything off and say “Yes, I got this, and it was valuable to me”? - Is it adding value or adding work (to either you or your client)?
Your dream client may not have the time for 3 coaching calls/week. Are you simply overwhelming them, rather than helping them grow a business? Additional training with no way or time to to implement?
A truly valuable offer includes the following:
1. What does your client truly need and what is the minimum viable product to get them there?
2. Are you experienced/skilled enough to deliver?
3. Can the results be measured or explained simply?
4. Are you confident that everything you are including will deliver? Discernment and deliverables are essential to a successful offer stack.
One of the biggest challenges I see is the way Coaches build value stacks.
As a general rule, Coaches combat their lack of trust in their expertise and services, by overcomplicating, and trying to “outperform” others via complicated coaching offers. The shinier the offer, the more it makes them feel better or more confident.
This often ends up feeling more like “putting lipstick on the pig” than actual results. Clients pay you, the Coach, for results. Stop dressing it up and start getting them results if you want to add massive value!
The truth is, your client doesn’t need a smorgasbord of options. They get overwhelmed with choice. What they need, instead, is a small curated menu that will satisfy their exact craving.
Don’t be a Coaching Smorgasbord.
If you want to have massive value – be concise, clear and fix a specific problem. Clients will flock to your solution.
Satisfy their specific craving.
Satisfaction guaranteed.
So, when does a Value Stack reveal a Value Lack?
When your offer is merely a smokescreen for what you think is value, or something that you don’t know or don’t believe is valuable.
Are you kidding yourself or trying to deal with your own inner feelings of worth? Do you actually believe in what you do? Or, are you putting up this cosmetic façade of value as opposed to actually building a value stack that is based on specific outcomes that you promise to achieve?
Providing value and engaging in an arrangement with a client is a promise.
It is a promise that you will deliver value.
It is a promise that you will deliver change.
It is a promise that you will deliver on everything that you have promised.
So if you have an over inflated value stack that is pretty and looks good on paper but isn’t actionable, then your client can get to the end of your arrangements look at this list and go where is the value? Did they actually deliver on this? Am I happy with my investment both financially and energetically?
The answer is inside of you.
Never ever ever be afraid to let what you know works… work! Stop dismantling the actual solution with fluff. Give the client the solution they are asking for and let that be your greatest value.
