(How a Single Question Transformed My Marketing Strategy Forever – And It Will Change Yours Too!)
Standing before an eager crowd on my first Jim Boat cruise, I felt an electric mix of excitement and nerves coursing through me.
Passengers had traveled from every corner of the globe for this five-day adventure, and I was ready to share my passion for eBooks and online publishing with them.
I Was Literally Standing IN the Middle Of The Ocean When It Hit Me!
I envisioned sharing hard-learned wisdom about ebooks, digital products, product funnels and engaging discussions on how to succeed in the digital marketplace.
But as I started interacting with the audience, an unexpected wave of confusion washed over me.
Side note: If you want to see the original sales letter I wrote almost 20 years ago, you can check it out here in all it’s glory on the Wayback Machine 😉. There’s nothing to buy, but the offer was DANG GOOD (and the guarantee was off the charts)! https://web.archive.org/web/20050901070754/http://www.thejimboat.com/
I began my presentation with a simple question:
“How many of you have ever bought a book from me?”
A few hands shot up… but I’d expected everyone to raise their hand!
Then, I pressed further, asking about my other products. Slowly, a few hands came up again, but the number was a LOT LESS than I was expecting; half the audience never raised their hand.
“What is happening?” I wondered.
This was not the response I expected from a crowd that seemed engaged and enthusiastic enough to travel halfway around the world to join me on a cruise.
It was as if my carefully crafted idea of what they were “supposed to do” was unspooling before my eyes, and the very point I was trying to make – how everyone naturally progresses through a product funnel from lowest to highest-priced products – seemed lost.
Then I blurted out the question that shot into my mind.
“If you haven’t bought anything from me before, why are you here?”
The responses made me feel better, but still startled the hell out of me…
Basically, the response went like this: “We’ve been following you for a long time,” they said, “and this was the first thing we felt compelled to buy.”
My jaw hit the floor…
It was then the epiphany struck me like a bolt of lightning; I realized the disconnect lay not in the value of my products but in my assumptions about product funnel progression (which I’d later discover was the “value ladder”).
Suddenly, I understood that not everyone would follow the same path through a collection of products… in fact, it was a mistake to FORCE them to do so.
In that moment of clarity, I was no longer confused; instead, I was hit by the blinding insight that the customer experience does NOT have to be a rigid pathway leading from one point to another.
What if each person could enter at different rungs of a value ladder?
The importance of flexibility in marketing flashed vividly in my mind. Allowing individuals to choose their starting point could open doors to purchases I had previously BLOCKED people from making.
I was literally driving people away because I was limiting their exposure to anything other than what I THOUGHT they should buy next in MY sequence!
Sigh.
“It’s about a value ladder, not a forced sequence of funnels or websites!”
The idea that people could select where they wanted to enter in my sequence of offerings was liberating.
This approach meant that I could promote any product without requiring customers to start from the beginning.
Right there, in the middle of the ocean, the audience absorbed my new insight, and I could see a spark ignite within them too – an understanding that resonated far beyond just marketing strategies. They were realizing the infinite possibilities right there with me on the high seas.
This was a HUGE breakthrough for everyone!
As the cruise ended, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude.
My breakthrough about the value ladder as a flexible, versatile framework rather than a rigid sequence didn’t just help me; it was a lesson in trusting the customer to choose the best path for them.
Each member of your audience is navigating their unique voyage, and we are merely a guide offering tools along the way to help them.
Though we did 8 more Jim Boats over the years…
This first trip, with the shared experience of a BIG discovery was probably the MOST memorable for so many reasons.
Everyone left that voyage not just hopeful for what they could do in the coming years (myself included with a vision of bigger and bigger stages, ships, and audiences), but transformed in our understanding of the powerful impact of a well-planned and executed “value ladder!”
Want more?
We have several amazing tools and training to help you develop your own value ladder FAST inside of CopyAndContent.AI – Check it out!
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