Decoy offer. Which one do you think will get you the best results? June 2014. John, my second mentor, retired early. He spent his retirement raising his girls, playing golf and hanging out at his lakehouse. He was a man who had lived. Once in a while, he'd invite me to his lakehouse, and on those long drives, he taught me things about life and business I used to this day, like the difference between price and value, the pros and cons of low-cost offers, high volume, low-price business

models, differences between recurring subscriptions and one-time transactions, and the art of

keeping things simple in business and life. John was great company, often wish we would drive

forever so I could soak everything in. To him, this was just

another story to pass the time. But to me, it was a lesson I would never forget. The five-day, five-dollar VIP tanning pass. You see, the beauty of the $5-day pass is everyone thinks they can get tan in five days. And they can, but it's never as tan as they want to get. And if they try to speed things up, they'll burn.

So when someone comes in with a pass, we ask them how tan they want to get. And as soon as they say they want to get a few shades darker, we'll give them the turkey talk. I was like, what's the turkey talk? John smiled and continued. Say a Thanksgiving turkey takes three hours to cook. We all know what happens if you double the temperature to cook it in half the time.

You burn it.

It takes at least five to ten sections to get the color you

want without burning. And since they got to take some time between sessions, it always takes more than five

days. And once they realize that, we say, let's just credit your VIP pass towards your first month.

Why buy so many $25 day passes when members get unlimited access

for just $1999 a month? They immediately see the value and take to membership. Easy as that.

Five years later. Hey boss, we've got a problem. Oh boy. What's up? I said. Our fitness leads have

gotten way too expensive. The guys who can sell are still making it work, but most of them are barely breaking even. Dang. So it finally happened, I said. I pressed my hands to my forehead. I knew this was coming. The truth is, I was dreading it. I tried for weeks to put a spin on our previous offer. A new or interesting twist that would buy his time, but our tests had failed so far. You got any offers up your sleeve, you asked? I rack my brain, then remember the $5 VIP tanning pass. That might just work. Why don't we offer something super cheap to get leads? But when they come in, make them a crazy offer that costs more, but is a hundred times better. They can still take the cheap thing, but we'll just explain that they'll get way better results with the extra accountability and nutrition, et cetera. Yeah, I can run something like that, he said, a few weeks later. Alex, I think we cracked it. Awesome. Walk me through it. So we give two options. The first option is free. I give one session per week. The second option is an ultimate version for $3.99. It comes with unlimited sessions, one-on-one coaching, more personalized stuff, and a guarantee they'll get results or they repeat the program for free. Oh, man, that guarantee is solid. What's the take rate? We've got 70 to 80% taking the $3.99 option. We're crushing it. Awesome. Let's scale it. John was a brilliant salesman and patient teacher.

His philosophy of giving customers what they want now,

so you can give them what they need later,

shape many ways I do business.

He also inspired the offer that saved my gyms.

But the most valuable thing I learned from him was this.

You have to know what gets results for customers better than they do.

This makes our premium offer the clear solution.

And making our premium the clear solution is what decoy offers are all about. Description. Decoy offers advertise something free or discounted. Then when the lead asks to

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