Why should I spend time on a $50 product when my services are thousands of dollars?

[00:00:00] Rene: Digital products can also warm people up. The goal of a product is not always just the money that you make from it. And I've had so many conversations lately about people having an offering for people who are not ready to work with them. Oftentimes it's because they cannot afford that service rate, but it is really important to a lot of these service providers that I've talked to, that they have something to offer the potential client or the potential customer. 

[00:00:29] Now, when you can offer them something, you both win.

[00:00:32] Hey everyone. Welcome to Your First Digital Product, a show that helps maxed out service providers create their first digital product so they can gain an additional income stream, grow their impact without increasing one on one work, and experience more time freedom. On the show, I talk to business owners who have launched digital products and dig deep into how you can create, launch, and market your first digital product. I'm your host Rene Morozowich. Let's go!

[00:01:01] Hey friends. Today we are here to talk about a question that came up recently in a conversation with a new connection. I know I say this a lot in a lot of the episodes have come from questions and just discussions with new people. So if you are someone new and we have not had a discussion yet let me know. I would love to talk with you because I love to create new content from questions that people actually have. 

[00:01:27] So the question that came up recently was why should I spend time on a $50 product when my services are thousands of dollars? I love this question because on the surface it makes sense, right? Like it looks like a valid comparison, but if you really look at it, the comparison just is not there. And we're going to talk about many ways that you can look at this. But really quickly before I get into this, I want to make sure that you understand I am pro product. 

[00:01:59] So [00:02:00] you can see this from the episodes that I've already put out. However, I am not here to convince you that you need a digital product. Not everyone needs or wants a digital product. And that is perfectly fine. I have no way of knowing if a digital product would be good for you or not. So what I want you to do is not just blanket, take all the advice and be like, oh, Rene says I should create a product. 

[00:02:24] Okay. I really want you to think critically about what you're hearing and what you're learning on this show and figure out if it works for you or figure out which pieces of information work for you. So just wanted to get that disclaimer out of the way before we dive in. So. The question again. Why should I spend time on a $50 product when my services are thousands of dollars? Now, one thing that I make this mistake all the time. I think that the way it is now is the way it's always going to be. Now that could be related to anything in my life. But everything in my life is going to change. It's not always going to be this way for better or for worse. 

[00:03:06] So I want you to think about future you, what will future you encounter? What will future you need? What will future you be glad that you did or didn't do? So I kind of have a picture in my mind of what you, as a listener might look like. So I am hoping that you are a service provider. You're established. 

[00:03:28] You've been doing this for a while. You've been helping clients. You're doing good work. Right. You're getting referrals and everything is working pretty well. But it may not always be like this. So what are some things that you might encounter. You may want or need time for other things. You may have an unsteady stream of referrals. That happens sometimes. You may need more money, but you don't have the time or energy for more work and or maybe you're capped out on what you can charge. 

[00:03:59] I know we love [00:04:00] to think of this idea that as a service provider, we can just continue to charge more and more and more and more. And sometimes we can, however, the client base will probably change. And maybe you like the clients that you're working with now. And maybe there just isn't a way for you to charge exponentially more money to this same client base. So you may want more money in the future and you may need it, but you might not have time or energy for more one-on-one work. Now. I love services. 

[00:04:28] And I am sure that you as an established service provider do too. So I'm not here to tell you to stop offering services, but I am a big fan of starting to decouple that time and that money. To diversify, you know, put your eggs in different baskets, all that good stuff. So. The thing about services and products. With services, you have to be available at the same time the client is at least in part. At some point you need to connect on a certain time table. Now. You could be setting the timetable and that's perfectly fine, but at some point there is a time connection in there somehow. You're still coordinating or something like that. But with a product, it is your own time. 

[00:05:13] You are not beholden to when the client can get together with you or not, or when they can review your items or not. So the timetable is yours and yours alone. Now. It is a little bit of a backwards process, too. So at the service you have a client. They pay and you perform the service. Now with a product you're creating the product before you have the customer. 

[00:05:36] For the most part. We have talked about pre-selling and other things like that on the show, but for the most part, you're creating the product and then hoping that the customers come after that. So think about future you, it's not always going to be this way and not any sort of like scare tactics or anything like that, but you may want or need more time or income, anything like [00:06:00] that. 

[00:06:00] Let's talk about what a $50 product actually means. So again, back to the question, why should I spend time on a $50 product when my services are thousands of dollars? Now the comparison is not $50, thousands of dollars. That is not the comparison that's actually happening here. Because you can sell the product many times over without having to recreate it each time. So just, some basic math so that we don't have to, you know, kind of dive in too much. A $5,000 service is 100 $50 products. 

[00:06:35] Now, again, I don't know how much you charge for your services. It doesn't matter. I don't know how much you might charge for a product. That also doesn't matter. But just to kind of put a comparison, side-by-side a $5,000 service is 100 $50 products. Now, the next time you sell that service, you have to do it again, right. You have to meet with the client again, you have to send the proposals again. 

[00:06:55] You have to do the work again, and yes, maybe you have streamlined your processes along the way, and it's not as difficult. You know, to do all of that work, you have templates and things set up for yourself, but you, you do have to do it all again. Right? You have to coordinate with that client. 

[00:07:09] You have to meet with that client at some point, you have to wait for that client to email you back, whatever you've asked them. And things like that. Now, if you sold a hundred more products, you don't have to do as much. Now I am simplifying. Yes. I understand. And marketing, yes, you will still have to market, but you don't have to recreate the product. 

[00:07:28] No. You don't have to spend that one-on-one time. No. So it is a little bit different. It is not a one-to-one comparison. So the product can continue to live. You can continue to sell it. Whereas with the service you are offering that service again. So that is just something that I want to point out. Now. 

[00:07:47] Digital products can also warm people up. The goal of a product is not always just the money that you make from it. And I've had so many conversations lately. It seems like more and more conversations lately [00:08:00] about people having an offering for people who are not ready to work with them. Oftentimes it's because they cannot afford that service rate, but it is really important to a lot of these service providers that I've talked to, that they have something to offer the potential client or the potential customer. 

[00:08:19] Now, when you can offer them something, you both win, right. So if somebody comes to you and they say, oh, Hey, I'm really interested in your service. And you say it's X dollars. And they say, oh, I can't afford that. You might say, oh, I have this product. And you can sell them the product. 

[00:08:35] Now you get that income. They get to learn from you. But I think more importantly, they'll stay in your orbit. They'll continue to follow you on social media. They may purchase additional products from you if you have those. They may join a group program or a a mastermind or a group coaching or anything like that. And maybe they will work with you later. 

[00:08:55] Now maybe they won't, but you haven't spent any one-on-one time with them. They have just been consuming things that you've already created. 

[00:09:03] Now let's go back and talk about audiences. Now very early on I created an episode about audiences, the three types of people that you can sell to as a service provider. You may want to provide a product for the DIY crowd. 

[00:09:20] So these are the people maybe who are just starting out in their businesses. They definitely can't afford you, but don't forget about that other audience of people who are almost ready to work with you, but not quite yet. So they may hire you in the near future, maybe six months from now, but they're just not quite ready yet. 

[00:09:38] And that product that you may have for them can get them prepared to work with you and just imagine how wonderful it would be when a client came to you, totally prepared, ready to work with you right out of the gate. I think that's a great feeling as a service provider. So having a product that could get them there. [00:10:00] That you don't have to spend one-on-one time with them preparing them can be so super powerful. 

[00:10:05] So that is just my little spiel on warming people up, digital products can warm people up to working with you. And the last thing I want to talk about is when you create a product, you're building your business in a different way. Now you're serving clients, you've been serving clients, but what would happen if you just stopped? If you stopped serving clients for whatever reason. You wanted to, you had to some combination of the two. Probably everything would collapse, right? 

[00:10:36] Like there's no income because you might not have any additional income streams. So if you stopped, you wouldn't have anything else. If you had a product that was offering something to someone, you could continue to sell that product if you stopped serving clients because you had to or you wanted to. I also like to think about building your own business in creating something of your own. Using your creative juices. 

[00:11:04] And there's a lot of pride in that. There's a lot of pride in creating something that at the end you can say, I created this. This is mine. I'm looking down at my hands. You can't see my hands. On the video or on audio, but you're creating something of your own. There's a lot of pride in that to say that you did it. And you developed a lot of new skills along the way. 

[00:11:24] So developing the product, creating it. The time management that it took. Selling the product, marketing, the product. These are all useful skills. Even if you are still offering a service and you want to keep offering services. So don't discount what you might learn and what you might get on the other end from creating a digital product. Now to conclude this episode, I don't really have any specific questions. 

[00:11:50] I know if you've been listening to the solo episodes, you know, I always have a specific question at the end and I always want to hear from you now. I still want to hear from you. I just don't have a question to [00:12:00] ask you. So I'm just really curious what you think about this topic. What do you think about a smaller paid product in comparison to a larger paid service? 

[00:12:11] Can you see that there might be a place for digital products in your service offerings, in your overall offerings? Do you think it's a terrible idea? I'm really just curious what you think. So as always, please send me a message at yfdp.show/share. You can leave a quick five minute, up to five minute. 

[00:12:30] You don't have to speak for five minutes up to five minutes of audio there for me. And I may feature you on an upcoming episode. If you don't want me to, that's perfectly fine. You can just let me know, but I really would love to hear from you just to see what you think about this important question. 

[00:12:46] Hey, thanks for listening. I'd love to continue the conversation in your inbox. Email SUBSCRIBE to hey at yfdp.show or sign up in the show notes to get bi monthly emails about how you can create, launch, and market your first digital product. Can't wait to see you there.