Episode 310
Need Cash Fast? Here’s How to Use Back Pocket Offers! [Ep. 310]
🎧 Want more unfiltered strategy and real-time business insight?
Check out Back Pocket Insights, my private podcast community with short, story-driven episodes pulled straight from everyday life and client conversations.
_________________________________________________________
Today, we're diving into the magic of back pocket offers...cash injection gems you pull out of your back pocket when your revenue needs a little boost.
These aren't your run-of-the-mill launches or lengthy email sequences; we’re talking quick, easy-to-execute offers that can swoop in when you're at capacity or facing a slow season.
Think upsells, downsells, or even special cohorts that you can keep tucked away for when the cash flow gets a bit tight.
It's all about creating flexibility in your business without getting bogged down in over-creation.
___________________________________________________________
Here's your Next Steps:
- Take the "Where's the Gap in Your Business Strategy" Quiz
- Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn or Facebook
- Visit my website to learn more and apply for the Focused Visionary Accelerator
- Sign up for my newsletter - Sunday Morning Brew - delivered every Sunday at 6 am
Transcript
Hey.
Speaker A:Hey.
Speaker A:Welcome back to the real truth about business.
Speaker A:Today we are talking about one of my absolute favorite topics, and that is back pocket offers or cash injection offers.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:And these are offers that don't need a launch plan.
Speaker A:They don't need a big long sales page or a big ten email welcome sequence or whatever, right?
Speaker A:These are the offers that you pull out of your back pocket when you need a cash injection or when you're looking to increase revenue.
Speaker A:They can be upsells, they can be downsells, they could be special cohorts, whatever.
Speaker A:But what they are is they are not part of your regular offer suite, right?
Speaker A:They are not offers that you actively promote on a regular basis.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:They are ones that you keep.
Speaker A:Why I call them back pocket is like you keep it in your back pocket and you pull it out when you need it.
Speaker A:All right, so we're diving in.
Speaker A:I'm super excited.
Speaker A:This is seriously one of my favorite topics.
Speaker A:Ready?
Speaker A:Let's do it.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So back pocket offers, I don't know if I mean, I've heard them called cash injection offers, mini offers.
Speaker A:I mean, some people just refer to them as kind of upsells down sells.
Speaker A:But let's just talk about what is a back pocket offer.
Speaker A:Again, I mentioned it briefly in the intro, but it's, it's an offer that you, you're not actively promoting year round, right?
Speaker A:It's something that you have, it's a resource in your toolbox.
Speaker A:It's a course, it's a program, it's something maybe you create as a special cohort.
Speaker A:I'm going to give you some examples for sure.
Speaker A:But they are fantastic, fast to execute offers, right?
Speaker A:And they solve a very specific need.
Speaker A:They are not your big signature offers.
Speaker A:They're kind of like very stripped down versions, right?
Speaker A:So they are easy for you to execute.
Speaker A:They are low lift for the client and they are designed to be used like when you're either at capacity and you don't have room to take on new clients, but you still want to bring in some revenue when you're maybe in a slower season and you're like, my bigger offer is not selling.
Speaker A:So let me create this little back pocket offer, right?
Speaker A:They could be when you have like an unexpected expense pop up or something.
Speaker A:Maybe you're working towards like a new goal that you're working towards or something.
Speaker A:Maybe you want to buy a new laptop or a new computer or something, you know, and you just need a cash injection or.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:Or when, if you are in, if you're somebody that does live launches and you're not really in launch mode and you want to bring in some revenue in between your launches.
Speaker A:You could use these as kind of a cash again, a cash injection when you are not currently promoting your main offer.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And so I just love them, right?
Speaker A:Like I really love them because they're easy to create.
Speaker A:However, they are not something that you should just have a million of either, right?
Speaker A:Like you don't need to have a million back pocket offers because that again you still have to sell them.
Speaker A:It's not like you're going to.
Speaker A:You don't just create just to create, right?
Speaker A:Like I want to really preface that is you are not just creating these just to create them because that would be an absolute.
Speaker A:Then it's.
Speaker A:You're just stuck in creation mode.
Speaker A:So why should you have them, right?
Speaker A:And the whole point is of them is that they create flexibility, right?
Speaker A:They create flexibility without that over creation, the over over building.
Speaker A:And they allow you to stay in motion with your current long term strategy, right?
Speaker A:With your North Star with that bigger vision.
Speaker A:But they give you these little like for a lot of people we get bored, right?
Speaker A:There's also a, that I see them used in that way too is like they if you get bored, if you feel like I need something new but you really don't want to derail your plans.
Speaker A:Like this is a great way to kind of give you something new, something fun, something exciting to do, but it's not taking you completely off course.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I also think they are great as like down sells or even like an upsell.
Speaker A:So I'll give you a couple examples of little back pocket offers that I have.
Speaker A:So, so I have.
Speaker A:Everybody knows, you all know if you listen to this podcast, my signature offer is my six month group consulting, the Focus Visionary accelerator.
Speaker A:I I'm calling it Group Consulting because I really want everybody to understand that it is not a DIY course.
Speaker A:Yes, there is structure to it and yes there is a course component to it.
Speaker A:But it's, it's still coaching, right?
Speaker A:Like it's still very individualized coaching.
Speaker A:It's me working, working with you individually anyway, sidetrack.
Speaker A:But like I realized and I talked about this in whatever the episode around, no having more fun is that like not everybody is ready for the Focus Visionary.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And in integrity, if somebody is not ready for it, they're not going to get the results for it.
Speaker A:And so I created this little back pocket offer I called it was a cash injection offer.
Speaker A:It was that summer sprint.
Speaker A:It was like a 90 day.
Speaker A:It's actually a four month program, but it's 90 days with a bonus month.
Speaker A:So still four months.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:But it's a cash injection offer in the sense that it's not something I'm going to actively promote.
Speaker A:I'm not going to put it on my website.
Speaker A:I did not create a landing page for it, nothing.
Speaker A:I just created a Google Doc of it and I sold it to a few people who I was like, hey, I know that you're not quite ready for the fba, but here's what I created.
Speaker A:I thought this might be of interest to you.
Speaker A:So that's kind of like a back pocket offer.
Speaker A:Another other back pocket offer I have which stemmed off of my birthday offers Is this 40 days of accountability, which I love it, but I'm not going to put it out there and sell it publicly because one, if I've never worked with somebody, it would be very hard for me to just hold them accountable without having some type of strategy session or something first where I could really get to know their business.
Speaker A:So I'm not going to sell, sell the 40 days of accountability to just anybody.
Speaker A:But like I had a client that was a past client who I had worked with in the past and reached back out.
Speaker A:She really doesn't need or want to go back into the Focus Visionary, but she's looking for some one to one support.
Speaker A:So I was like, hey, I've got this 40 day accountability program.
Speaker A:It may be a good fit for you if you're interested.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So I kind of pulled it out of my back pocket again.
Speaker A:It's not something I'm advertising publicly.
Speaker A:It's not something that's going to go on my website.
Speaker A:Nothing.
Speaker A:It's just, it's there when it is a good fit.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So again, it's all about creating that flexibility, meeting people where they're at and allowing you to have something that you can use when, if and when you want it.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It's all about your discernment.
Speaker A:You get to decide do I pull this out of my back pocket or not.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It's not like somebody's going to come actively searching you, you know, searching out for it.
Speaker A:It's something that if you have a client that you see like man, they really, I think would be better off with just this.
Speaker A:You can use that.
Speaker A:You can promote them publicly.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like I could promote the Summer Sprint.
Speaker A:I did a couple times.
Speaker A:I put it out to my email list or whatever.
Speaker A:But like I may utilize that again because I do think it's A great entry point.
Speaker A:So once I've run it once, I, I more than likely am going to keep it around.
Speaker A:But again, not something I advertise on a regular basis.
Speaker A:It's going to be invite only.
Speaker A:Same thing like I did.
Speaker A:It's like, hey, I've got this.
Speaker A:I'm getting ready to open the doors to it.
Speaker A:We're starting in whatever January or whatever it is, November, you know, whatever I decide.
Speaker A:I'm just saying like could be like a February start date type thing where you just kind of run it a couple times a year and it's a cash injection, but that's it, right?
Speaker A:It's not something you, you advertise.
Speaker A:Another back pocket offer that I did once was I offered Boxer Days.
Speaker A:Like it was $97.
Speaker A:People could book it for any month and they could just be with me for an entire day in Boxer.
Speaker A:I loved it.
Speaker A:It sold really well.
Speaker A:A strategy session, that's kind of a back pocket offer.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:You're not going to find where you can book a one off strategy session on my website anywhere.
Speaker A:Because I don't really love to do them because I feel like they leave people hanging.
Speaker A:But in certain situations they are a good fit, right?
Speaker A:And so I will allow.
Speaker A:And I do talk about it when I'm like, hey, why don't we just do a strategy session?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:But again, these could be, I mean, Back Pocket offers could be recordings of workshops that you've done.
Speaker A:They could be, you know, it doesn't have to be something live that you do.
Speaker A:It could be that you had a bunch of workshops that you did or you sell it or you did a re recorded a workshop that you have and you sell.
Speaker A:It kind of is now like a DIY course.
Speaker A:And it could be something that you just kind of let people know about again, hey, I don't really talk about this publicly, but I got this course.
Speaker A:It may be something of interest to you.
Speaker A:Do you want to start there?
Speaker A:You could do like mini audits.
Speaker A:Audits are a great cash injection offer depending on your business.
Speaker A:So if you are a web designer or a copywriter or a brand designer, that type of thing, an audit, a podcast strategist, like audits, podcast audits.
Speaker A:Those are great little cash injection offers of like, let me get in.
Speaker A:It helps build trust.
Speaker A:I mean that's also one of the big key points to Back pocket offers is that they build trust, right?
Speaker A:If somebody is new to you, they're not quite ready to invest into your big program.
Speaker A:And so these allow you to build trust and Continue to build trust while maybe they're thinking about or you're warming them up or moving them through your pipeline into your bigger offer.
Speaker A:Okay, but here's what back pocket offers do not need and do not include, right?
Speaker A:They do not include a whole new brand.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:You're not going to rebrand everything to launch out a back pocket offer.
Speaker A:You're not going to create a full sales page.
Speaker A:Like you're not going to hire a copywriter and a graphic designer and all the things for a back pocket offer unless it's something that you, you like want to continue to run where it's like more of a cash injection offer.
Speaker A:I think there is a slight different to that.
Speaker A:I would say a back pocket offer is something that like you pull out when you need it.
Speaker A:Where a cash injection offer could be something that you run maybe only once a year.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So my biz planning at the end of the year, I do put time and effort into that, creating a landing page and some graphics and stuff like that because I do run it every year.
Speaker A:But it's a cash injection offer, right?
Speaker A:Like it's an a year end.
Speaker A:It's one time.
Speaker A:It only happens at year end.
Speaker A:I don't run it any other time.
Speaker A:So even that I don't put a lot of time and money into it because it happens once a year and every year it changes a little bit.
Speaker A:So I don't create a whole new sales page and everything else.
Speaker A:Sometimes it's just a simple landing page that I just, you know, create and put some new copy on for the new year.
Speaker A:But it's not something I on average.
Speaker A:So there's a little bit of a difference there.
Speaker A:Hopefully that makes sense.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Like cash injection might be something that you do on repeat, but you don't advertise it on a regular basis.
Speaker A:But you do maybe run it at least once or twice a year.
Speaker A:Where a back pocket offer is kind of something like I've got all of these.
Speaker A:These are more upsell down sells.
Speaker A:Like I said, like the 40 days of accountability is an upsell.
Speaker A:The day in Voxer is kind of a downsell.
Speaker A:A little summer sprint is kind of a downsell.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So they're not something that you market all the time.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:They are for like little quick pivots.
Speaker A:If you're feeling like I just need something, I need a change, I need a little bit of a change in direction.
Speaker A:But they're not long term staples.
Speaker A:Now they could be something that you try and then you decide like, wow, that worked out.
Speaker A:Really Well, I want to keep them.
Speaker A:Right, you could do it that way too.
Speaker A:Like you can keep them around.
Speaker A:And then these are also a great way to try and like beta test.
Speaker A:I wouldn't necessarily call like, it's not an exact a beta test, but it is a great way to see like, I think I want to try this.
Speaker A:Let me just, you know, kind of do this invite only, see if I like it, see if it fits and then it's a good way and it may become part of your long term strategy, but you don't really know that at the time, right.
Speaker A:You're just kind of testing it out.
Speaker A:So how do you know when to actually utilize these back pocket offers without it getting confusing?
Speaker A:Right, Because I can, I, I can hear it and I can sense that it could get a little bit confusing.
Speaker A:Okay, so here is when you know it's a good time to utilize a back pocket offer or a cash injection.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So you are at full capacity, meaning you especially if you are a done for you service provider and you're at capacity with one to one clients or your group or you are a launcher, right.
Speaker A:And you are in between launches.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So if you're at capacity and you can't take on any more one to one clients but you want more of like an, you just want to bring in some new revenue, you could do like offer up a course or maybe do these boxer days or do little audits or sell a past training or something like that.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Because you're at capacity but you want to keep your audience warm.
Speaker A:You want to keep them engaged and you want to keep them, you want to stay top of mind.
Speaker A:So you want to put something in front of them even though you aren't necessarily able to take on new one to one clients.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So that's a good option for that.
Speaker A:You also could use them if revenue is feeling tight and you're just like, I don't know, I don't feel like revenue is a little tight.
Speaker A:I've got something I needed some quick cash.
Speaker A:I know this usually sells.
Speaker A:So let me just throw this out there and it could be, you don't put it out there to the public.
Speaker A:It could be invite only, right?
Speaker A:That's a great way to utilize these cash injection or back pocket offers is like, hey, I was thinking about you.
Speaker A:I'm thinking about doing this.
Speaker A:I don't have a lot of capacity but I thought maybe it'd be something you'd be interested in.
Speaker A:So you kind of do it as like a priority private invite only.
Speaker A:And so it gives you a little bit of a boost, but you're not full on launching.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Another one is you've got kind of a warm audience, but they're not ready for your bigger offer.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Like, that's what I was talking about with the Summer Sprint.
Speaker A:Why I created that is because they really aren't ready for my bigger offer.
Speaker A:But they're warm, they're engaged, they want to work with me, they're wanting to do something.
Speaker A:And so it was like, hey, where's the happy medium here?
Speaker A:That I can create something that feels good and fulfilling to me and make sure that it's in alignment with what I'm doing, but also is going to serve your need and your purpose.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So keeping them warm, keeping them engaged, but they're not quite ready for your bigger offer.
Speaker A:Or like we said, it's a good opportunity to test something and get feedback.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So what I do want to make sure that you understand is that this is not.
Speaker A:These are not done from a place of panic, right?
Speaker A:This is not a like, oh my gosh, I can't pay my mortgage and so I need to sell out of desperation, right?
Speaker A:Like, at the end of the day, there's nothing, you know, desperation doesn't sell, right?
Speaker A:So you want to make sure that you're not just creating something or shifting because you're panicking or you're in a place of reactivity, right?
Speaker A:If you have.
Speaker A:You don't want to just automatically go to your back pocket offer is the downsell because you aren't confident in your full in your regular offer, right?
Speaker A:Or your main offer.
Speaker A:So this is where I see some confusion happen as people just automatically move to the downsell and they don't even give people the opportunity to buy their main offer, right?
Speaker A:So you don't want to get to a place where you're constantly like, oh, I.
Speaker A:I'll just use my back pocket offer all the time, right?
Speaker A:Like, then it defeats the purpose, right?
Speaker A:So if you're finding yourself always resorting to this downsell or this like, back pocket type thing, then maybe you need to relook at your entire offer suite and figure out like, do I need to reevaluate what offers I have?
Speaker A:And maybe you need to completely change your offer suite, right?
Speaker A:But if you know and you feel confident and real, feel really good in your offer suite, then you don't want to constantly be using this as a place of like, I just need the sale, so I'm going to give them this, right?
Speaker A:And then also you Want to make sure that you're, you're strategic about it.
Speaker A:You don't want to create something that's out of left field, that is going to attract a completely different audience than what you're already trying to build or an audience that is in alignment with your current offers, your current brand, etc.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like you do not want to, you don't want to create offers that speak to a completely different audience.
Speaker A:You want to be very careful about that.
Speaker A:And so you want to make sure that like you're asking, is this offer solving a very specific problem for your audience right now?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Like that's the intention of it.
Speaker A:It's like, hey, you have this issue.
Speaker A:My other offer isn't a good fit for you right now, but this one is, this one gives you that quick win, right?
Speaker A:That's what you're looking for is you're trying to give people those quick wins to that was immediate solving of their problems and just really helping them right now in the moment, while they're ready, while they're engaged.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And so it's a very results focused, right?
Speaker A:That's the key is that these back pocket and cash injection offers are very heavily results focused.
Speaker A:I know all offers are results focused, but it's more of that quick win.
Speaker A:If you think about it, right.
Speaker A:Where like my six month, the Focus Visionary, that's like it's six months for a reason.
Speaker A:You're going to get quick wins.
Speaker A:I actually just had a client say like she's gotten more wins in the past four weeks since signing up for the Focus Visionary than she did all of last year.
Speaker A:There's, there's some really quick wins that happen but the I, the bigger wins come in the length of time.
Speaker A:That's why it's a six month program, right.
Speaker A:Where with this smaller summer sprint or whatever, which is only like 30, 60, 90 days or like a strategy session, you're going to give them a quick win immediately, right?
Speaker A:Does that, hopefully that's making sense to you.
Speaker A:So you want to really make sure that these offers are not again often left field somewhere and wanting to do you know that are just going to confuse your audience.
Speaker A:That's what you don't want to do.
Speaker A:You want to make sure that they are in alignment with everything that you're currently doing and keeping you focused on.
Speaker A:Okay, so here's your action steps.
Speaker A:Inventory what's already in your business or something that you did in the past, right?
Speaker A:Like how can you repurpose something you did in the past.
Speaker A:Did you used to Offer strategy sessions and you don't anymore.
Speaker A:Did you used to offer audits?
Speaker A:And maybe you don't anymore.
Speaker A:These cash injection offers are great for summer when things are a little bit slower.
Speaker A:So they're great for slower seasons.
Speaker A:So again, like when you're busy, balls to the wall, you're not going to run a bunch of audits.
Speaker A:But if you're in a SL slower season, you might be able to run some audits.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And so you look at and see like, what is something that I've done in the past that I could just bring back and utilize and maybe do invite only or do like a really short promotional period around.
Speaker A:The other thing is, is like do you have a warm audience that's asking for something that you don't currently have and could it be something you could easily create?
Speaker A:Right, like that summer sprint that I easily created.
Speaker A:It was basically just a pared down version of the fva, but very heavily focused on three core things and that's it.
Speaker A:Not all of the big, big deep dive and everything else.
Speaker A:Okay, and so then create your back pocket menu, like have them and just create those offers and decide like, how do I want to utilize these?
Speaker A:Are they upsells, are they downsells, are they cash injections?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:How do you want to utilize them?
Speaker A:Right, so give each one like a clear outcome of like this is I use this when or I would utilize it here and there, I want to use this one in between launches.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like be very clear on your intention with the offer and not just having again, the goal here is not to just create more offers, just to create.
Speaker A:That's not it at all.
Speaker A:It's to create them intentionally and decide like, when do I want to use this?
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And you really want to look ahead in planning.
Speaker A:And so if you have been in business, you know, when your slower seasons are, you know, kind of when you're at capacity and so you want to be make like be mindful of when you would potentially utilize these.
Speaker A:Okay, so is it like in the beginning of the year just to get some excitement?
Speaker A:Is it pre launch, is it mid launch, you know, whatever.
Speaker A:All right, so that's really it.
Speaker A:You know, back pocket offers, think of it exactly that way.
Speaker A:It's like I'm utilizing these, I pull it out of my back pocket when it is the right fit for that client or for me.
Speaker A:Right, for you as a business owner, either one.
Speaker A:And you've got to just decide.
Speaker A:All right, so you're going to think about this, think about how you could utilize Them if you want to talk about it.
Speaker A:I would love to talk about.
Speaker A:I love like love, love, love creating back pocket offers.
Speaker A:It was actually the workshop that we did inside of the Focus Visionary in June.
Speaker A:I just.
Speaker A:Because I think they're just such a great way to get that little quick cash injection.
Speaker A:Sometimes we need a quick win, right?
Speaker A:Not just the client that needs a quick win, but like we as business owners sometimes need a quick win, especially if we're in a slower season.
Speaker A:And these kind of give you that quick win.
Speaker A:So they're a really easy tool to add to your strategy and to increase your revenue options.
Speaker A:But if you want help mapping that out, I could absolutely help you with a strategy session.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And I will put the link to book a 60 minute strategy session, actually with a discount, right?
Speaker A:I'll give you a discount.
Speaker A:And this is a perfect example of a cash injection, right?
Speaker A:Or a back pocket offer.
Speaker A:I don't typically talk about them.
Speaker A:I would not typically offer you a strategy session.
Speaker A:You know that because, you know, I always talk about the F E A.
Speaker A:But because this is something so small, it's a very focused thing.
Speaker A:It's one thing that we could focus on and we can get it done in 60 minutes.
Speaker A:And I don't feel like I would be leaving you hanging because you'll know what to do with it, right?
Speaker A:We're going to create the plan.
Speaker A:You'll know what to do with it.
Speaker A:There is no follow through needed.
Speaker A:So it is a great opportunity for a strategy session.
Speaker A:So if you would love to create these little back pocket cash injection offers, I will put the link to book a strategy session.
Speaker A:This is a great opportunity for it and also a great example of how you can utilize these little back pocket cash injection offers.
Speaker A:All right, have fun with them.
Speaker A:They really are a great, great way to increase revenue and just have options to meet people where they're at so that you're not losing warm leads and also you're not getting capped with your revenue.
Speaker A:These are a great way to just kind of make sure that you're building revenue no matter what season you're in.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:So I love you.
Speaker A:I believe in you.
Speaker A:I'll talk to you soon.
Speaker A:Thanks so much for listening today, but remember, now it's time to take action.
Speaker A:My goal is to get you results.
Speaker A:So what is one action you can commit to taking this week?
Speaker A:Feel free to share it with me in my DMs or tag me on your socials.
Speaker A:Not sure what action to take?
Speaker A:Grab the link in the show notes and schedule a strategic power hour.
Speaker A:We can talk through it together and get you a strategic plan of action in just 60 short minutes.
Speaker A:Oh, and one last favor.
Speaker A:As with every podcast, reviews and reviews ratings are what help us continue to show up and grow.
Speaker A:So if you wouldn't mind, please take a quick minute to leave a five star review on Apple or Spotify and share this episode with a friend.
Speaker A:Thanks.
Speaker A:Talk soon.
