How Alan McKenna Generated Over $100K from a Micro Offer to Back-end Sales Strategy

Tim: When it comes to a high end offer such as a $5000 event, selling tickets requires a bit of finesse. If you can use that finesse to drum up over $20,000 in revenue before ever selling a single ticket then that’s just the icing on the cake. If I’m making it sound simple, well that’s because it really is. Alan McKenna from Business Acceleration Strategies is on the show today to share how he did it for one of his clients and sold over $100,000 worth of tickets. Not too shabby for a single event.

Now, you’ve probably heard of the tripwire before which is kind of the strategy he used but the very tailored way that he used it is what impressed me the most. By the way, you don’t have to be promoting an event to get value out of this case study. It applies across multiple industries but it’s especially valuable if you’re selling a fairly high priced product. That being said, I’m ready to get into so let’s go. I’m Tim Page, the conversion educator here at LeadPages and this is ConversionCast.

Hey Alan, welcome to ConversionCast.

Alan: Hi, Tim. Thanks for having me on here.

Tim: Absolutely thanks for being on. So we’ve got a fun one today, something that a lot of people ask me about. I won’t get into it, I’m going to let you kind of explain kind of what you did but the first thing that we want to hear is what were the results that you were able to get from today’s case study?

Alan: So the results were we managed to drive over $100,000 into a live event that was a high ticket event for this one particular client through an unusual strategy that most people wouldn’t necessarily think to use.

Tim: Nice. I love that. Now so that’s for one event six figures is really fantastic. And so you know we’ll get into the tactic in a second but I think it will be valuable to kind of talk about what it is that you do, kind of what your company is and what your role is there.

Alan: My company is called Business Acceleration Strategies. Basically I build six and seven-figure marketing and sales funnels.

Tim: Awesome fantastic and you do that for clients in all kind of ranges of business?

Alan: No. I tend to – the primary area of clients I work with is in the personal development space, the business coaching space, the infomarketing space.

Tim: Okay, great. So let’s get into this. Can you kind of set the stage for what – kind of what you were going through and where this strategy came into play?

Alan: Sure. So this particular client they had a high ticket event. It was $3500 to $5000 for a ticket to attend this event. You know, they made a bunch of tickets also but they wanted to get more and they were kind of up against the wall as to what’s the next thing we’re going to do to enroll people in this program. So what I suggested was that we drove people to a conversation but rather than just driving to a conversation, we took them through – we actually invited people to purchase a low ticket offer which was $18 and it was actually a segment of the event. We took one segment of the event very, very powerful segment of the event knowing that there’s probably want more of that. So we knew the audience would resonate with potentially coming to the event because of the particular segment that we were selling. We sold that segment for  $18, a lot ticket, a micro offer, a trip wire offer if you like and we drove a list. We drove 1350 sales into the $18 offer which is great because it was like $26,000+ cash on the front end.

And then off the backend of that literally when they want to the thank you page, or they went to the delivery page, we invited them into a strategy session. From the 1350 people and approached them that’s the $18 offer, we have 350-360 people that requested a strategy session. We drove that into a sales team. They got on the phone, talked people through their particular issue, scenarios, goals, dreams, what they were looking for and how this event could help them achieve that and end up selling [[0:04:16]] [indiscernible]  it was over, it was nicely over six figures into this event. We managed to put a good number of people into this event when the event was now fairly close to go in live. It’s about six weeks away from going live.

Tim: Yeah that’s really incredible and were these folks that were already on you know, your clients list and you just basically sent them to the tripwire offer or was it kind of the traditional you offer it some kind of a lead magnet. Once they opted in for that lead magnet it took them to the tripwire offer.

Alan: Now they were already on the client’s list. It was really used as another way to engage people and really to get people to put their hand up that we knew had an interest in that particular topic and subject.  Also obviously the purpose of the trip course is to engage people financially so that they are more apt to take the next step.

[0:05:10]

Tim: Got you. Okay. So what was it that, what was the main reasons that this was so successful in your opinion, was it because it was an offer that was already part of the event? It was something that was so specific to the event that in order for somebody to want to even buy that thing it would clearly identify them as a potential attendee of the event?

Alan: Yes. That was one thing that made it very, very strong. The other thing is that this particular client, you know, she doesn’t offer things that are in that kind of 18 you know, $50, $100 range. So it was a real grabber for people to say well wow that’s a no brainer, let me just move forward and do that. So at first it was a qualifier because of the content that they were purchasing into and secondly because they’ve put down their credit card and made the decision that to move this thing forward.

Tim: Got you. Okay so this there was part of this that had to do with who the client was herself that kind of added value but this could still work regardless of that. it’s just that that kind of just gave it the extra boost for people to actually you know, take you up on the tripwire.

Alan: Absolutely, yup.

Tim: Okay. And then from the tripwire, can you tell us a little bit about you know, what the thank you page was that invited them to sign up for a strategy session? Kind of what was it that compelled people to actually move forward with that strategy session?

Alan: Sure. It was a simple thing that just said we sent an email to your inbox would be with access to the video you requested or the content you requested or the content you requested and then we just put on unadvertised [[0:06:43]] [indiscernible] .We literally rolled into the invitation for a strategy session talking to them already inviting them to understand where they are now, where they want to go in the shortest possible path to get them. Those big goals and everything that they’re looking to achieve.

Tim: Nice. And so from that strategy session, they were booked to speak to sales person and the sales person talked with them kind of through that process through what their goals were or what they wanted to accomplish.

Alan: Yeah.

Tim: And kind of proposed a plan to them or said you know attend this event because that’s where you’re going to overcome that? What was kind of the sales person’s process for getting them to sign up for that high end event?

Alan: Sure. Yeah. So this is so and it didn’t always end up in a south for the high end event because ultimately with the way that I structure strategy sessions, from my clients when I’m building a back end sales funnel, is it is where are you now, where do you want to be, and this is the surest path to get there. But we look at what was the product suite, what are the products specifically or programs specifically that would be suitable for that particular prospect to get them really where they want to go. And if the event wasn’t for them, then you know, we’re not going to push you selling the event to those people. It might be there’s another part and another program or a different event that would help them achieve what they were looking to achieve primarily. We did end up selling a whole host of other products and programs through the leads that came through that particular funnel as well as selling tickets to the event. Because obviously you know some people have already got things on their schedule. They come to event but there might be something else that can help them achieve that result. It’s all about helping the client and the client’s client get the end result. So that’s where we took people.

Tim: Nice. So somebody who is not particularly promoting an event, could really make this an opportunity for a sale to any product. So you know, you had sales people working for this particular client but if somebody wanted to if they were either a small, let’s say they were a smaller business like a solopreneur they could do the same strategy and then have the strategy session with themselves. Granted it’s not the most scalable strategy but it is a great way to maybe have a launch and build up a base foundation whereas on the other side of things if it’s an enterprise, if this is a larger company doing this what a great way to provide awesome leads for the sales team that are really ready to go that want to communicate with your sales force and have an opportunity to sell them on your services, your products, your software. It can really work across a lot of different industries.

Alan: Absolutely, yeah, yeah, it definitely –it’s definitely not just an event thing. You know, with the backend sales funnels that I’ve built for clients we sell into products programs all sorts of different things. And for sure Tim if you’re a solopreneur, or even if you just have a sales team of one and that could just mean you have a person on your team and maybe it’s a small team but they are more prone to you know, or they have more of an attitude to get on the phone and talk to people. You can just drive leads to that person just for a short period of time and you know, with a simple script that’s structured outright. That person could make a difference.

[0:10:02]

Tim: And is there anything that is important for folks who want to go and try this? is there anything that’s important for them to know that we haven’t talked about?

Alan: Let’s say the number one thing, there’s really two things actually. Number one is actually being able to drive leads to a request for a strategy session or a conversation that you can call it whichever we want.

Tim: Yeah.

Alan: And number two is really having the right script for [[0:10:29]] [indiscernible]  to have that conversation and guide people to what is the next logical step for them to take. It’s never about hard selling anybody. It’s always about serving them and helping them take the next best move for them.

Tim: Yes. so really having some effective copy writing skills, making the right offer, and being able to actually listen to your prospect and find out what makes sense for them.

Alan: Totally. Yeah.

Tim: I love it. Well Alan this has been awesome. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. We got kind of the opportunity to see a little campaign and something that people could test out in their business. So I really appreciate this. Thanks so much for coming on ConversionCast.

Alan: Thanks Tim, very much appreciate it.

Male Speaker: If you found this episode of Conversion Cast, valuable, you’ll love the free Webinar that Tim is hosting this Thursday at 3:00 p.m. eastern. It’s called 4 Steps to Quickly Grow Your Email List Without Spending All of Your Time on Marketing and it’s designed to do just that. This has been one of our most popular webinars and the event fills up quickly so make sure you don’t miss out. Head over to LeadPagesWebinar.com and register now. Once more the webinar is called 4 Steps to Quickly Grow Your Email List Without Spending All of Your Time on Marketing. It’s happening this Thursday at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time and you can reserve your spot at LeadPagesWebinar.com. We hope to see you there and of course we’ll see you on the next episode of Conversion Cast.