One of the models I talked about briefly was the Ascension Model.  The idea is to make money by selling clients progressively more valuable and more expensive products and services.  The initial products are priced at a level that you’re really just getting leads for free.  You don’t make any money on them.  You make money on the back-end - selling the more expensive products, which are almost pure profit.

How We Were Going to Use the Ascension Model

We were going to use the Ascension Model to sell our online marketing system.  The idea is that we would show our clients exactly how to do everything that we do.  We show them all of our secrets and our processes, step-by-step.  By understanding exactly how our system works, they can see the real benefit of it, so they’re more likely to buy from us.  They trust us and understand what we have to offer.  But there’s an added benefit.  Remember - these are business owners and they are busy people.  They don’t want to be bothered with all the details of the their marketing efforts.  They just want it to work. 

Once prospects realize how much work goes into building the winning formula on their own, they know that they’re much better off paying someone else to do it.  And who would that be - why us, of course.  We already have the system built.

So Why Would we Want to Give Up on Our Cash Cow?

I’m a businessperson and at the end of the day, what is my goal?  Too make as much profit as possible.  And with the least amount of effort of mine required (the Lazy Business Owner part of me).

When we sell the online marketing systems to our clients, it still takes a bit of work on our part.  We have to work with the client to get the sites set up, which takes a lot of work.  And we have to provide ongoing customer service whenever they have any questions or problems. 

Instead of the online marketing system being the centerpiece of our operations, what if a training program were instead?  What if we made the majority of our money educating clients on how to build the system?  We provide a more robust training program, with continual updates, step-by-step instructions, and some one-on-one education.

One of the best examples of a company that’s been successful doing this is StomperNet.  For $750 a month, you get an incredible amount of information into building online businesses.  They get some of the best experts in the world to provide the content so that the perceived value is worth the money you pay each month.

Are We Going to Give Up Our Cash Cow?

No.  Probably not.  But that doesn’t mean that we might not just offer it as one of our products, instead of the centerpiece of our marketing.  We can make money from people who take our training programs AND sell them our online marketing systems.  What we’re really doing is meeting 2 demands.  Some people just want to do things themselves.  They need more control over their marketing and how they reach their clients and the online training would be extremely helpful and useful to them.  Other clients want to know what we have to offer but in the end, they just want the solution that works, and the system would be a great fit for them.