Apple Does This and You Should Too

Watch the episode here

• Subtle upgrades
• Why Apple does what they do
• Upgrading offerings for your clients
• The difference between the iPhones
• Cheap Plans versus Variable pricing

What shakin’! Hey, we’re back today. We’re going all in. There’s been moments across everything that I’ve been in business to where it’s like, you need to shift the plans, right? You need to shift your offerings. You need to bring something new to markets. And I’m gonna tell you this, if you’re not bringing something new to market at least two times a year in whatever business you have, you’re gonna fail miserably because you’re gonna get stale, you’re gonna get old things, transition that fast. This is why companies always bring something new, right? Look at the iPhone, like, I’ve just got, I just got the brand new, I mean, on launch day, I got the brand new iPhone 14 Promax. And you take a look at that thing and it’s like, is it really that much difference? You know, the biggest reason the driver for me is that it’s purple, right? 

And that’s because it’s my brand color. It’s purple. I’m like, Oh, I gotta get this thing because it’s purple. But if you look at the technical side of this thing, it’s like an extra hour of battery life. It’s, uh, you know, the, the biggest thing, it’s like it has this dynamic island on it, which is at the top. It’s where the notches for the camera and that thing, it, it’s really cool how they did those with software, how it almost looks like it makes it expand and contract and all this stuff. It, it really is. And it has been for many years, right? Since Steve Jobs died, the iterations of the iPhone have really been just kind of, that’s just an evolution, not a revolution. When the iPhone dropped on the market, and then for the next several years, this thing just became like brand new stuff and really exciting stuff every single year. 

Every year was a revolution. It was like completely remade every single year from the iPhone. And now it’s more evolutionary, like very incremental upgrades. Why does Apple do this? Apple does this because it’s a way to continuously generate more money for the company. So I’m gonna speak to you today. And they also provide good things for their client base, right? They can include the newest modems, right? Because I, I, this was really one of the driving factors because right now I’m, I’m using at and t and at and t has this new spectrum for 5G in the iPhone 14 is the only one that can access it, right? Is it incremental? Yeah, but it’s a major upgrade. And that’s actually a benefit to me. So because I’m on at and t, you know, I could have probably lived without the purple. I could have definitely lived without that dynamic island, even though it looks really cool. 

However, the benefit for me was clearly presented that I’ll be able to access the fastest network that at and t has to offer because I have an iPhone 14. Now, if you look at previous years, there wasn’t much of like that big technical, real big benefit upgrade on any of the stuff that they have because it’s just evolutionary, not revolutionary. Now, every year in, in any of my businesses, I’ve always been launching something new, something else to upsell our clients. And we take a look at it going back across. And I, I’m not one that believes in price increases just for the sake of price increases. I’ve done training on this. I’ve even done a podcast on this, on don’t just raise your prices just because of inflation. You always have to bring more value or at least more perceived value. But the way to continuously grow your business is to have these things, is to have these evolutionary upgrades that will be just slightly different. 

But then take a look at what Apple does as an example, right? They start to make the old stuff look really busted, Rusty, horrible. It’s like, oh my God, how could you ever own that iPhone 13 when we’ve got the iPhone 14 now, right? And they’ll even drop the price on the old thing for people that wanna buy it new just to make it look like it’s less valuable. There’s such brilliant psychology behind this in that they bring out the new thing and it’s shiny and it’s got all these new phrases like a dynamic, Come on now, that’s like one of the dumbest names for a feature ever, right? But everybody’s like, Oh my gosh, that’s in, that’s amazing. And you know what? It looks cool, It really does. But then they make that the premium price and they’re like, you know, you can still get the crap that’s over here. 

It’s not really gonna do all the stuff that you want to. Like with the iPhone SE the iPhone SE does not access the fastest 5g. So they’re saying it’s like, okay, it’s cheap, but it really is cheap. It’s not gonna give you everything. And then they have this middle tier of like, next to nothingness, right? Because it’s usually like the previous year’s phone. Now, now take a look at this, right? There’s several models that are out. There’s the iPhone SE, which is the low end, but then they always keep something else around. You know, it’s like the, I think they’re still selling the iPhone 12, I can’t remember, but it’s some other phone that you pay a couple hundred dollars more, but now you’re just that much closer to the high end and you’re like, Well, if I’m gonna spend that much, I should just go to that top end too. 

So they position this other thing as like a budget phone is like a cheap phone. And then they have this middle tier that the only reason is marketing genius, okay? The only reason why that middle tier exists, because it really doesn’t matter. No joke. It really doesn’t matter. It’s there for one specific reason. And that pushes you to the higher tier to spend more money. And if you wanna be successful in business, if you wanna understand packaging and pricing and value perspectives and how to do these things with your clients, take a clue from Apple. 

It’s okay to have this thing. And you know what? In my world, we were just recently talking with a company that, that came underneath the reach out umbrella and reach out has this, uh, reach out one program, which literally includes everything that we do, right? It’s led by cybersecurity. It has all 34 of our cybersecurity leaders layers, which is the top amount in the industry by the way. We provide, uh, just coverage from every area that hackers can get in. But then there’s also the basic IT management and it’s like, Oh yeah, we do that too, right? We’ll be there when everything hits the fan. When, when everything goes crazy. No problem. Then there’s also, we also give you the computers because we want you to be on the best stuff that’ll be the most secure, the most predictable and the most reliable. 

It’s everything that’s in there. So when a, a new company comes underneath, uh, when a company comes underneath the Reach out umbrella, there’s all these clients that are left on this stuff that doesn’t have everything that reach out has the offer. Now, and this was the conversation that I had a little bit ago because, uh, it’s like, what do we call this? And the conversation. Like, you know, could we just like change the invoices to say that it’s not really ReachOut the ReachOut One plan, but it’s like the legacy, like the shit plan. It was funny because I’m like, Oh my gosh, this is what I’m talking about today. Cuz I recognized years ago, years ago when I was looking through things that I, you know, cuz this industry, they’ve always done tiers. My industry, they’ve always come out, and you’ve probably seen this, right, especially in the coaching space, in any entrepreneurial space, in any product space, is that you’ve got these three products. 

Like, I mean, heck even look at Apple, you’ve got the iPhone 14, then you’ve got the iPhone and 14 plus you’ve got the iPhone 14 pro, then you’ve got the iPhone 14 ProMax, right? The only difference between those things is the size, which gives you new battery life and everything. But there’s always tears, right? And even as I was explaining how there’s the iPhone with the se, and then you’ve got the middle tier, which basically means nothing. The only reads in the middle tier still exist while they still sell the old iPhone from a year or two ago, if you’re spending more money already. So if you’re considering that, it’s very easy to move you to the thing that they really wanna sell, which is the flagship product. It’s the same with Reach Out. And it’s the same way with my company as far as how everything comes on. 

And it’s like that old busted plan that doesn’t do everything that is available for cybersecurity for it. You know, if we could rename that and, and call it something bad, right? And I would, I thought about this years ago, and this is why Reach out has only ever had one plan except we had, we had that middle tier also. And I’ll, I’ll give you what that is because I would walk into a client and when you’re, when you’re pricing things, your products or your services take, take a queue off of this for real because I would walk in and I’d be like, this is what you need. I know everything that you need because I’m the expert in this industry. I understand that there’s a lot to parse, a lot to just contemplate when it comes to it, when it comes to cybersecurity, exactly what you need in your business and you don’t know, which is why I’ve even walked in the door and why you’ve invited me in here today anyways. So I’m gonna present you with what I know that you need. 

And they would ask, Well, I’ve had these other things, these other, other quotes, and they’d give me like these, these three tiers that I could choose from because people like choices. They absolutely do like choices. And then I would actually leverage that and then create the choice of, well you could pick one of those inferior plans from a competitor, or your choice could be to go with this everything plan the reach out one plan that has everything that you need and I, I’ll, I’ll gladly explain the differences to you. And then I would actually leverage competitors’ choices to become that bargain basement and then actually push them into the premium that was ReachOut. That’s how I would sell this. You know, how I still sell this position, reach out as the iPhone 14 Pro Max and my competitors or somebody else that, you know, the incumbent that was outgoing showed them is that other choice, that bargain basement shit choice of a plan because it doesn’t offer everything. 

And that then would be the choice rather than just looking at, at me and my company as a whole and saying, Where are your choices? It’s like I would refrain from that choice and show them what the other options were from all the other people. And that would be the choice because I couldn’t wrap my head around this. I really couldn’t. You know? And the same today, because if you’re looking at the iPhone SE you know what, it might be good for a kid that, that, that’s really it. A young kid. My kids had phones when they were seven years old. But that’s really the only thing that I could see it being good for is that really cheap phone. But for every other adult that exists, it’s like they’re on installment plans. And if you want everything that it has to offer, Apple wants you on the flagship product. 

They put all the best stuff in there, the longest battery life, the stuff that they know that you actually need, that you actually want, they put only into the flagship product. That’s the same that I’ve always done because I couldn’t get my head around this in the industry. They’d have, you know, like them, they used to go by like metals, right? I don’t know why this industry that I’m in always used to go by like different types of metals. Like you’d have the, you’d have the bronze plan, the gold plan and the platinum plan, you know, But then you’d get some really creative people and they’d be like, Oh, you know what, we’re gonna one up everybody and we’re also gonna, I had a titanium plan, you know, it’s like, well then, you know, we wanna offer this bargain basement one too, so maybe we’ll add a 10 right at the very low end. 

And I, I thought it’s like, how could I do that? Because if I’m walking in and I know the support, I know the industry, I’m the freaking expert, I know what they need. I’m going to educate them as to how this helps their business and why they need it. And I’m only offering one plan because it didn’t sit well with me to go in and say, You know what? I know that this is what you need. You need the ReachOut one plan. It’ll be like, “Oh, you know, it’s too much money. It’s a, I could, I couldn’t bring myself to say, Oh, you know, that’s okay if it, you know, if it’s too much, that’s fine. You know what? I’ll sell you my shitty tin plan instead.” I couldn’t swallow that. I couldn’t get into that mode to where I was okay with presenting them with this thing that I know would not meet their needs ultimately because I know that they would be pissed and then the finger would be pointed back at me for saying, You didn’t get me what I need. And then how does that conversation go? You end up losing the client. 

That’s why I couldn’t bring myself to this. So when I came to sales and I’m like, I understand people need choices, right? Because the iPhone is the iPhone and they don’t even really place themselves as a competitor against Android. They don’t at all. Like, you know what? I’m not even gonna place myself as a competitor against myself. You never wanna compete with yourself for a client’s business. Cuz if you look in, you’re offering these three things, you know, or these four plans or these five plans with these five products, and the one all the way down at the bottom is not something that will actually help them. That’s the key. If you have different products that do different things that are at different price points and it actually helps the, helps the meaning produce the outcome that they’re looking for, then by all means sell five different plans, sell five different products. 

That’s cool because it’s the outcome that they’re expecting and they want for those different products. But if it’s just chopping off the service that you have to deliver and it doesn’t provide the same outcome, you should not have multiple plants and you should try to every year continuously build upon what you have right now by bringing new things, especially if you’re in such a changing industry like I am. By the way, almost all industries change at a rapid pace. I mean supplements, uh, even down to accounting services because there’s new tax laws every year and how much time I have to put in that everything changes. That’s a constant that everything changes. And then every year you can continuously upgrade. And it’s not so much about bringing in old clients and, and trying to get them up as it is, like establishing even a baseline for new clients that you’re going to bring in until it becomes a time for that existing client to renew, to repurchase, to refresh, to have another transaction with you and say, Guess what? We have a lot more value to provide to you now. Yes, the price is a little more, the iPhone 14, Promax just came out, but here’s what we’re packing in this thing to give you more value. 

This is fricking gold today because this is how you have to position this stuff, how you upgrade existing clients, how you sell new clients. And when you go in, I don’t care if you have five plans, as long as they’re providing an outcome, the expected outcome that you are comfortable with it, you can swallow as the person delivering that, that you can go home and lay your head in your pillow at night and say, You know what? That person’s gonna get what they paid for in a good way. Because I told them that they would receive this outcome that they wanted. They matched this product, this plan to their desired outcome. In my industry. I just couldn’t do that 

Because I can’t keep people safe, predictable, and reliable by going with the shit plan. It’s impossible in my industry, which is why I’ve only had one plan. And I take every opportunity to continuously add value to what I do and what I do best so that they can feel safe, predictable, and reliable. And all the marketing goes along with it, I hope you even picked up today as far as the sales goes. Because even though people like choices, right? Like I said, I used the iPhone as an example, people like choices, right? They’re still selling that cheap iPhone set, but then they have that middle tier. That middle tier is just a psychological play to push you even higher into the flagship product. I use my competitors when I just have the one plan, the one service I use my competitors to present that choice as creating that that stupid piece of crap that they should not buy because the outcome that they’re actually looking for is what my plan delivers. You’re awesome, you’re gonna take this and you’re gonna make it another seven, eight figures off of this, this coming year, this coming two years because you’re gonna go ALL IN.