AskPat 193 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: Hey! What's up, everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to Episode 193 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Now, before we get to today's question from Marco, I do want to welcome today's sponsor, a first-time sponsor to this particular show, but not the first time you've heard the work from this company, because they are actually the company that created the intro for AskPat. They also created the music for This Is Your Life with Michael Hyatt, if you listen to that podcast. Also Entrepreneurs On Fire with John Lee Dumas, and even Cliff Ravenscraft's Podcast Answer Man. An amazing company.

Their name is Music Radio Creative. And, if you don't know about this company, you have to, because if you're doing any sort of audio podcasting intros, outros, and jingles, these are the people you have to go with. They work with expert audio producers, voice-overs, musicians, and jingle singers from all around the world, and they produce such high quality stuff. There is no match. And it is very, very affordable, as well. You got to check them out. So I recommend going right now to SmartPassiveIncome.com/mrc. That's SmartPassiveIncome.com/mrc. And you can hear a testimonial from me right on that page. [Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, I receive compensation if you purchase through this link.]

All right, now let's get to today's question from Marco.

Marco: Hi, Pat. It's Marco here from France. I have a question concerning your concept “bonus sandwich,” that you talked about in one episode of the Smart Passive Income podcast. Basically, I applied the concept to several of my digital products. But on one of my business, I have a book that has been published via traditional publisher, with all the rights on the book. My question is, can I also apply this concept of “bonus sandwich” to when we promote the book on my own website and make more money from it, and how would you do that? Thank you.

Pat: Hey, Marco! Thank you so much for the question, and hello all the way over there in France. That is awesome that you're calling in from there. I love this. This is such a global thing we're doing here, and podcasting . . . you can seriously reach anybody. So thank you, Marco, for the question.

And, for those of you who don't know what the “bonus sandwich” concept is, it originated from Derek Halpern on the Smart Passive Income podcast. That was episode 84. So if you go to SmartPassiveIncome.com/session84, you'll hear Derek Halpern talk about the three secrets of successful selling, and he talks about these things called the “bonus sandwich.” And this is just an amazing concept, and to describe it really quick for all of you before I get directly to question Marco, is . . .  you've got to think about the main product that you're selling on your website as the meat. So this is the meat in the sandwich, the middle part. But you can't have a sandwich unless there's bread. So, to surround your meat, you got to have a bottom bonus. So this is your bottom bread. And that bread is for the purpose of getting people to be able to use the product or the main part of the meat of this sort of sandwich here.

So, for example, if your meat, if your main product was WordPress themes. You're selling WordPress themes. So you would create a bonus for people to get to that level where they could use WordPress themes. So the bottom bread, for example, would be a course or a bonus on a “how to,” or a PDF, or a getting started guide, on how to get set up on WordPress. How to get set up with a domain and hosting account, so then you could then use the main product, which is the WordPress themes. And then, the top sandwich is a bonus for people who are using the meat of that sandwich. So if you, again, are selling WordPress themes, what's a bonus that you could give to somebody who is buying WordPress themes? Well, a number of things. It could be, for instance, a bonus to help people start their mailing list, because they can't have a mailing list until they have their website up and with a theme. Or maybe it's how to get your website ranking in search engines. Those are sort of top-level or top-bread bonuses, if you will. So you see how it sort of creates that sandwich.

So you're pretty much giving nobody an excuse not to get your product because people . . .  perhaps that product is a little bit more advanced for some people, then they might not buy it, but because that bonus is there, they're going to be like, “Wow! Okay, you're giving me the information for free, how to get set up on a website. And now I need a theme, and you're selling themes. So perfect. And now you're offering this other bonus on top of that, for after I get my theme up and running.”

And I was thinking about how I might be able to apply this or how I have applied it in stuff I have already been doing. So, for example, with the Smart Podcast Player that I sell for podcasters at SmartPodcastPlayer.com. It's a player that people can implement on their site, it looks great but also increases downloads because people are able to see other shows and share and things like that. What would be a bottom bread bonus for people who are going to get the Smart Podcast Player?

Well, something that they would need before they could even use it. So that would be a podcast. They can't use a podcast player if they don't have a podcast. So I could, for example, package my how to start a podcast tutorial at PodcastingTutorial.com into a nice course or PDF file that I could give away to people who are going to be purchasing the Smart Podcast Player. Because then they don't have an excuse not to use the player if they don't have a podcast because I'm giving them that for free.

And then a top bread bonus for that could be, for example, a downloadable ten-point checklist for your existing podcast. Are you a successful podcaster? What is your score out of this 10? Things like that. That's just thinking on my end.

So, for those of you out there who are wondering about this bonus thing, okay, what is it that you're selling? And what is maybe stopping people from buying? Maybe they're not qualified or not yet up to that level, but then you can offer things to help get them there with a bottom level bonus. And then you can help people get off the fence when making a purchase, and give something a little extra for people who are using your product. So just think about that. Marco, I think you could think about that in terms of your book here. Because I don't know exactly what the topic of your book is. But there are, I'm sure, things you could give away for people to sort of get ready to read your book. Or maybe things that maybe need to happen before somebody should read your book. And this is sort of what's happening right now on Smart Passive Income with the Smart Podcast Player. Because, yes, I'm not packaging the how to start a podcast tutorial for people, but it is there. People have gone through it and then they are getting my Smart Podcast Player. So maybe your book teaches somebody how to do something. Right? What do people need to know before they can start? That can be your bonus. And then, of course, afterwards, what could perhaps be a great addition to your book? Maybe it's a bonus chapter, a bonus video. Or maybe it's certain things that help enhance the content that people get in your book. That can be included as the “top bread bonus” in your particular book.

So there are ways to think about it, but you have to sort of be creative with it a little bit. I think that you would ask your audience this question. I know a number of people who do this. They sell a product, and they have an email list, and they have a way to know who didn't buy. And they'll ask the people who didn't buy . . . maybe it's people who get to the “Buy Now” button and then leave, or maybe they don't even get to the sales page at all. You ask them, “Well, I'm curious. You signed up for my email list, you were interested, you're here on the site. But how come you didn't buy?” Sometimes, people aren't going to answer. But when they do, they're going to tell you a lot of things that you need to hear that maybe you don't want to hear. But you need to hear those things, because some of those things could become that bottom bread bonus.

“Oh, well, I didn't feel like I had enough experience with this before.” “I didn't feel like I was ready for that product.” Okay, well, what would you need to be ready? “Oh, I'd need to know A, B, C, D, E.” All right, well here's a bonus telling you how to do A, B, C, D, and E. And you can, again, start to figure out patterns and stuff as you begin to ask these questions. It's so important to survey your audience and ask questions. When people take action, ask questions why. But when people don't take action, if you can, ask those people why also. It's so important.

And then top level bonus, for instance, that's a little bit easier to figure out because you know where people are at when they're going through your product or book. And what other bonuses or additions can you add to it that would make them feel special? That would make it enhanced? That would take it to the next level? Maybe you start hearing, “Oh, okay, I read your book, but I'm still looking for this.” Offer that.

Now, if you're selling a book, for example, and somebody else owns the rights, it's going to be hard to sort package all of that. I think this would be the final part of the question here, might wrap everything up for you. If somebody else is selling it for you, for example, or maybe you don't own it and you can't really package everything together, you can tell people, say, for example, after they buy it, to send you a receipt. Or send you a particular email. And then you send them that bonus. Or the bonuses. I do this with a couple products, not in a sort of sandwich format but in, well, I guess you could say it would be just the top bread only in this regard. But I sell, or I am an affiliate for a product called OptinSkin by Glen Allsop from viperchill.com. And the sort of “top bread” bonus is, not only do you get OptinSkin, but if you send me the receipt from your purchase, I will send you five additional skins or additions to that plugin. So I actually had their developer create a special plugin for me that is a sort of an add-on plugin that enhances their experience with that initial purchase. And the way I automate that, because it can get kind of crazy, sending all these bonuses all the time, is I have a special Gmail account set up (I think it's like [email protected]), and when people send an email there, you could set up a vacation reply, and in that vacation reply, you can say “Hey, thank you, if you bought this, here's the link” and people can just get it from there. And, yeah.
So that's how I would go about it if you don't have control and it's somebody else's product or somebody else is delivering it for you. You can also give away the sort of bottom level bonus in the form of blog posts or an email. For example, an email that explains these things, that teaches people how to get to the level where they can then feel comfortable buying your book. It's all just part of the sales process. But you can think of these things as things that fill in the gap before people can feel comfortable buying that product of yours. Hope that makes sense.

Anyway, Marco, thank you so much for the question. I really appreciate it. An AskPat t-shirt is headed your way. You'll get an email from my assistant very soon, within the next week or two about that. For those of you listening, if you have a question you'd like potentially featured here on the show, just head on over to AskPat.com.

And I'd like to thank Music Radio Creative once again. Again, thank you to everyone at Music Radio Creative for all that you've done for me and are doing for me. And I know that you're going to take care of the audience here at AskPat, so if you'd like to check them out, head on over to SmartPassiveIncome.com/mrc. And the cool thing is, whatever niche you're in, it doesn't matter how small it is. You'll be surprised. It's a truly worldwide company here. They're based in the UK, but over the past year alone, they've worked with clients from over 107 different countries. So if you think you want something really niche and you're unsure if they can do it, they can do it. And you can get pretty ninja with how you can get these things created for yourself. You can choose from different voices, or you can have custom work done, it's amazing. Again, SmartPassiveIncome.com/mrc.

Cheers, thanks so much. And as always, I love to end with a quote. Today's quote is from Robert Bosch, who's the founder of Bosch, a German engineering and electronic company. You've probably heard of them before. He says, “I don't pay wages because I have a lot of money. I have a lot of money because I pay good wages.”
Cheers, thanks so much, and I'll see you the next episode of AskPat.