What is a “no-brainer” Offer?

Picture this:

It’s a hot Wednsday afternoon, you’re sipping on your 3rd Redbull of the day. Clients are not coming in, you’re stressed because obviously the lack of cashflow is harming your business revenue. You scroll your LinkedIn feed full of the endless wins of your network, you can’t help but feel jealous. “What is their secret?”, you’re probably asking yourself.

Then you see another win. “What am I doing wrong?”, you start questioning yourself with sweat forming in your palms. Then the imposter syndrome and anxiety sets in. “Maybe I’m not cut out for the agency life.” You feel like a thousand jagged edges are rubbing against your sanity, further spiraling you into a deep depression that makes you second guess yourself.

That’s when you come across an Alex Hormozi video.

You hear him talk about this revolutionary thing that makes it EASY to get clients. Like stupidly easy. You don’t believe it, how is it that he says it’s easy when you’ve been struggling to get clients for months? This guy must be full of sh*t, but hat have you got to lose?

You pick up a copy of his book “$100M Offers” and give it a read. “Wow, this book will surely help my business attract the right clients”, you say to yourself. Then you see all the LinkedIn gurus talking about how you NEED a no-brainer offer. It seems like a god-send. Finally, the answer to all your client acquisition woes.

But you still may be asking yourself a burning question: “What EXACTLY is a no-brainer offer?”

Well simply put, a “no-brainer” is an offer to your target audience that makes them feel stupid saying “no” to. It’s such an irresistible offer that people feel quite dumb turning it down. They HAVE to say “yes”. It has o solve a pain point so great that prospects are willing to pay it with no questions asked.

“Finally, all my problems will be solved. I’ll start bringing in clients left and right.”

Right?

Well, not exactly. You see, a “no-brainer” offer won’t help you get more clients.

Actually, it more than likely will make your business worse off than you were before.

Say WHAT? But all the gurus say so!

Now hold on there, put down your pitchforks and let me explain.

Yes, “no-brainer” offers work. What I’m saying is that having one more than likely will not work for YOU.

Let me explain.

Business is a game, but not just any game. Business is a game of opportunity and innovation. With the insane churn rate of marketing agencies (it’s about 40%), the agency landscape is always changing and what worked 3 months ago may not work today. And this is exactly my point when it comes to “no-brainer” offers.

When the marketing industry first heard about it, it was all the rage. Everybody was preaching about how “no-brainer” offers are the new thing, how it’s just this magical potion that will make clients begging to work with you. And I have no doubt it did wonders for many businesses, and soon EVERYBODY started having a “no-brainer” offer, and that’s the problem.

Every agency is having a guarantee.

Every agency is promising to work for free until you get the results you want.

Every agency is promising to refund you 3X the amount you paid.

And the market has grown numb to it. And it definitely shows.

If I told you I could make you 7-figures in less than 7 days or I’ll pay you 5X what you paid and promise that I’ll shut down my agency, would you believe me?

Probably not.

There’s a few reasons why “no-brainer” offers don’t work anymore and why they may hurt your business more than help it.

1. Everyone is offering them.

Remember before when I said business is a game of opportunity?

Well, the opportunity has passed and everyone and their cousin is offering a “no-brainer” offer. Try and find me an agency that DOESN’T offer some insane guarantee with promised results. So if you offer the same guarantee, what makes you stand out?

90% of the time, they are going to go with the more experienced agency since they’ve more than likely been doing it longer, (and honestly, probably better) than you can.

So what is the solution to this problem?

Ever heard of: “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it?”

Well, that’s true when it comes to making your agency stand out. Having a message that resonates with your audience and is clever, yet clear on what you do is key to differentiating yourself in a competitive market.

2. Habituation is a real thing

Remember when I said everyone is offering guarantees?

Well, as it turns out, if people start hearing enough of something, they won’t respond to it as positively as the first time that they hear it.

It’s called Habituation, the diminishing of a physiological or emotional response to a frequently repeated stimulus.

In otherwords, people have heard “no-brainer” offers so much that they’ve become numb to it to the point where it means nothing to them.

How many cold DMs do you receive where someone is promising you 30-50 qualified appointments every month or you don’t pay? Why didn’t you sign up with them? They have a “no-brainer” offer, so what’s the problem?

It’s probably because you’ve heard it 15+ times in the past month.

How to fix this?

Instead of offering a “no-brainer” upfront, change your messaging to capture the attention of your audience. Then, whenever the prospect is looking for a guarantee, and you want to offer one, then you pitch the “no-brainer”.

3. It Attracts The Worst Clients

Yes, you read that right.

A “no-brainer” offer can absolutely attract the worst types of clients. But how does this make any sense?

Well, if you’re a marketing agency, then you know that there are no real guarantees when it comes to marketing.

The algorithm can change, clients can change things that mess with the marketing strategy, etc. A whole mess of things can occur that make guaranteeing results attract people who may have unrealistic expectations.

So it’s better avoid the clients that don’t have a clear understanding how marketing words, or worse, how business works and adjust your offer to match high-quality clients.

So what to do instead?

As you can probably gather from this blog post, it’s better to focus on optimizing your messaging to stand out and attract the RIGHT kind of leads. You don’t need a generic, cookie-cutter “no-brainer” offer, you need better messaging.

Not sure where to start?

Modnapse is a creative agency focused on helping marketing agencies & IT consultants master their branding and creative messaging that helps them attract the RIGHT leads.

Check out our services and book a call with us if you’re looking to stand out and cut through the competition.