/offers

name: offers
description: "When the user wants to design or improve the offer itself, or asks why it isn't selling or how to add urgency honestly: value stacking, bonuses, guarantees, scarcity, payment plans, upsells. Best for services, courses, coaching, and high-ticket B2B; for self-serve SaaS, read pricing first. For price and tiers, see pricing. For the page, see copywriting. For the launch, see launch. For sales collateral, see sales-enablement."
metadata:
  version: 1.0.6

Offer Design

You are an expert in offer construction. Your goal is to help the user build offers that move — not by writing better copy on a worse offer, but by improving the offer itself.

Before Starting

**Check for product marketing context first:** If `.agents/product-marketing.md` exists (or `.claude/product-marketing.md`, or the legacy `product-marketing-context.md` filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.

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Core Philosophy

**The offer is the thing, not the page.** Better copy on a weak offer compounds slowly. A stronger offer with average copy converts immediately. Most "we need better copy" requests are actually "we need a better offer" requests in disguise.

This skill exists because the rest of the repo handles the *expression* of an offer — `copywriting` writes the sales page, `cro` optimizes the conversion path, `pricing` sets the tier structure, `launch` orchestrates the moment, `paywalls` shapes the upgrade prompt. None of them ask the deeper question: **is the offer underneath any of that actually good?**

When this skill matters

You sell:

• **Services** — consulting, freelance, agency retainers, productized services
• **Courses** — async, cohort-based, live
• **Coaching** — 1:1, group, mastermind
• **Info products** — guides, swipe files, templates, communities
• **High-ticket B2B** — $5K+ ACV with a sales conversation
• **Direct-response** — e-com promo offers, infomercial-style, paid-traffic-to-VSL

When `pricing` does more of the work

You sell:

• **Self-serve SaaS** with tiered subscriptions — the levers are mostly tier structure, value metric, and packaging; offer construction (bonuses, guarantees) is secondary
• **Marketplaces** — the offer is structural, not constructed

Skim this skill in those cases for the value equation framing, then go to `pricing`.

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The Value Equation

The single most useful frame for offer design. Originally from Alex Hormozi's *$100M Offers* — internalized broadly across direct-response and creator-economy training since.

              Dream Outcome  ×  Perceived Likelihood of Achievement
  Value  =  ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
              Time Delay     ×   Effort & Sacrifice

You move the four levers like this:

| Lever | What it means | How to increase value | |-------|---------------|-----------------------| | **Dream outcome** ↑ | What the customer actually wants | Connect to the bigger goal behind the surface ask. Specify and name it. | | **Perceived likelihood** ↑ | Do they believe they'll get it | Proof (case studies, named customers, data), guarantees, methodology specificity | | **Time delay** ↓ | How long until result | Faster onboarding, faster first win, faster end-to-end timeline | | **Effort & sacrifice** ↓ | What it costs them in time/work/risk besides money | Done-for-you, simpler process, fewer decisions, lower learning curve |

**Implication for offer construction**: most "lower the price" requests are actually "raise the numerator or lower the denominator" requests. Price is the comparison, not the value.

**For the full framework, examples, and how to diagnose which lever is broken:** see [references/value-equation.md](references/value-equation.md)

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The Anatomy of a Complete Offer

A complete offer has six components. Skip any one and conversion suffers.

| # | Component | Question it answers | |---|-----------|---------------------| | 1 | **Core deliverable** | What do they get? | | 2 | **Bonus stack** | What else do they get that makes the core feel undervalued? | | 3 | **Guarantee** | What happens if it doesn't work? | | 4 | **Scarcity / urgency** | Why now, not later? | | 5 | **Name** | What is this thing called? | | 6 | **Price + payment structure** | What do they pay and how? |

Most weak offers fail on bonuses (none), guarantees (none or wrong type), or scarcity (none, or fake). Most aggressive-to-the-point-of-cringe offers fail on guarantee (over-promising) or scarcity (fake countdown timers).

**For the full anatomy with worked examples:** see [references/offer-anatomy.md](references/offer-anatomy.md)

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Reference Library

| Reference | When to read | |-----------|--------------| | [value-equation.md](references/value-equation.md) | Diagnosing which lever is broken on a stuck offer | | [offer-anatomy.md](references/offer-anatomy.md) | Building a complete offer from scratch | | [guarantee-design.md](references/guarantee-design.md) | Picking the right type of guarantee for your business model | | [bonus-stacking.md](references/bonus-stacking.md) | Adding bonuses that raise perceived value without devaluing the core | | [scarcity-urgency.md](references/scarcity-urgency.md) | Creating *real* scarcity (and avoiding the fake patterns that destroy trust) | | [offer-formats.md](references/offer-formats.md) | Format playbooks by business type — service, course, coaching, info product, SaaS lead magnet, agency retainer, high-ticket B2B | | [saas-offers.md](references/saas-offers.md) | SaaS specifically — the discount trap (why discounting to acquire backfires) + four SaaS worked offers (AudienceTap, SaberSim, Teachable, Kit) | | [examples.md](references/examples.md) | Anonymized worked examples — before/after for each business type |

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The Diagnostic Loop

When the user says "my offer isn't converting" or "I want to improve my offer":