How to Structure Your First Offer: One Example, End to End
An offer is more than a course and a price. It is the promise, the shape, what happens each week, the price and how it can be paid, the terms, and what the buyer experiences in the first hour after paying.
Most advice covers these one at a time. This post walks through one first offer from start to finish, so you can see how the pieces fit together. The example is an illustration: a pricing program for freelance designers. Swap in your own topic as you read.
Step 1: What is the promise?
One sentence that says who it is for, what changes and by when.
Freelance designers who undercharge quote their next project with a price they can say without flinching, in six weeks.
Everything else in the offer has to support this sentence. If a lesson, bonus or feature does not help the buyer get there, it does not belong in the first version. We go deeper in writing the promise.
Step 2: What shape does it take?
A live cohort: a small group, a fixed start date, six weekly calls, and feedback on each person's own pricing.
Why not a self-paced course? Because in the conversations before building, designers kept saying the hard part is not knowing the theory, it is having someone check their actual numbers and practise the call. That needs live contact. We compare the options in course, coaching, membership or cohort.
Step 3: What happens each week?
The weekly plan is part of the offer, because it is how buyers picture the result.
- Week 1: what your time and work are actually worth. The buyer leaves with a minimum rate based on real numbers.
- Week 2: three price levels for the same project. The buyer leaves with a simple tiered quote.
- Week 3: writing the proposal. The buyer leaves with a proposal template in their own words.
- Week 4: the call where you say the number. The buyer leaves with a practised script and one role-play.
- Week 5: handling "that's more than we expected". The buyer leaves with three answers they are comfortable giving.
- Week 6: your next real quote, reviewed. The buyer leaves with a quote sent to a real client.
Each week has one outcome. Buyers can see the path, and you can see whether each week earns its place.
Step 4: What does it cost, and how can people pay?
The later price is $600. For the first round, there is a founding price of $420, which is 30 percent off, for 8 seats.
Two payment options:
- Pay in full: $420.
- Payment plan: 2 payments of $225.
The payment plan costs slightly more in total, which is normal. Show paying in full as the recommended option. How to set the founding price is covered in first-launch pricing, and why to keep the first round small in why your first launch should be small.
Step 5: What are the terms?
Three short lines, each with a reason:
- Refund: full refund until the night before the second call, because by then you have seen how the group works.
- Seats: 8, because everyone gets feedback on their own numbers every week.
- Guarantee: complete the six exercises and attend four calls, and if you do not have a price you are confident quoting, you get your money back.
The reasoning behind each is in refunds, guarantees and seat limits.
Step 6: Do you need bonuses?
Only if they help the buyer reach the promise faster. In this example, one bonus makes sense: a short template pack with the proposal and the rate calculator from the program. It is useful and relevant.
What to leave out: unrelated extras added to make the offer look bigger. Five bonuses that have nothing to do with pricing make the main promise look weaker, not stronger.
Step 7: How is it set up in Kajabi?
The tool is the last step, not the first. Once the pieces above are decided, the setup is straightforward:
- A product that holds the program: the weekly modules, call links and recordings.
- An offer that grants access to that product, with two pricing options: pay in full and the payment plan.
- A checkout that repeats the promise, the start date and the refund terms, with one testimonial if you have it. More in your checkout.
- An automation: when the offer is purchased, the buyer is subscribed to a short welcome email sequence.
Step 8: What happens in the first hour after paying?
This is the part most first offers forget. The buyer has just paid for something that has not started yet, and the first hour decides whether they feel good about it.
The welcome email should arrive within minutes and say three things: the start date and time of the first call, what to do before it (one small, useful task), and how to reach you with a question. A short personal message from you the same day does even more.
Where do you start?
Write your own version of each of the eight steps in one or two lines. If any step is blank, that is the piece to work out next, before you open Kajabi. When all eight are filled in, you have an offer that is ready to sell.
Thinking about building a course? Before you spend a year and $10,000 on it, read how The Launch Path works.
