Create an Ascension Model Business Instead of a Product

At one of our recent seminars, David Frey from MarketingBestPractices.com spoke about the difference in having a product versus a business.

He talked about how products can make you money quickly, but are short term. It’s important to create a business that can be long term. He then shared 12 successful business models that people were using online.

The key to each of these models was that if you put all of your eggs in a single product, you are setting yourself up for long term failure, but when you focus on building a business with product lines and services, then you can create something that will make you wealthy for the long term.

Of all the business models that David talked about at our seminar, the one that is the most fascinating to me is called the “ascension model.” I want to share it in this article for two reasons. Because I feel it’s one of the best ways in the world to increase the average transaction value of a customer. We are shifting our whole company to an ascension model now, and you will be able to see it in action during the next few months.

The goal of an ascension model is to provide different levels of value to your customers, and as they want to get more value or more advanced content from you, they will pay you more money.

One great example of this is the GKIC (Glazier / Kennedy Inner Circle) model. They have an ascension model where they bring customers in at a “gold” level, then try to upgrade them to gold plus, peak performers, VIP, and then Platinum. Each level has different costs starting at $39.97 and going all the way up to $1,500 a month for their VIP and Platinum levels.

Some people might say, “why would ANYONE pay $1,500 a month for any program?” I can answer this question, because I am paying this every month to be part of one of their mastermind groups. I started at their first level, and benefited from it, so I upgraded to the next level and so on. I will keep paying $1,500 a month for as long as I’m getting at least that much value from them.

That is the power of creating a value based business. You can provide more and more value to your customers, and get paid more money as you do!