The third eBook in the Offers, Pricing and Packaging category. It assumes you have at least one clear offer and a sensible price, and shows you how to package that offer so different customers can each find the version that suits them - without forcing you to invent a new product every week.
Members ebook·7 chapters· 50 minute read
Chapter 2
Good, Better and Best on a Single Spine
How to build a three-tier set that shares one foundation, with clear differences the customer can read in ten seconds.
Most three-tier package sets fail not because three is the wrong number but because the three things aren't related enough. The starter is a one-off project. The middle is a monthly retainer. The premium is a year-long programme. They look like three options. To the customer, they read like three different businesses on the same page, and the customer disengages. A good-better-best only works when the three options sit on the same spine - same kind of work, same kind of customer, same kind of outcome - just at three thoughtful levels of depth.
This chapter is about finding that spine and making the levels visible. By the end you'll have a clear picture of what your spine is, what's in each of the three levels and what changes (and doesn't) as the customer climbs the ladder.
The full chapter walks through the spine test, the three honest ways to differentiate the levels, the price ratios that tend to work and a worked good-better-best for four kinds of business.
What a spine actually is
The spine of a package set is the answer to the question: what is fundamentally the same across all three options? It might be the kind of customer ("a self-employed tradesperson with messy books"). It might be the core outcome ("tidy books and predictable tax"). It might be the core delivery method ("monthly bookkeeping done by me"). For a coherent set, it should usually be all three. The starter, middle and premium options are then three depths of the same answer rather than three different answers.
Without a spine, the customer's brain has to do too much work. Each option arrives as a fresh proposition that needs evaluating from scratch. With a spine, the customer evaluates the spine once and then picks the depth that fits their situation. The work goes from comparing apples to oranges to comparing small, medium and large apples.
The three honest differentiators
There are only three honest ways to differentiate the levels of a good-better-best, and most strong package sets use a combination of two of them. They are scope, frequency and access. Each is honest because each genuinely costs you more to deliver as the customer climbs the tier - so charging more for it is fair.
Scope
The higher tier includes more pieces of the same kind of work. The middle bookkeeping option covers monthly bookkeeping. The premium option adds quarterly tax planning. The middle website option covers a five-page site. The premium adds three landing pages and a basic email signup. Scope-based differentiation is the clearest for the customer to read because the extra items are listed visibly.
Frequency
The higher tier delivers the same work more often. The middle social media option is twelve posts a month. The premium is twenty. The middle plumbing service plan is one annual visit. The premium is two. Frequency-based differentiation is good for ongoing work but can feel thin if it's the only differentiator on the menu.
Access
The higher tier gives the customer more access to you (or a senior person) personally. The middle option includes email support. The premium includes a monthly call. The middle coaching package is two sessions a month. The premium adds chat-based support between sessions. Access-based differentiation is powerful but dangerous: the owner has to be honest about how much access they can sustainably give without burning out.
The honest differentiators
Scope - more pieces of the same kind of work
Frequency - the same work delivered more often
Access - more direct contact with you or a senior person
What not to differentiate on
Two things. Quality and effort. Quality, because the customer should never feel that the lower tiers are deliberately worse - that erodes trust in the whole business. Every tier should be something you are happy to put your name to. Effort, because the work doesn't actually become better when you try harder. "More attention" as the only premium differentiator is a polite way of saying nothing. Be specific about what the customer actually gets more of.
Price ratios that tend to work
There's no perfect ratio, but a useful starting point for service businesses is roughly 1 : 2 : 4. The middle option costs about twice the starter. The premium costs about twice the middle. So a starter at one hundred pounds, middle at two hundred and premium at four hundred. The exact numbers vary, and your pricing eBook gives the underlying maths, but the ratio matters because of what it does psychologically. A premium that's only ten or twenty percent above the middle does nothing - it neither attracts the keen buyer nor anchors the typical one. A premium that's two to three times the middle creates a real choice.
For product businesses, the ratios are tighter. A typical hero-product / bundle / premium-bundle ladder might be 1 : 1.5 : 2.2, because customers compare physical goods more closely than services. For very high-value services - business consulting, large web projects - the ratios sometimes stretch wider, more like 1 : 3 : 8. Use the 1 : 2 : 4 as a default and adjust based on what you observe customers actually doing.
Naming the tiers
Boring is fine. "Starter, Standard, Premium" works. "Essentials, Plus, Pro" works. What doesn't work is naming tiers in a way that makes the lower tier feel embarrassing. "Basic" is a borderline word - some customers happily pick "Basic" because they understand exactly what it is, others feel small choosing it. Avoid names that are clever for cleverness's sake. The customer should know what tier means as soon as they read it, without you having to explain.
Worked spines for four businesses
The bookkeeper
Spine: monthly bookkeeping for self-employed tradespeople. Starter: one-off books tidy. Middle: monthly bookkeeping. Premium: monthly bookkeeping plus quarterly tax planning. Differentiator combination: scope plus access. Ratios roughly 200 / 120 / 190 (starter is one-off, middle and premium are monthly). The sums look unusual because the starter is sold as a one-off but it works in practice - it's the on-ramp that converts to monthly.
The plumber
Spine: planned plumbing maintenance for owner-occupied homes. Starter: one-off boiler service at one hundred pounds. Middle: annual home plumbing plan with one visit and priority callouts at two hundred pounds. Premium: annual plan with two visits, priority callouts and a discount on parts at three hundred and forty pounds. Differentiators: frequency plus access plus scope.
The freelance designer
Spine: brand and website work for first-time service businesses. Starter: a logo and brand basics for four hundred pounds. Middle: brand basics plus a five-page website for fifteen hundred pounds. Premium: full brand, website and a three-month launch support retainer for three thousand five hundred pounds. Differentiators: scope plus access.
The homewares shop
Spine: linen bedding bundles. Starter: single duvet cover at sixty pounds. Middle: full bed bundle (duvet, two pillowcases, fitted sheet) at one hundred and ten pounds. Premium: full bed bundle plus a second set of pillowcases and a throw at one hundred and seventy pounds. Differentiators: scope. Ratios closer to 1 : 1.8 : 2.8 - tighter, as products usually are.
The single-page test
When the three tiers are right, you can present them on one page in a single horizontal table that a stranger can read in ten seconds and understand which is which. If your tiers need three paragraphs each to explain, the spine isn't right yet. Go back, find what's fundamentally the same across the three, and let the differences live in two or three short bullet points per tier.
What to do this week
Open a single sheet of paper. Write your spine in one sentence at the top. Below it, draw three columns. In each column, list two or three short bullet points showing what's included at that tier. Below the bullets, write a price. If the page reads cleanly to someone who doesn't already know your business, the spine is sound. If they have to ask questions, redesign before you publish.
Make the on-ramp work for the cautious customer. The next chapter, 'Starter Offers That Earn the First Yes', goes deep on designing the lowest tier so it brings new customers in without giving away the main offer for free.
The rest of this chapter walks through the practical steps, the templates and the checklists you need to put it into action. It includes worked examples, copy frameworks and the small decisions that make the difference between a plan that sits in a drive and one that gets used.
Inside you'll find a step-by-step playbook, a downloadable template, a checklist you can run this week and a short list of common mistakes to avoid before you start.
The full action plan, broken into weekly steps.
Ready-to-use scripts, templates and checklists.
Worked examples for different sized businesses.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them.
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