It was the year 2003. I was in Australia for my first marketing conference. Well, not exactly. It was presented as a marketing conference, but it was really a pitch-fest. Speakers delivered their speeches and then sold their wares from the podium. And there was a speaker who literally got people pushing and shoving for his product. So what caused all this pushing and shoving? The “yes-yes” system It's a concept called the "yes-yes" system. When you're selling something to your audience, chances are you'll have a single price - a single "buy now" button. Your audience is therefore faced with the option of choosing “yes” or “no”. The “yes-yes” system consists of two offers: a “regular” and a “premium”. Instead of choosing between “yes” and “no”, your customers must choose between “yes” and “yes”.
Why do they “have to” choose? Why can't they just leave? Let's say you're going out to buy a coffee. The cafe gives you two options: a regular the industry leads and a premium. There is no difference between coffees, by the way. They're both the exact same size, the same type of coffee, and the same taste - in short, they're so incredibly identical that you can swap the coffee cups and no one would know the difference. There is, however, a difference. Although the cafes are the same, only one option has a bonus. With the “premium” coffee, you get a scrumptious little muffin. Now your brain is no longer focused on the coffee; he concentrates on the muffin. You do the math and figure out the "regular" cost of $4.00 (and gets you $4.00 in value), but the "premium" costs $4.40 (and gets you closer to a value of 5, $50).
It's a no-brainer, isn't it? You simply choose the “premium”. You choose the “premium” because of the bonus. Not just any old bonus - but one so powerful, so lovable, so desirable that it's utterly impossible to ignore. The value of the bonus in action Let's go back to that conference in Australia to see bonus value in action. The product alone didn't make all these people hustle and bustle. The "regular" offer was just the software the speaker was selling. Members of the public were interested in this software, but as soon as they heard about its “premium” offering, the stampede began. His "premium" option was that he would personally install and test the software at customer sites.