Charge More for Your Services With a Waitlist Strategy

What if there was a strategy to raise your prices confidently, knowing for a fact people will happily pay them?

The crazy thing is… there is one, but not many service providers are using it.

With a waitlist funnel, you can fill your pipeline with target clients itching to work with you. So, you’ll get to nurture them and sell out whenever you have availability for more. And when you’re so in demand? Raising your prices becomes a no-brainer.

We’ll show you how this works in practice so that you can start making the most of this strategy.

Waitlists help you sell your services more and at a higher price!

Building a waitlist results in a list of people who actively expressed an interest in your current services or an upcoming offer. In a nutshell, this will allow you to sell:

More, thanks to the psychology behind waitlists and positioning (more on that soon!) and because you’ll nurture your leads in a personalised way
At a higher price because you’ll become so exclusive and in demand that clients will gladly pay more to work with you

But if it still sounds too good to be true, let’s go more in-depth.

The psychology behind waitlists and premium pricing

To give you a practical example, imagine you need a new brand bible for your business. So, you look at the websites of two branding agencies:

Agency 1 leads with “Book a free discovery call today to get the ball rolling”
Agency 2 tells you “The smartest companies know it’s worth waiting +3 months to get a brand bible from us. Join the waitlist today”

Which agency do you think is getting the best clients and selling the same service at a higher price?

Agency 2, right?

THAT’S the power of a waitlist! It creates a sense of urgency and exclusivity:

Premium positioning – A waitlist shows your audience that you’re NOT desperate or willing to work with anyone (unlike agency A). In fact, when something is available to all and easy to access, it loses its perceived value. Instead, when a service feels exclusive and there’s a waitlist for it, people are more likely to pay premium prices for it
Scarcity – A waitlist shows that you only work with a limited number of clients. This will compel more people to register their interest so they can be “one of the few”, without running the risk of missing out
Supply-and-demand tension – Our founder, Daniel Priestley, always talks about the importance of creating this friction to become oversubscribed. So, a waitlist will show your audience that you’re an exclusive option and already popular, making more people want to join it (and keeping you in demand)

Of course, delivering excellent services is important too, but how your brand is perceived can make a completely different first impression and set the right tone. An example?

The Rolex effect

Rolex is an example of premium craftsmanship but let’s be honest: several brands make watches that are just as durable and high-quality. So, what makes a Rolex so iconic? Its exclusivity!

Rolex watches are marketed as status symbols
New watches are only sold by official Rolex retailers
Depending on the model, the average waiting time to get a Rolex ranges from 3 months to 5 whole years (and in the meantime, its price will probably go up)

Overall, THIS is what allows Rolex to charge much higher prices: their positioning and the fact that their demand exceeds supply. You can choose to do the same with your services!

Do you want to be a cheap Casio or the premium Rolex in your niche?

How a waitlist strategy will position you as a premium service provider

A waitlist funnel strategy will:

Create supply-and-demand tension
Show your target audience that your services aren’t for the masses
Turn feast-and-famine into a distant memory
Pre-qualify your leads so that you only speak with high-paying and right-fit clients (you choose who you work with, not the other way around!)
Allow you to manage demand and make the right offer (for example, by only opening three spots for your 1:1 consultations each month), selling out every time

The result?

You’ll soon get to raise your fees CONFIDENTLY, working less and having more time and energy to deliver a premium experience to your high-paying clients.

Shall we make this happen?

Steps to implement a waitlist strategy so you can start charging more

Here’s exactly how you can become the Rolex of your industry:

Identify your ideal clients – Who are these premium prospects you want to attract? What are their needs, wants, likes, and dislikes? If you’re not sure, start by conducting some market research
Decide how your waitlist is going to work – Will it be free to join, or will you ask your subscribers to pay a deposit? And will your waitlist be mainly about giving people an opportunity to work with you, or will you offer them additional benefits that other clients don’t get (like a complimentary 1:1 session)? There’s no right or wrong answer, here! Plan a waitlist strategy that works for you and your goals
Create a waitlist landing page – Lead with how your services benefit your clients by solving their problems, and highlight the exclusivity of working with you (more on that soon!). With ScoreApp, you can use our intuitive drag-and-drop builder or customise a landing page template. Easy!
Plan your waitlist questions – What do you need to learn about your audience? For example, you might want to ask questions to pre-qualify them (like “What’s your annual turnover?”), to segment them into groups so that you can personalise your marketing accordingly (like “Which of these problems would you get rid of first?”), or to get their feedback on your new offer idea (like “Which of these benefits matters the most to you right now?”). A ScoreApp quiz makes this a breeze! It’ll show these questions to your new waitlist subscribers as soon as they’ve registered their interest
Market your waitlist – Do this regularly, even when you’re fully booked. As well as making this landing page easy to spot on your website, use the rest of your marketing to drive traffic to it (for example, on social media)
Set up a waitlist email sequence – Automate some emails to nurture your prospects, building and maintaining momentum. Highlight the exclusivity of working with you, inspire trust, and create both excitement and FOMO. For the best results, personalise these emails to make them super relevant and effective. When you connect ScoreApp to your email marketing platform, you can do this based on each subscriber’s waitlist quiz results

How to show scarcity with your waitlist to position yourself as a premium option

The fact that you have a waitlist in the first place (unlike those competitors who are desperate for clients and willing to work with everyone) already positions you as a premium option.

You can certainly emphasise this throughout your entire waitlist funnel, though, and especially in the following spots:

Website call to action – Change it from “Book a free chat today” (= you need clients) to something along the lines of “Join the waitlist to work with me” (= you’re in demand, and if other people are waiting to work with you, it must mean it’s worth it)
Landing page – What makes your services exclusive and limited? Make that crystal clear. You could also include reviews from past clients to build trust and hype, and how about a countdown timer to take that FOMO to the next level?
Quiz – Your questions will show your audience that you are the one setting the rules and choosing who you work with. For example, you could ask them “Why are you interested in working with us specifically?” or “I only work with industry leaders who can commit to a minimum of 6 months together to [benefit of your services]. Is that you?”
Nurturing emails – Your sequence can really dial up that scarcity and premium positioning. For example, you could tackle topics like “Why I only work with [types of clients]” and “Why [types of clients] wait +3 months to work with me instead of picking a cheaper and readily available option”
Emails leading up to your announcement – Almost ready to take on new clients or launch your offer? Then, highlight what makes this an exclusive and limited opportunity, and encourage your subscribers to look out for your next email so they don’t miss out (for example, “I’ll only offer this intensive strategy day to max 5 people, and there are +100 ambitious business owners on this waitlist”)
Launch or sales email – Once it’s time to make an offer to your subscribers, frame it as an exclusive opportunity for them (because it is!). For example, you could say: “This is your chance to [benefit of your offer] before I close the doors again for 4 months”