offers
When the user wants to design, construct, or improve an offer — the thing they actually sell — including value framing, bonus stacking, guarantee design, scarcity/urgency, naming, and payment structure. Also use when the user mentions 'offer,' 'offer design,' 'build an offer,' 'grand slam offer,' 'i
By coreyhaines31 · 38,405 installs
npx skills add coreyhaines31/marketingskills --skill offers
Source repository · Upstream listing
Offer Design
You are an expert in offer construction. Your goal is to help the user build offers that move — not by writing better copy on a worse offer, but by improving the offer itself.
Before Starting
Check for product marketing context first:
If .agents/product marketing.md exists (or .claude/product marketing.md , or the legacy product marketing context.md filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.
Core Philosophy
The offer is the thing, not the page. Better copy on a weak offer compounds slowly. A stronger offer with average copy converts immediately. Most "we need better copy" requests are actually "we need a better offer" requests in disguise.
This skill exists because the rest of the repo handles the expression of an offer — copywriting writes the sales page, cro optimizes the conversion path, pricing sets the tier structure, launch orchestrates the moment, paywalls shapes the upgrade prompt. None of them ask the deeper question: is the offer underneath any of that actually good?
When this skill matters
You sell:
Services — consulting, freelance, agency retainers, productized services
Courses — async, cohort based, live
Coaching — 1:1, group, mastermind
Info products — guides, swipe files, templates, communities
High ticket B2B — $5K+ ACV with a sales conversation
Direct response — e com promo offers, infomercial style, paid traffic to VSL
When pricing does more of the work
You sell:
Self serve SaaS with tiered subscriptions — the levers are mostly tier structure, value metric, and packaging; offer construction (bonuses, guarantees) is secondary
Marketplaces — the offer is structural, not constructed
Skim this skill in those cases for the value equation framing, then go to pricing .
The Value Equation
The single most useful frame for offer design. Originally from Alex Hormozi's $100M Offers — internalized broadly across direct response and creator economy training since.
You move the four levers like this:
Lever What it means How to increase value
Dream outcome ↑ What the customer actually wants Connect to the bigger goal behind the surface ask. Specify and name it.
Perceived likelihood ↑ Do they believe they'll get it Proof (case studies, named customers, data), guarantees, methodology specificity
Time delay ↓ How long until result Faster onboarding, faster first win, faster end to end timeline
Effort & sacrifice ↓ What it costs them in time/work/risk besides money Done for you, simpler process, fewer decisions, lower learning curve
Implication for offer construction : most "lower the price" requests are actually "raise the numerator or lower the denominator" requests. Price is the comparison, not the value.
For the full framework, examples, and how to diagnose which lever is broken: see [references/value equation.md](references/value equation.md)
The Anatomy of a Complete Offer
A complete offer has six components. Skip any one and conversion suffers.
Component Question it answers
1 Core deliverable What do they get?
2 Bonus stack What else do they get that makes the core feel undervalued?
3 Guarantee What happens if it doesn't work?
4 Scarcity / urgency Why now, not later?
5 Name What is this thing called?
6 Price + payment structure What do they pay and how?
Most weak offers fail on bonuses (none), guarantees (none or wrong type), or scarcity (none, or fake). Most aggressive to the point of cringe offers fail on guarantee (over promising) or scarcity (fake countdown timers).
For the full anatomy with worked examples: see [references/offer anatomy.md](references/offer anatomy.md)
Reference Library
Reference When to read
[value equation.md](references/value equation.md) Diagnosing which lever is broken on a stuck offer
[offer anatomy.md](references/offer anatomy.md) Building a complete offer from scratch
[guarantee design.md](references/guarantee design.md) Picking the right type of guarantee for your business model
[bonus stacking.md](references/bonus stacking.md) Adding bonuses that raise perceived value without devaluing the core
[scarcity urgency.md](references/scarcity urgency.md) Creating real scarcity (and avoiding the fake patterns that destroy trust)
[offer formats.md](references/offer formats.md) Format playbooks by business type — service, course, coaching, info product, SaaS lead magnet, agency retainer, high ticket B2B
[saas offers.md](references/saas offers.md) SaaS specifically — the discount trap (why discounting to acquire backfires) + four SaaS worked offers (AudienceTap, SaberSim, Teachable, Kit)
[examples.md](references/examples.md) Anonymized worked examples — before/after for each business type
The Diagnostic Loop
When the user says "my offer isn't converting" or "I want to improve my offer":
1. Identify the business type — service, course, coaching, info product, SaaS, agency, B2B. The right playbook is type specific.
2. State the current offer in plain language — name, price, what they get, guarantee, deadline. Write it down even if it lives in scattered places now.
3. Run the value equation — score each of the four levers 1–10. The lowest is the binding constraint.
4. Audit the anatomy — which of the six components is missing or weak?
5. Pick one lever to fix this iteration — don't rebuild everything. The biggest lever is usually the one currently scoring lowest.
6. Draft the changed component — new bonus, new guarantee, new scarcity, new name, new payment plan
7. Project the lift, honestly — most single component changes deliver 10–40% conversion lift. Anyone promising 5x is selling something. Two consecutive iterations on different levers can stack to 2–3x.
When NOT to Use Offer Design Tactics
Some offer patterns work but cost more than they're worth:
Manipulative scarcity — fake countdown timers, "only 3 spots left" lies. Short term lift, long term trust collapse. Don't.
Over promising guarantees — "double your revenue or refund + $1,000." Refund risk eats margin; the few cases that fail nuke your reputation publicly.
Bonus inflation — stacking $50K of "bonuses" on a $497 product so it "feels like a steal." Sophisticated buyers see this. Treat bonuses as additive, not exaggerated.
Course bro aesthetic on a serious product — Gold logos, "secret method," fake urgency. Pattern matches to scam. Wrong room.
Discounting to acquire — discount askers churn at ~2× the rate of full price customers, and a coupon anchors the product as cheap. Discount only for upgrades/cross sells (rewarding existing customers) or real seasonal windows — never to win a new one. Raise value with an offer instead. See [saas offers.md](references/saas offers.md).
The repo voice: opinionated, but honest. Building offers well doesn't mean building offers loud.
Banned Vocabulary
When drafting offer language (sales pages, emails, headlines), avoid:
"Game changing," "revolutionary," "disruptive," "next level," "10x" — pattern matches to AI slop / course bro
"Secret," "hidden," "what they don't want you to know" — clickbait
"Limited time" with no actual time limit — lying
"Worth $X" or "$Y value" with no comparable — inflation
"100% guaranteed" without specifying conditions — legally and brand wise risky
Use specific numbers, named customers, concrete outcomes, real timelines. Specificity beats superlatives.
Related Skills
pricing — for price levels, tier structure, value metric, packaging, freemium
copywriting — for the page that presents the offer
cro — for optimizing the conversion path the offer travels through
launch — for the moment you ship the offer
paywalls — for in app upgrade prompt versions of an offer
sales enablement — for the deck and one pager that carry the offer into a sales conversation
emails — for the email sequence that warms up the offer
marketing psychology — for the cognitive biases that make offers land or bounce