In January, we found ourselves needing to meet with one of our clients in person, and we had another client trip that was also on the other end of Florida in the Panhandle. So one idea that we came up with was doing a Pixie Dust & Profits business intensive, and we actually spent four days in Orlando, close to Disney property, where we sat down with our client and went through her entire business. We did a deep dive into what happened in the past six months and came up with our plan for the next six months and worked in a little bit of Disney magic. 

We discovered a few interesting things that we think you guys would be super interested in learning about.

2 just-for-fun days at Disney? Count us in!

This trip marked the start of our Pixie Dust & Profits podcast, so we could finally start working on this podcast that we had been talking about for at least six months. We had the name of it. We had 12 episodes outlined for it. And we had yet to record a single episode. When you work with as many clients as we do, sometimes their work takes precedence. And if you don’t know, we are both operations strategists working on the back end of a number of teams, which we feel incredibly fortunate to do. We’re the ones coming up with strategies, plans, analyzing numbers and trying to really move things forward so they can grow and scale their businesses. So because of that, as much as we wanted to start this podcast many, many months ago, it took us a little bit of time to get things off the ground, but we did it. We got it done and done is better than early. 

Business strategy with a side of magic

So, let’s start off with the beginning of the trip and what we ended up doing. We met with our one client for that deep dive intensive. And of course it wouldn’t be a Pixie Dust & Profits business intensive if it didn’t actually involve a trip to Disney. So we did our very first after-hours event. Now, we’ve been to Disney quite a bit, we’ve been on all the rides. So why would we spend what was basically an extra hundred dollars to go to an after-hours event? And of course, take our client along with us, right? 

Well, we were working hard during the day, doing this deep strategy work, figuring out the teams that we’re going to be working with, and how to implement a big project we had coming up. Then, at the end of the day at seven o’clock, we would go to this after-hours event. It was dark out. So it wasn’t super crazy hot either. 

There were so few people in Magic Kingdom! It was February. So it was kind of cold actually. And we were all wearing sweaters and pants, which is unheard of in Orlando. And we just had such an enjoyable experience walking around without any heat, without any crowds. You also get free popcorn and ice cream and drinks, and probably a bunch of other things that we can’t remember at this point while you’re walking around the park. So if you fancy getting a Mickey Bar, it is included. And even if it was kind of on the chilly side of things — we are from the North, we were able to handle that ice cream and what was 65 degree temperatures like champs. 

On that trip, we actually did what we like to consider the highlight of our business career: delivering a financial report on the People Mover. You know, we found ourselves trying to take like a little bit of a break to enjoy our Mickey Bars and our sodas. And you know, we thought, “Why not now to talk about financial results?” We had everything prepared. So we walked our client through how we did for the past six months, what our goals were for the next six. And frankly, we wish we could do all business meetings on the People Mover because that would just be such a treat.

The after-hours experience

The thing that we really want to stress here with this after-hours event is that, from a business perspective, Disney got people who have annual passes to pay more money and to come to something they already have access to. That just got us thinking about your business and how you can give little order bumps and one time offers and things for your customers to spend just a little bit more money with you, even if it’s for the same thing that they already have, but with an elevated experience, right? 

What we were paying for was not just to go to Magic Kingdom… we can go to Magic Kingdom any time. We were paying for less crowds walking onto seven doors, mind train, and Peter Pan’s flight. Like when do you do that? You wait 15 minutes in line with the FastPass or you’re waiting an hour to get in. And just to have all the treats our heart desired. It was an amazing evening. It was just low stress. And we actually were able to hit every single ride we wanted to!  And when you compare that to the price of a regular park ticket, I think it’s around $150 for a single day, you get less time in the park, but we were actually able to maximize that and have an enhanced customer experience.

Elevate your offerings (just like Disney!) 

There are ways that you can take your existing offers and add an additional level of experience, a higher touch point and charge more for it. And your customers would be fine with paying for it. One example is if you have a group program. Obviously when someone’s coming into a group program, they’re sharing your time and your expertise with a bunch of other people. Now, if they want your one-on-one advice outside of the weekly or monthly calls that you have, you can charge them a little bit of a premium for that and get them to pay extra for one-on-one access. 

So if you offer a bonus clarity call or a bonus strategy call, you can discount that from your usual price. Because again, they are a customer, but get them to spend an additional hundred, $150 for that hour of your time, which is going to be insanely valuable for them because just like Disney, they’re not competing with everyone else for your time. This can also be something like a Slack channel. If you just want to have access to someone for a month to be able to talk to them or Voxer, if you prefer a voice communication, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a 30 minute call. 

It could also be a bundle of things that you’ve sold in the past, or you have sitting on your hard drive that you use in your own business already — like our Business Bundle ;). Just tweak it up a little bit and make it more of a template. Don’t give them over your customer information, but you can sell these little things. In addition to the regular product that you’re selling, you already have them sold. This is the best opportunity to give them just a little bit more that they actually need and want, and they already have their credit card out. So it’s a perfect win-win for them and for you.

Think about getting your Magic Band. How genius is it for Disney to offer the opportunity to pay $10 more, just $10 to get a custom band?? When we go to the parks, we know those Magic Bands are $25. So this is another opportunity where you can easily sell something. We’re already coming. Now Disney can just send us that one little extra bump and it’s only $10. You can do the same thing — but think about it across 20 clients. You’re charging $10 or $25 for something, and  that adds up very quickly. It’s not necessarily additional time or effort on your part. You just set up the system and it delivers that bonus and that’s extra money you’re raking in every month. 

How can you add this magic to your biz?

We encourage you to look at your business, look at the products and offerings you have. What are ways that you can add a little bit of an extra touch point or a little bit more value to your customer in a really meaningful and intentional way that you can charge more for? 

The best way to do this is to create a Customer Ascension Model, which can show you easily how you kickstart a sale — and continue to sell to customers once you have them in the door. We have a totally free Customer Ascension Model in our Business Bundle. This is the same model we use with all of our clients when mapping out their strategy!