Design a pay-less-now-or-pay-more-later offer

1. The shape

Two choices are put in front of the same person:

• Pay later. Nothing today. The full price is billed after the thing has been delivered, and only if they are satisfied. This works as a delayed payment and a satisfaction guarantee at once.
• Pay now. A lower price today, with bonuses stacked on it. Whether the guarantee comes with it is stated both ways; see the flag in section 3.

Because nobody puts money down to start, the front of the offer can be advertised as free. The person pays later, and only if they like it. The reason given for why nearly anyone can sell this is that almost anybody will agree to pay later for something they end up happy with — so an owner who is weak at selling is pointed at this structure in particular.

The card is the hidden prize. Every pay-later sign-up leaves a card on file. That is what makes the pay-now offer easy to accept once they have said yes to the first one, and it is why the structure works the same way online and in person: somebody who hates the product cancels before the charge runs, and everyone else is billed.

You need a third offer. Whichever option people pick, you end up with customers and likely some profit. Taking full advantage needs something else to sell them when the time is right — more of the same, a better version, or something new. Every worked case below therefore has three parts: pay later, pay now, upsell.

2. Why the later price can be higher

People agree to pay more later than they will agree to pay now. A payment made today carries a risk the buyer prices in: that they will not get what they think they are getting. Once payment depends on the result — pay after you have the six-pack — the price attaches to the result itself, and that means you could charge far more for it.

So the later price is set high and the pay-now price is the discount. How much discount you must give, and how many bonuses you must stack, to move somebody off the pay-later option is itself a reading of what a guarantee and a delay are worth to that buyer.

3. Setting the two prices

The pay-now discount is given in two forms, and they do not describe the same band:

Form	What it says
As a band	20 to 50 percent off, sometimes two-thirds off, with bonuses
As the one-time offer	One third to one half of the price, plus bonuses and the guarantee

One third to one half of the price is a discount of one half to two-thirds, which runs from the top of the 20-to-50 band up to two-thirds. The prices on the first worked case are said not to matter. This page does not settle which reading is right. What is settled is the rule underneath: pick the discount that brings in enough cash now to break even on what the customer cost to acquire, and stop there. How hard to discount is also said to depend on how badly you need the cash.

Flag: whether pay-now keeps the guarantee. As the one-time offer, the lower price comes with bonuses and the guarantee. Stated the other way, a buyer who pays now gets the discount and bonuses instead of the guarantee. Read the first way, a pay-now buyer keeps a guarantee; read the second, they give it up for the bonuses. This page does not settle which reading is right.

The balance is the objective, not a side effect. You do not want everyone on either option. The pay-now money is there to offset the cost of getting the customer; once that is covered, you want as many people as possible to delay, because they pay the later price, described as three times the pay-now price. Cash from pay-later customers still counts toward the first thirty days if they are billed inside that window — some today, some in two, three or four weeks, all of it before your own card has to be paid back.

4. The promise and the conditions

Promise a clear yes-or-no result, and be sure you can deliver it inside your time frame. Where you do not, the customer will ask not to be billed. Make the result as objective as you can — found a first deal, got a first reply, reading speed doubled — and take a measurement before and another during the work so progress is visible. For pain, have the person rate it before the treatment and again after; if it went down, you delivered and can sell them the next thing. Keep the promise simple, clear and measurable.

The easier it is to track and the harder to refute, the better it is for this offer. A promise the customer cannot later say they did not receive is what the structure needs.

Make the guarantee conditional. A person can cancel the bill only if they qualified. In the reading case they had to attend. Good conditions are attendance, showing up for an appointment, and turning in data. Make each condition something the customer does to get value from the product; if you can line the conditions up with what gets people the most value, the criterion explains itself — your reading speed will not double unless you show up.

Stack bonuses on pay-now. If you want more people on the pay-now option, add bonuses and lower its price.

5. The worked cases

Reading speed. A registration asks for a card at $0, with $300 billed after the training unless they email to say their reading speed did not double; the registrant must attend to be eligible. The next screen offers $97 today, with the replay of the sessions included free. Attendees were tested at the start and again at the halfway point; those who had not improved were helped live. The upsell at the end was an eight-week intensive.

Flag: three later prices for one case. The later bill is $300 in the case as first given. Elsewhere, money is said to have come in from the 97s and the 397s. The priced example that follows gives $0 now and 299 after a three-hour training, beside a pay-now figure given as 149.97. No figure reconciles all three, and the prices are then declared not to matter. A second account of the same case gives $297 billed the next day, against $97 today. This page does not settle which reading is right.

A first-property workshop. Pay later: $0 for a three-day workshop, $500 billed at the end unless they cancel. Pay now: a figure given as $2.99, plus recordings, a one-on-one call with a distressed-property expert, and printed materials to use at the event. Upsell at the workshop: $30,000 to walk them through closing a first deal within six months, with legal templates, an adviser to vet the investment and an inspection checklist.

Flag: $2.99 against $500. A pay-now price of $2.99 is under one percent of the later price, outside every discount band in section 3.

A property of this case applies everywhere: because every registrant has put a card down, show rates are described as astonishing.

Clothing. A 14-day try-before-you-buy: $0 now, the garment billed at $149 at the end of the trial. Pay now: $97, which buys the item and a matching accessory. The upsell could be a monthly subscription to more clothes in the style. The condition is that the item comes back in like-new condition before billing, to qualify for the guarantee.

Lawn care, sold in person. Pay later: $0 for a lawn cut and hedges, then 600 bucks after the work if it is to their liking. Pay now: $369, or $69 on a second reading, for the lawn cut, the hedges and a lawn treatment. The prices are stated to be arbitrary — $59 and $36 are offered as equally good. Upsell: lawn care at $199 a month. The rep visits, makes the estimate, offers both options, and makes the upsell once the job is done.

Flag: the lawn-care pay-now price is given as $369 and as $69. One reading has $369 today against $600 later; a second has $69 against the same $600. This page does not settle which reading is right.

6. Tuning the split

What you see	What to change
Too many take pay-later	Discount pay-now further, add better bonuses, or both
Too many take pay-now	Go the other direction
More than 10 percent of pay-later customers cancel	The promise is too big, the guarantee conditions set too low, or the price too high

Ten percent is the rate to expect and to target. Of 100 pay-later customers, expect 10 to ask not to be billed, and treat that as a cost of doing business. At around 20, change something. Two further causes are named beside the three in the table: selling to people who cannot afford it, and selling to people who are not the right people.

Flag: the point at which to change something is given two ways. The table acts on anything above 10 percent of pay-later customers canceling. The paragraph above treats 10 percent as the cost of doing business and changes something at about 20. Read the first way, you act sooner and may change an offer that was working; read the second, you carry up to twice the unpaid bills before you act. This page does not settle which reading is right.

A large gap between the two prices invites free-riders. Where pay-now and pay-later are far apart, sometimes people get the value and then refuse to pay. The objective measure of the result is what protects you.

Work the doubters during delivery. The people who say mid-event that they have not got the result are the future cancellations. Attend to them then; in person especially it is easy to get them over the line, and it saves a great deal in cancellations later.

7. Where the second offer is made

• Digital: on the thank-you page, after the pay-later terms are accepted.
• Phone: take the card for the pay-later option first, then ask whether they would like to save 200 bucks by paying now. The worked wording offers VIP seating and the event recordings for $200 less than waiting, with both bonuses unavailable later. The more compelling the bonuses, the more people say yes.
• In person: the lawn-care flow above.

Online and on the phone, the pay-now offer comes after the pay-later terms have been accepted, and that order is given as the rule. In the lawn-care flow the rep offers both options together.

Hint at the next offer early. At an event, tell the room early that everyone wants to know when the next program starts and that you will come to it at the end, but that you want to deliver on this promise first. Talking about what everybody else wants plants the idea without pitching the people in front of you. The reading case did not do this; had it done so, it is said, more of the next program would have sold, and one buyer in that room might have been likelier to buy. One seller's own version, found by accident in nutrition consultations — opening with "everyone wants to know which supplements to buy; we will get there" — was then repeated on purpose.

8. The subscription version

This works for recurring-revenue businesses too. Give the choice between a higher ongoing rate starting 30 days later, and a lower rate today that is locked in for good. The worked case: a free trial of a subscription at $400 a month, and on the thank-you page, pay $300 today, skip the trial, and keep $300 a month for life. Add bonuses. The customer gets two benefits at once, and you can still advertise a free trial while the thank-you-page offer pays for the acquisition.

9. What this page does not decide for you

• The exact pay-now discount. Two bands are stated; break-even on acquisition is the test.
• How the pay-now bonuses should be valued. This page gives no figure for it.

10. The checklist

Question	The answer
The two options	Full price later with a conditional guarantee; less now, with bonuses
What is advertised	The pay-later option, as free
What the pay-later sign-up leaves	A card on file
The third offer	An upsell: more of the same, a better version, or something new
How far to discount pay-now	Enough to break even on acquisition; 20 to 50 percent, sometimes two-thirds
The promise	Yes-or-no, measurable, deliverable in your time frame
The qualifying conditions	Things the customer does to get value: attend, show up, turn in data
Expected cancellations	10 percent of pay-later; act at around 20, or above 10 (see the flag in section 6)
When pay-now is offered	After pay-later is accepted; in person, both together
The subscription form	$400 a month later, or $300 a month for life today

11. What this page does not cover

Sequencing this offer against the rest of a money model is the work of SOP 59 — Assemble a money model from four prongs. The four other offers built for the same front-of-model job are not ranked against it here: a win-your-money-back offer (SOP 60), a giveaway (SOP 61), a decoy (SOP 62) and buy-X-get-Y-free (SOP 63). Named as standing outside that set of five is SOP 65 — Convert a free consumption asset. The same choice offered to somebody who has just said no, rather than as the opening offer, comes up on SOP 71 — Run a free trial with a penalty, which names this structure as its counterpart for physical products and one-time services. The upsell that completes the three-part shape is SOP 66 — Run the classic upsell and choose the moment. Choosing and conditioning the guarantee is SOP 7, and the continuity price the subscription form locks in is SOP 74 — Price continuity against upfront cash.

Card processing and chargeback handling are not covered on this page.