High Ticket Service Niches: What’s Selling and What’s Not
Back in 2020 you could slap a high ticket price point on almost any coaching offer, and with the right marketing, that offer would sell. I believe the time of “easy” online sales is definitely over. Everything is more of an effort now, both to get attention and also to get sales.
Understanding what services and niches are selling well are key to a sustainable business.
Coaches are either revamping their offers because they aren’t getting sales, or they are doubling down on their offers because they are sold out. Part of knowing what to sell is understanding what people are buying and what they currently value, and also understanding the general mood of the world at the moment.
Humanity feels a sense of distrust, skepticism, and unhappiness, so to make ourselves feel better, we are buying! As I talked about in my recent survey of buying trends, actually travel and food are selling the BEST right now. Probably because both traveling and eating give us immediate comfort and relief. Who doesn’t enjoy a night out at our favorite restaurant or a takeout/takeaway of our favorite food? And who doesn’t enjoy booking a cruise, a flight to somewhere wonderful, or a hotel suite?
However, if you don’t sell travel or food, and you are a coach or consultant, you might be wondering what exactly is selling and what is not.
So first, let’s unpack what isn’t selling so we don’t waste time with those things.
5 Types of high ticket offers NOT selling well in 2024.
Courses with loads of content and no help with implementation. 100% of the clients I spoke with said they were not buying courses for the foreseeable future and especially not at very high ticket price points. And they were especially avoiding anything requiring too much concentration or decision making. Your clients are overwhelmed with decisions, and options. Their nervous system is on high alert. If you are asking them to do a lot of BRAIN work, expect those offers to be harder to sell.
Fluffy offers. In other words nice to have but aren’t relieving pain for your client. Nice-to-have offers might be something they want to do down the road but aren’t on their immediate list for the foreseeable future. If your offer isn’t relevant in clients’ minds right now, and isn’t solving a high stakes problem, it likely won't sell.
Spiritual offers without an outcome based on wealth, health, and peace of mind. Mental health related coaching is selling well, particularly preventing or reversing burnout.
Offers with little or no access to the creator. Clients are fed up with buying something because of the creator… and realizing the creator is nowhere to be found. You can read more about this trend in my article “Why your personal brand as a coach is the difference between a sold out business and a slog.”
Small stakes offers and offers solving only one issue for a client. If your offer has only one outcome, and doesn’t help in multiple areas, it’s not going to sell. Clients want to tick off several boxes when it comes to solutions to their issues. They want to have a retreat and a branding shoot. They want to go to a networking event and be able to speak at the event.
Now you know what isn’t selling well, let’s talk about what is selling, and why.
Clients are still buying higher ticket offers, but they are buying for specific reasons.
HIGH STAKES offers always sell better than low stakes. In other words, people want a very high rate of return on their investment.
20 High Ticket Offers Niches Selling Right Now.
Intimate retreats and smaller, curated in-person experiences and events are selling well for many coaches. We are desperately seeking connection and fun. We want to be delighted and forget our troubles at least temporarily, all while resting and rejuvenating. Even though people are still going to big conferences, expect those bigger conferences’ ticket prices to drop. Clients want more VIP access, beautiful client experiences, and smaller rooms. Less information, more connection, more transformation.
Offers that tick the boxes of several “to do’s” for clients are very popular among service providers such as creatives and coaches. If they need to hire a sales team AND they don’t have a system in place for that sales team to create sales, your higher ticket offer might also include a done for you sales training. Or a comprehensive deep dive into their business (on a call they don’t have to prepare for!) where you look at their current systems and create a strategy for their new sales person to follow. This might ALSO include implementing new software or customer management for the client. Another example might be they need new photos for their new brand, but also want to attend a VIP day or retreat. A mini brand shoot can help sell the offer at a higher price point.
Wealth based offers are performing well in many sectors. If you can teach someone how to invest with the money they have, or teach someone how to manage their money mindset so they have more profits, these offers have a clear and HUGE return on investment.
Offers specifically from personal brands your clients love. Those who nurture their own brands will see an uptick in sales. Coaches using AI are making us doubt their offers, photos, even marketing videos because we don’t know what is real and what isn’t! This AI issue makes your client want to know exactly who they are buying from. And they don’t want to buy from a bot! Personal touches and personal brands that can’t be duplicated will sell offers easily at higher ticket prices. In this case, your brand is more important than the features of the offer. Think about offering more access to you and making your highest ticket offers invite only.
Offers creating a community of advanced, sophisticated people. Most people are selling to beginners in their arena. Think about the people your people want to meet and associate with. Build that table and invite people in.
1-1 Offers and deliverables in customizable offers. NOT one size fits all. Group coaching (generally) isn’t selling well. The reason? Group coaching usually suits the coach, rather than the person being coached. I saw a livestream recently from someone who bought a $25,000 mastermind. The coach promised her a brilliant online experience to match an in person event. She complained when the zoom links didn’t work, the tech was shoddy, and her experience was awful, and they removed her from the mastermind and didn’t refund her money! Please don’t do that. If you aren’t great at client experience, work on that before you create a higher ticket offer.
Astrology offers, psychic offers, and offers that offer insight into the future, as well as human design offers are selling at a higher ticket, because this offers us a look into the future. Or insight into ourselves we cannot get elsewhere.
Fractional corporate consulting. This year, corporations are pulling back on hiring and asking their C Suite to do more with less. Investors in companies are unwilling to pay for the best talent and are laying off workers, rather than investing in full time people. This means if you serve corporate this is a banner time to offer your services as an interim or even long term solution. Think about offering your services as a human resource manager, team leader, marketing leader, or a finance officer. Show the clear return on investment you bring and how they won’t have to pay for your benefits or payroll tax.
Offers allowing your client to rest more and take more time off. The word for right now is EASY. Even though most of business (and frankly life!) requires hard work, clients don’t want to buy that right now. They want something simple, effective, and efficient. They want to feel as though you are removing everything they dislike and giving them everything they want in a simpler way.
Offers allowing clients to maximize the trends or use their current content to get clients forever. Things like well done SEO, user experience on websites, website builds based on user experience, Youtube strategies to reach 1000 views quickly. Funnels creating sales, ads that work, and done for you strategy and implementation on systems and social media.
High level branding is selling well. If you do comprehensive branding including the visual aspects, businesses clearly understand they need branding and are willing to pay the price they need to in order to get the best. The key to selling these particular offers is to have noticeably sophisticated VISUALS. I can’t tell you how many branding specialists I have seen who’s own visuals or brand photography lacks any sophistication! Get your house in order before launching in the branding high ticket space.
Social strategy and messaging is a perennial best seller. Businesses also understand they need the best messaging strategy because of the climate we are in. Most corporations understand they are not changing fast enough to suit their clients and are operating off of erroneous outdated information in marketing (unfortunately still being peddled by marketing agencies.) A clear message strategy for online communication is gold for a business.
Addiction, hypnotherapy, and mindset coaching are still selling well as long as you have a specialty. Regular life coaching isn’t selling as well at higher price points without extra bells and whistles (and this doesn’t mean a bunch of random bonuses shoved into your coaching offers). If you don’t have a skill within this arena, it might be helpful to research becoming trauma informed or even having your own proprietary methods of coaching.
While spiritual coaching is taking a hit, both energetic coaching and feminine attraction coaching are making a comeback. Ladies have spent the last few years growing their business and now they desire to have more space in their lives and someone to share their success with. They want to attract their significant other in a more feminine way, being pursued instead of pursuing!
People want to feel better. Any offer that allows your clients to feel a sense of delight, relief, or a pain free existence is still selling at higher ticket fees. For instance if your clients want to get more corporate contracts and in your offer you not only teach them your perfect method, you also teach the best way to send proposals and follow up using their team. If your clients are having difficulties hiring great people, you hold their hand and even attend the interviews like a hiring manager. If you do a retreat, the retreat is all inclusive and creates a luxurious feeling of space, rest and upleveled relaxation.
True masterminds are selling for high ticket price points. Especially those run by celebrities. Don’t let that deter you, there is value in being able to gather people at a certain level in one container. Even if you aren’t a celebrity.
Author and book coaching, particularly if you can get your authors to be seen by publishing houses or teach them how to find agents or even more readers! If your client is an author and you do marketing for authors, especially Kindle book sellers, you can command higher price points.
Speaker coaching. Most advanced clients in business wish to speak more on stages. Specialize in storytelling and you can charge more because any business needs good stories to advance their profits. This can also include placement agencies who can help you get placed on the best guest spots on podcasts, etc.
Public relations, becoming an influencer, creating the opportunity to become a personal brand. All these arenas are great for higher ticket because they require unusual skill sets, connections, or both.
Coaching for high net worth individuals. Coaching highly motivated and successful people on everything from addiction, to parenting kids who come from money, to handling your success, to being able to understand yourself better. Most high net worth individuals have a coach.
Once you decide on your coaching or consulting niche, the most important thing to remember is that your client is a real person with hopes, fears, and dreams.
Clients buy for a variety of reasons, but the current state of the marketplace is creating doubt and uncertainty in everyone’s mind: AI isn’t helping! The more you know your client the better your offers become.
Key Takeaways about the high ticket niches selling right now.
Not everything is selling. High stakes offers including multiple solutions will sell the best.
Many clients are still buying expensive things, but they won’t buy fluffy offers or spend $20,000 to try something out.
Clients are choosier than ever and have more options than at any time in history. Make it easy for your clients to choose you by offering programs designed for them, leaning into your personal brand, and solving their issues in unique ways.
