Choice

Business, like just about everything else that has to do with human behavior, is psychology. We talk about “attracting attention”, “gaining loyalty”, “establishing trust”, “forming relationships” and “creating evangelists” like there are specific trigger points we can create at will, emotional buttons we can press and transactions we can enact, that will deliver them. In reality we’re just talking about meeting people at some point in their behavioral arc where they’re in need of what we have to offer and they’re ready to make a purchase decision.

This is where choice comes in and the paradox of choice kicks in.

"too much choice or too little, can damn a good business and ... the wrong kind of choice can damn a good product"

Choice is the moment where what a business does has to be presented as a package that can be acquired for money. The packaging renders the service or product on offer comparable to other, similar products or services (even if it isn’t). It then elicits a calculating response from the person being presented with it where the perception of value determines the outcome.

The paradox of choice emerges when we’re presented with too much choice. Studies show that when faced with either complex choices or too many choices our decision-making apparatus gets overwhelmed and making a decision becomes harder .

Before I unpack all this further consider how with just what I’ve told you, too much choice or too little, can damn a good business and how the wrong kind of choice can damn a good product.

Faced with such complexity business becomes an act of insertion. If we consider the world to be a puzzle consisting, if you will, of competitors, opportunities, threats and the challenge of change, success in business relied on it being that one ‘missing’ piece a potential customer needs to complete something they absolutely need to do.

Present that missing piece in a manner that makes it easy to grasp and easier still to use and you’re onto a winner. Make them jump through the proverbial hoops before they truly understand what it is you’re offering them and they will go look elsewhere.

But You Have To Have A Choice!

Here’s what makes sense: choices offered need to have the same logic as single products that succeed. When a single product or service succeeds it’s because it’s successfully met that ‘missing piece’ moment. Its presentation and packaging unequivocally say “I’m just what you were looking for” in such a way that it becomes imperative to have it.

Choices that expand upon it then are based on attracting an audience that is tangential to the core audience of the original product. But, usually, in presenting this logical next step we expose our core audience to additional choice by default. And when we’ve failed to really differentiate the extra available choices and clearly communicate that difference we’re then caught in that paradox of choice trap where we’re the ones advocating against a purchase of our products or services.

The paradox of choice then occurs in that grey zone where logical thinking meets transactional expediency and everyone conveniently forgets that every decision is emotional .

Solving for it requires you to ask how you’d sell a particular product or service to yourself when you’ve got just enough money to buy it. And be honest about it.

This is not as easy as it sounds, particularly the self-honesty part. But do it right and a large part of doing business becomes easier.