Creating Options for Your Clients that Work Like Magic

Businesses often commit two sins when presenting options to their clients. They offer too few or too many. Both are bad and drive clients away. Read on and I’ll show you how to pick the right number… and three strategies for structuring them.

My wife and I stood at the fortress of faucets erected in the plumbing department at Lowe’s. I glanced at her as I heard zaps and pops. Sparks were rising from her head as if her hand was resting on a Van de Graaff generator. Her eyes were spinning, and her knees were buckling. I immediately knew what I needed to do.

“Karen, which of these three do you like best?”

“This one,” she responded.

“Ok, between these three, which do you like best?”

“That one,” she responded.

“Ok, between ‘this one’ and ‘that one,’ which do you like best?”

“That one,” she responded.

I continued until we compared the whole wall of faucets, and she found the one she liked best. A confused or overwhelmed brain will not purchase. So, I kept subdividing her choices, so she only had to choose between a few at a time.

The first sin companies commit is offering too many choices. The second sin is they offer too few choices.

Our brains have a mechanism that needs to compare before it feels comfortable making a commitment. So, when you only offer one choice, you’re basically driving your client to do competitive shopping.

Three choices seem optimal. Next, there’s a science to structuring those three choices.

Three Little Bears Strategy

You’ve probably seen the Three Little Bears strategy. There are three choices. One is too big. One is too small. So, you pick the one in the middle that is just right.

The one that is too big serves as the price anchor. Throw every option into that one so it increases the value and the price. The job of “too big” is to make “just right” seem like a cost savings.

Occasionally, someone will pick “too big,” so, make sure you can deliver on it when they pick it.

The strategy for “too small” is to leave out a key feature or service that people want. Infiniti doesn’t include memory settings on their entry package on their luxury cars. Most folks who buy luxury cars want the car to remember their preferred mirror and seat settings. So, “too small” pushes them up to the next package.

Odd Man Out Strategy

You still provide three options on the Odd Man Out Strategy. But two options are similar, and one option is dissimilar.

Your client’s brain quickly eliminates the dissimilar option and starts working on deciding between the two similar options. If you want to employ price anchoring, then make the dissimilar option the most expensive option.

For the two remaining options, make one option slightly more attractive and the other option slightly less attractive. Your client will quickly choose the slightly more attractive option.

The Odd Man Out strategy is less obvious and less cliché than the Three Little Bears strategy. It still satisfies the brain’s need for comparison. And it leads to a quick decision.

Obvious Value Strategy

Like the other strategies, you present three options. The first option is “A.” The second option is “B.” And the third option is “A+B” for the price of “B.”

The famous example of this strategy comes from The Economist magazine. They offered three subscription options:

·??????? Online only: $59

·??????? Print delivery only: $125

·??????? Online & Print: $125

The obvious value is Online & Print for $125. It magnetically attracts folks to that option.

Offering these three options increased revenues. When they eliminated the “Print delivery only” option, revenue decreased. Again, this taps into the brain’s need to compare before making a choice. You could rightly argue that this is a variation of the Odd Man Out strategy. But I believe there are subtle differences between the two that warrant differentiation.

Put it to Work

There are many pricing strategies we could cover. The goal is to have a strategy and the first step is to have the right number of options.

You’ve probably already heard that you need three options. Hopefully, this helped you understand some of the reasons. Good luck as you build your options strategy for magical results.