Be More Successful By Offering Less

Have you ever wasted time selecting a toothpaste from the seemingly zillion varieties...from extra whitening...to cavity protection...to better gums... to new teeth? I'm kidding on that last one but you get the idea.

It's confusing. Who knows what to buy?

I was thinking of the toothpaste buying challenge recently when checking out a client's website.

The site had too many choices. Did I want product management? Or business progression? Or business transformation? Or cost reduction? Or on and on? And none had its finger waving saying choose me. You didn't which service did what. Or who it was for.

Bottom Line: Make it easy for your client or customer to buy. Don't torture them with a maze of choices.

There's a famous jam experiment where people were given a choice of 24 jars of jam to buy on one day, and a choice of 6 on another day.

Which day sold more jams?

The table with fewer choices led to significantly more sales among the people who sampled the jams; 30% vs. 3%.

The takeaway: Too many choices can be bad for sales.

I see this at work time and again on LinkedIn.

Some people claim to be doing so many things they might as well be superman: From strategy...to writing...to marketing....to finance. Ultimately you have no idea what the person is offering or serving.

The single biggest driver of stickiness, by far, was “decision simplicity”—the ease with which consumers can gather trustworthy information about a product and confidently and efficiently weigh their purchase options. What consumers want from marketers is, simply, simplicity.

The quote is from a Harvard Business Review article that surveyed consumers and executives to determine what makes someone buy.

They found that marketers who focus on simplifying consumers' decision making sell more.

How can you simplify your offer?

Here are a few ways to do just that:

• Limit your offers. If you're a small business, focus on a few offers max and tailer them to your prospects' need. Help a client buy by making it crystal clear what problem you're solving and benefits you're offering. Don't make them guess.
• Only one CTA. Don't have multiple calls to action so someone doesn't know which one to choose. Offer one item that's a no-brainer to select. For example, if you're a small business expert offer a free diagnostic or some other grabber that makes people want to take the next step.
• Don't sell yourself as a do-all person. Do-alls end up as do-nothings since no one knows what you do. Define and refine what you do so no one has to guess. And clearly state who your audience is.

How are you simplifying your offer? Share in the comments.

#smallbusiness #marketing #focus #coaches #consultants

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I help small business owners, including coaches and consultants, nail their messaging, branding and marketing to grow their business. Schedule a free Power Positioning call with me.