Offer LESS
Giving too much for too little leaves you burnt out and resentful. And, it makes your customers suspicious about why you don’t value your product more highly.
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What do you think of when you hear the word “elegance”?
If we play a word association game: you’re probably thinking words along the lines of “beautiful,” “high-quality,” and “luxurious.” Perhaps even “high-end”, “aspirational”, “lust-worthy,” or “desired.”
I wouldn’t mind my business offers being thought of like that, would you?
So, let’s talk about what elegance is.
Here’s what I think of when I think of “elegance”: everything working in harmony towards one sparklingly striking vision. A symphony. A perfectly choreographed routine. An exquisite evening gown.
Each element is intentional. Not a thing out of place. Bold in its simplicity.
You might say that elegance requires simplicity.
Coco Chanel once famously said, “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.”
And: “Elegance is refusal.”
I say the same thing applies to your business.
Less Is More, So Offer Less
So, before you launch or relaunch that offer… Take in the whole picture. See what you can subtract. Keep it simple. Keep it elegant. Ensure what stays in is streamlined, polished, and incredibly high-quality.
If we’re feeling insecure about money or even the value that we bring to customers, most of us are tempted to keep adding stuff in. Work more for less. Give endless freebies and extras.
Though it feels counterintuitive, the move is actually to offer less and get better at offering it. I can’t tell you how many folks (myself included) learn this the hard way. If you don’t want to be one of them, keep reading. Here are 6 reasons why less is more with your business’s offers.
#1 You’re Going to Have a Hard Time Tracking & Maintaining Zillions of Offers
First, let’s talk about how much work it is to keep track of several many offers for your brand. Believe me, I know- cuz I started out with like 36 of them.
Now, it’s not just servicing several many offers, it’s also maintaining and updating:
Your sales page for each offer
Every other page on your website that mentions/links to that sales page
Your pricing, payment processor, and available payment plans
Terms & conditions for that offer + contracts if you got ‘em
Segmenting your email list, especially if the customer for some of your offers is absolutely not the customer for your other offers
What upsells and down-sells match each offer
Updating marketing for each offer to be consistent with the brand because you’ll need to update everything whenever you make updates to your branding
And so on and so forth.
Maintaining several many offers is a whole lot of work behind the scenes… And if you aren’t selling yet, it’s unpaid work. You OK with that, boo? Is that being a good boss to yourself? Are those reasonable expectations?
#2 Confused or Overwhelmed Customers Don’t Buy
If you’re struggling to keep track of and maintain your several many offers, there is a very good chance that customers are getting very overwhelmed when they look at your website, your newsletters, your link in bio, your socials, and other places you are marketing.
Most leads won’t spend a lot of time trying to figure out which of your offers meets their needs. If they can’t find it quickly, they’ll just leave.
Why? Because choice overload is a thing. When faced with infinite possibilities, choosing one becomes stressful. So, many will simply make no decision at all. The ones who do make a decision often wonder whether they picked the right one- leaving them less than satisfied with their purchase.
You either need just a few offers or a really good and really easy-to-navigate overview so that leads can quickly and easily self-select the most relevant offer for them. Word to the wise: the latter is extremely challenging to do well in your marketing.
“Confused customers don’t buy” is a truism you’ll need to keep in mind when designing your marketing for each particular service as well.
Remember, leads want a quick way to know the quick and dirty of the offer:
How it will help them
Why that transformation is valuable & how their lives will be different afterwards
What is the offer, exactly
How much it costs in terms of money, time, effort, etc.
How do they sign up
How much time do they have to make a decision
Where can they ask questions
And in order to give them the quick and dirty quickly, that means:
Your messaging needs to be tantalizing enough to quickly hook their attention so they read/view/listen on
Your copywriting has to be skim-friendly so they can determine relevance to their situation quickly
Your design needs to highlight the most important messaging and information
How to buy or get on the waitlist needs to be CRYSTAL CLEAR
All this information needs to be repeated multiple times in your marketing so they keep being reminded about it and keep thinking about it
So, you see: making your offer simple for your customers to understand actually takes a lot of effort on your part.
Do you have the spoons to put in that effort for all the offers you’re currently offering?
#3 Quality Suffers When You Offer Beyond Your Capacity
If you have more offers than you have the capacity to serve… Or, if there’s more in the offer than you’re being compensated for… Your customer will not be receiving a high-quality, top-notch experience.
Because you cannot give beyond what you have available.
You’ll have to start cutting corners. And, you’re likely to deliver way later than you thought you would and your clients were expecting.
Is that your vision for your business? I’m guessing no.
#4 If You’re Throwing In Too Much and Charging Too Little- Burnout is INEVITABLE
And there is a huge personal cost to offering more than your true capacity to give.
Your true capacity does not mean how much you are able to do when forced. Your true capacity to give is how what you can provide when you are:
Rested
Eating & drinking properly
Moving your body
Tending to your health
Socializing
Spending quality time with loved ones
Exploring your interests outside your business
Enjoying yourself
When you are working so hard that you don’t have time to do the above- burnout is guaranteed.
And when you’re trying to work through burnout, the quality of your work and your customer service will definitely slip.
So, you’ve got to find a way to make the living you want off of what you actually have the capacity to give.
This means that many of you are going to have to raise your prices so that you can do a better job delivering fewer offers.
#5 Throwing Too Much in Makes Folks Suspicious
Have you ever, like me, been wooed by some super cute clothes ads at shockingly low prices only to have a disappointing knock-off arrive that bears only a vague resemblance to the photograph? The fabric is cheap, the stitching is uneven, the fit is off.
You only need to be burnt by this kind of thing once to be suspicious for life of too-good-to-be-true pricing.
Too-good-to-be-true pricing means something is wrong with it. Don’t expect too much. Or, don’t waste your money at all and wait for a more trustworthy offer from a brand you can count on.
When you price your offers too low, especially if it’s a great offer with great value, you might accidentally be scaring potential customers away. They’ll wonder why you don’t value your offer and doubt whether they’re in good hands.
Why should they trust you to provide an amazing product or service if you don’t trust you to?
Same deal if you’re throwing in too many extras and freebies and discounts. Do you not think the core offer is valuable on its own? Do you doubt other people will? Why?
Dive into this. Heal this. Your business needs you to.
#6 If YOU don’t believe in the value of the core offer, no matter how many extras you throw in, you’ll have a hard time selling it.
Here’s the thing: no one can tell you the value of your offer and make you believe it.
You have to find a way to believe it yourself or you’ll always be looking for external validation. Then, even when you get it- you won’t take it to heart.
Plus, if you don’t believe in the value of your offer- it’s going to throw your marketing off. Even if your higher self knows the offer is amazing- but your inner critic, self-doubt, and anxiety are getting in the way of you fully claiming it- your marketing becomes about getting rather than giving.
Because every time you put out content or ads, you’ll be obsessively checking engagement and comparing your stats, hoping someone else will give you permission to value your offer enough to not have to go so overboard. Every bit of marketing you put out there has high stakes when you haven’t done the inner work to build belief in your offer.
Which puts a lot more pressure on any interaction with potential customers. Even if you’re giving them helpful how-tos, you want emotional labor from them in return AND you want them to buy.
People can sense when you want more than you say you do.
Which means, fewer people will want to engage. And then you’ll doubt the value even more.
So, if you’re terrified about whether or not your offer is going to sell, the move is not to lower your prices or throw more in.
The move is to explore your terror.
What are you really afraid of? Why?
What would it mean about you if it happened? Would it actually mean that?
What is your terror protecting you from? Do you agree you need to be protected from it?
What healing needs to happen to soothe this frightened part of you?
What skilled and consenting emotional support can you enlist to help you examine your fears? Maybe it’s time to go to therapy or book with The Marketing Confidence Cheerleader. Perhaps it’s time to join a coaching program or a community of entrepreneurs.
The move is to build your confidence in your offer. Which means, you need to:
Notice and celebrate positive feedback. I recommend creating a ritual for yourself! I hand-write positive feedback in a little notebook.
Own your medicine. Note transformations and how this will change your clients’ lives and the people and communities around them.
Give yourself credit for your qualifications. Yes, formal training and certifications. But also, your time practicing, experimenting, learning on the job or in life, your own experiences, etc.
Rest, eat, drink, make merry, and otherwise take good care of yourself so you have the emotional resources to share your offer with the world.
Confidence is an inside job. Trust is an inside job. You need both not to offer too much for too little.
This is why it’s soooo important for entrepreneurs to get support for their mental and emotional health.
Simple Offers are Easier to Market, Sell, & Deliver
Elegantly simple and bold offers are so much easier to design messaging, write copy, and, create irresistible marketing for. They’re so much easier to sell. They’re so much easier for you to deliver.
Doing the inner work so you don’t feel like you have to offer so much for so little is one of THE best things you can do for your business. And for yourself.
If you’d like some help building belief in your offer and structuring and pricing it appropriately, I would LOVE to be your Marketing Confidence Cheerleader. If you’re reading this before 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, April 26th, you still have a chance to claim a HUGE discount for a 1:1 with me. Details here.
