I hope you’re having a great day. And in today’s video, what I wanted to talk about is why having multiple products and services in a business is actually holding you back in terms of sales and marketing. So I think we’ve all come across businesses where you go to the website and you can see they’ve got this package, this package, and this package, sometimes it’s bronze, silver, gold. Or it could be like our chipmunk, our beaver, or our giraffe package. They usually have interesting names anyway or meaningful names. But the point is, it’s based on the good, better, best principle. And the good, better, best principle says, bring people into your business for something good, then give them something better, and then give them the very best thing, and keep upselling them.
And I just wanted to talk about one of the challenges behind that. So I think, what I’ve done is, I’ve identified three main areas where having that kind of system holds a business back in terms of sales and marketing. So ultimately, the first one is just based on the dilution of your marketing effort. So what I mean by that is, let’s say, to sell a particular solution to a client, you have to have had about 13 points of contact with them. So 13 points of contact with that client, and that could be through social media, that could be through blogging, that could be through actual conversations you had with them, that could be where they’ve seen your advert in certain places online and then they’ve been re-targeted with that advert. They could have downloaded a lead magnet off you, and then come to your webinar, and then booked themselves in for a sales call. And even before the sales call, you would’ve had touch points there. So 13 touch points to get that prospect into becoming a client.
So, one thing I’ll just clarify though, is when I talk about products, multiple products and services, what I’m talking about is solutions. Because sometimes when you’ve got a particular type of client, you do need to sell them multiple products to form a solution. So what I’m talking about is a solution which has subproducts, but I’m talking about multiple solutions. So when you’re offering to solve multiple different types of problem, and that’s what I’m really talking about, where you’re working with clients who have got very different problems to the other clients that you’re dealing with. So that’s where you’ve got lots of different solutions.
But the challenge with that is, to get people over the line, you’ve got about 13 points of contact, and each of those points of contact takes up a lot of energy or money, especially some marketing, it’s pay-per-click, or if you’ve got to actually make contact with people, it takes your time. So those 13 point points of contact use up your resources. And the challenge with having multiple solutions in your business that are aimed at multiple different people is that you dilute the impact. So let’s say, instead of being able to reach out to a prospect 14 times before you convert them into a client, let’s say you’ve got two solutions for two very different types of customers. So you’ve got two very different types of prospects, you’ve got to reach out to them in very different ways.
So that means, let’s say, you use your resources to reach out to one group of people and you split the resources in two. So that group of people you’ve only got those seven points of contact, and then the other group of people you’ve only got seven points of contact there. That’s not going to get you over the 13 threshold in either group, 13 points of contact threshold to turn them into a customer.
So this is why it’s very challenging for a business to actually have multiple solutions, because it completely dilutes the impact. And when it comes to marketing, quite often, if you’re not first, you’re last. And that’s what happens. If the threshold is the 13 points of contact and you are only achieving seven of that, because you split that marketing effort, then the sum of the two won’t equal the whole you’ve missed out on. So that’s one real reason.
Another reason really is, if you do have a sales team or if you’ve got a salesperson in your business, and you’ve got all these different solutions, that means what they’ve then got to do is they’ve got to practice different pitches for different types of prospects. So it actually holds that salesperson back in terms of their own development and how well they can actually master their profession and land the clients for you. So you’ve got that dilution of their effort there as well.
And thirdly, which I think is probably also equally as important as the first point is, essentially, customers have less confidence in businesses with multiple solutions. If you go to two restaurants and one’s got four things on the menu and the other one’s got 50 things on the menu, just subconsciously, you automatically assume the restaurant with the four things on the menu is going to be the best. And you’ve got Michelin star street food stores in the world as well, where you can buy a Michelin star meal for $5, and they just make that one thing and they just make it really, really well, especially if you go to places like Singapore.
So there’s a really good coach for accountants called James Ashford and he’s got a really good example of this. And there’s another really good example in The 4-Hour Workweek. But I’ll mention James Ashford’s example. Let’s say you were going to go in for surgery and the surgeon offered you three different packages. The first one was, “Look, you can have a moderate amount of aesthetic. You can have four stitches. We’ll do a little check at the end just to make sure we didn’t leave anything in you. Or you could upgrade to our premium package and you’ll have all the aesthetic you need, we’ll give you 12 sutures, and we’ll do a really thorough inspection to make sure we didn’t leave anything in you, and everything’s been done well.” If you were given that choice, the vast majority of people would just say, “I don’t want to think about this. Just get the job done.”
Another example from The 4-Hour Workweek was, Tim Ferriss, and he did an analysis on a watch company. I think this was in the ’80s when newspaper adverts were still quite relevant. This watch company ran two different adverts. One advert had five of their main watches on it, and the other advert had their most popular, their main watch on it, so it only had one watch. The advert with one watch actually had five times as much feedback and leads generated, as the advert with the five different watches on it.
So what people are really looking for you to do is show some leadership. If you believe that there is a solution for them, then you have to be willing to say, “I’m not willing to sell you anything else.” And that’s where that’s where really, narrowing it down to that one thing is really, really important. Because if you can’t give that client guidance on what they actually need and how you can achieve it for them, then they’re not going to have faith in you as a professional and they’re not going to buy from you. So that’s really the third reason. But by limiting choice for your prospects, you’re actually improving confidence in your abilities.
So those are the three points. It’s definitely worth thinking about, because I do see a lot of businesses out there where they’ve got quite a diverse offering, and that can be a challenge. It’s better to just focus on one offering for one type of client and then just build that expertise in that area.
So we cover a lot of this as part of our Apex program, as well as improving the health of your finances, profits and the business value. So if you want to find out more, what we’re offering at the moment is a free business valuation and a strategy session. So what we’ll do is, we’ll take you through a questionnaire, get some information about your business. We’ll be able to value your business and help you understand what it’s worth today. And then we’ll be able to give you some feedback and advice on how to increase the value of that business.
You might be thinking, “Well, actually I’m not thinking of selling my business at the moment, so why do I care about what it’s worth?” Well, you know what, even if you’re not thinking about selling your business, the value of your business is a really good indicator of how well you’ve built your processes and how easy it is to run. So what I’d like you to do is just take me up on that offer, get in touch, and book yourself in for a discovery call, which will then lead into that strategy session. So go to our website. And I will catch up at the next video. Remember to like, share, follow, subscribe as well.
