More choice is better… right?
Wrong.
That’s the conclusion of Barry Schwartz in The Paradox of Choice.
Common sense says increased variety and more freedom of choice will make people happier. But studies show it does the exact opposite. It actually makes them unhappy.
Why is this?
It’s because if they make a decision, they will continually contemplate all the other choices they “sacrificed.” They will wonder if they would have been happier had they made a different decision.
This paradox of choice not only affects happiness; it affects the bottom line as well.
The rule is simple. The more choices you give a buyer, the less likely it will be that he will actually make a decision to buy.
Choices overwhelm people. Too many choices offered at once produce inaction.
In other words, if you give a person too many ways to say yes, you will make it easier for the person to say no. Making a decision is hard work. It’s emotionally taxing. The more choices and variables involved, the harder it becomes to decide.
Make choosing easy!
Instead of offering a bunch of choices, offer one choice only. The choice is to either buy or not buy. The prospect must then decide yes or no. That’s it!
In almost every case, you want to make the decision to purchase as easy and simple as possible.
Buy or not buy; call or not call; request more information or don’t.
Here’s a real-world example…
On Tuesday, a client sent me an email asking me to review a rough-draft postcard. She wanted to know my thoughts, specifically about a free bonus gift offer.
The card encouraged people to register for their choice of 10% off or a free report worth a similar amount. Here is how I responded:
Offering two options is complicated, both from a decision standpoint (”Which one do I want?”) and a fulfillment standpoint.
I’d suggest going with one or the other.
If you offer the report, put a value on it.
FREE Report
(a $49 value!)The discount might stir up some complaints by people who register after the Early Bird deadline, but before receiving this discount. If they are on your list, they will want the discount too.
On the other hand, you can send the report to everybody who’s registered as an “unannounced bonus gift.” This will reduce refund requests and put the law of reciprocity in your favor.
Ultimately, I encouraged my client to offer both the 10% discount AND the free report. I also told her to use a deadline to get people to take immediate action.
What my client had originally suggested would have created an unnecessary choice for the buyer. It might have depressed the response rate or even caused customer service issues. Can you imagine, “I got the free report, but I didn’t like it. I would have preferred the 10% discount. Can you refund me the 10% instead?”
But by combining the bonus gifts, we simplify the buyer’s choice.
It’s either yes or no.
Furthermore, it’s either yes or no by a specific deadline. This is the kind of simplicity you want in all your advertisements and sales messages.
Does this mean you always give a person just one option? No, not necessarily.
As Michel Fortin has pointed out, you can get the fees you deserve by offering what he calls “Olympic Factor Pricing.” In other words, provide three different levels of service to accommodate people with varying budgets and needs.
This is critical when you are selling high ticket items, but less critical (I feel) when you’re selling products or services less than $100. If the price is low, offering multiple options only complicates a decision that doesn’t benefit from complication.
What Joe Sugarman says…
One time Joe Sugarman wrote a newspaper ad selling a watch. His client wanted to sell three styles in three different colors for a total of nine different watches. Joe wanted to only sell one watch: the men’s watch in black.
Joe and his client agreed to an A/B split-test. The results were surprising…
When both versions ran, the ad that featured only one men’s watch out-pulled the other version that featured nine models by a surprising 3 to 1 ratio. In short, for every watch we sold from the ad that featured the nine styles, we sold three in the other ad that showed just the one black watch. (Advertising Secrets of the Written Word, p. 162)
Even prior to this split-test, Joe had told his client, “…offering a customer too many choices [is] a dangerous thing to do.” (p. 161)
This only serves to illustrate the point I’m making. If you want to improve your sales, take away your buyer’s freedom by giving him fewer choices. Not only will he be happier, you’ll make more sales, more money, and more profit.
-Ryan M. Healy
Popularity: 28% [?]
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
{ 1 trackback }
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
We’re trying this “minimal options” strategy this year with our homeschool curriculum catalog. –We expanded our options beyond belief. Now we’re going for a minimalist approach for new homeschoolers. I’m “dying” to find out what happens as a result!
So should a sales letter for e.g. a $67 “Gold membership” have NO other choices other than buy OR “close window/go back one page”?
Yes I know I need to test but in general is that a good way to start?
Great post Ryan!
The timing is amazing, as I’ve had similar thoughts, but in a more general sense–related to becoming focused on building a business, or other personal desires.
I believe it’s one of the great roadblocks to success. Information overload, shiny objects, etc…
What we need are more worms!
uhh… you’d have to read my post:
http://www.timgary.com/?p=33
to “get” that.
Take it easy,
Tim
I was gone all day yesterday, so I just published all the comments in the moderation queue. Sorry for the delay.
John – I think you made a good decision. I’d be interested to know the results of your test.
Peter – Yes. Better to start with one price/choice and see how it converts. You might split-test two or three prices to see which price sells best. (In the split-test, your reader would see only one price.)
Tim – I enjoyed your “worms” post. Thanks for linking back and sharing my post with your readers. I think most folks online suffer from information overload, so it’s a good topic to address.
Interesting. I’ve always gone with the “Yes or Yes” method where you provide two options and let your client choose and have seen many others do this as well.
Now, I understand that “too many options” is the problem…so how many options are too many?
Also – can this be applied to services as well? Meaning…I am a writer – should I be offering web content, sales copy, and articles or narrow it down?
Thanks for the great article Ryan.
Hey Chad – I’m not saying the “Yes or Yes” method is wrong. It actually works quite well, as Michel Fortin pointed out in his article. (See the link to his site above.)
What I’m saying is that complexity kills a sale. Too many choices results in none.
How much is too many? More than three.
With lower priced products, you want only one choice. That’s my opinion. You’re welcome to try two or three if you like.
I would not offer all different kinds of copy as you currently do. I would pick content or sales copy and do just that. In general, writing content pays far less than writing sales copy.
Within the “content” category, there are dozens of different types of content. And within the “sales copy” category, the same is true. You’ve got space ads, direct mail, online sales letters, autoresponder messages, classified ads, Google AdWords ads, resource boxes, etc etc etc.
This article puts things in perspective. Bottom line: have 1 objective, more than 1 choice is ok. e.g. do you want it in black …. or red ?
http://www.marketingexperiments.com/improving-website-conversion/landing-page-confusion.html
Peter – Thanks for finding that article. I like the case studies they use. It shows how too many choices can increase anxiety and suppress response.
Ryan,
I like your new look. Much easier to scan and read. Thanks for asking for feedback!
Lisa
Hi Ryan
Good case in point for this: At my local coffee shop (a Caffe Nero – don’t know if you have these in the US) whenever I bought a coffee they’d ask “wuld you like some cakes or muffins with that?”. The result? It was too much effort for me to think through the options so I always said no.
More recently though, they’ve started offering a specific single option: “would you like some passion cake with that?” or “would you like a choc chip muffin with that?”. The first time they did it I said yes.
I like to think of it as “making it easier for the customer to say yes”.
Ian
Nice post Ryan! Thanks!