Kelford Labs Daily: One thing for one reason

“In one study conducted in campus cafeterias across several US colleges, food labels that emphasized health benefits (e.g ., "Healthy Choice Turnips," "Nutritious Green Beans") decreased consumption by almost 30 percent compared with food labels that emphasized taste. … Because your central goal when you eat (compared, for example, to taking medicine) is to enjoy taste, when consumption is framed as instrumental for other reasons, we expect the food to taste less good.” — Ayelet Fishback, Get It Done

How many reasons do you give your customers for working with you?

Do you say you’re both high quality and affordable?

Do you say your services have the polish of a large company, but at small company prices?

Or that you provide tailored services at scale?

In the customer’s mind, every additional promise you make dilutes the impact of the first one.

“Good and cheap” means “cheap,” and its associated implications.

“Delicious and nutritious” means “nutritious,” and its associated flavors.

“Big company expertise with small company prices” means “small company prices,” and everything that comes with that.

How many services do you have listed on your website? How many features of your product do you highlight?

Do your very best customers need all of that, or are they bouncing off your website, thinking, “Nobody’s good at everything at once”?

It turns out, the less you do, the better people will assume you do it.

But the more you promise, the more you dilute your proposition.

Today’s Experiment

Step 1: Review
Action: Think about your elevator pitch or opening paragraph on your website. How many times do you say “and”?
Time: 2 minutes

Step 2: Rethink
Action: If you had to choose the element before or after the “and”, which would you keep? What do you really want to focus on? What are you willing to let go of?
Time: 2 minutes

Step 3: Revise
Action: Make the change in both your words and work. Be brave, be bold—be focused.