By Erica Stritch

This past weekend I was having lunch with a friend at the Cheesecake Factory and I found myself sifting through fifteen pages of menu options only to default back to my "usual": French Country Salad.

Now, I frequent the Cheesecake Factory, and in all the times I've been there, I rarely order something new. Why? Because it's easy to stay the same. I know what to expect with my usual order and, quite honestly, fifteen pages of options is just too overwhelming for me.

In your marketing and business development efforts, do you offer a 15-page menu? If you do, you might be pushing your services diner to pick their "usual": the competition.

Many professional services marketers fall into the a-la-carte trap: If you are going to spend the time and money to put together a marketing campaign, why not develop a menu of offerings for each campaign to provide a little bit of something for everyone?¹ "We don't want to alienate any prospects or give them the impression we don't offer a full set of services," the argument goes.

So marketers put together campaigns giving prospects a smorgasbord of choices - download the white paper on financial planning; watch the on-demand webinar on tax return preparation; attend the upcoming seminar on mergers and acquisitions, all while telling prospects about the new benefits of administration services.

Overwhelmed yet?

Too many choices creates confusion and more work for your prospect:

1. They actually have to pay attention and read (not just skim) through what you sent them. And, while you may be reading this column, people these days view reading as work and this is the type of work they simply don’t have time for.
2. Once they take the time to read through all of your offers, they have to decide which offer they want. Now you are competing with yourself (as well as everyone else) for your prospect's attention.
3. Finally, they have to figure how to accept the offer they want. 

This is an awful lot of choices and steps tripping up the prospect.

Instead of a-la-carte, try going prix fixe - one offer only. That way you limit the number of steps and get rid of the choice. It becomes a yes / no decision. "I’ll have the prix fixe" is all your prospect needs to say.

For example, if the prix fixe for the evening is baby greens and filet mignon with truffle gnocchi and sautéed spinach - I immediately know this is right up my alley and what I will be ordering. A vegetarian, on the other hand, also knows immediately that this offer is not for them. No other options, no confusion, a simple yes / no answer.

In marketing, this means that the message is presented clearly with no competing messages. The prospect can skim what is sent to them and have a pretty good idea if it is relevant or not right away. If they are interested, they will accept the offer. If they are not interested, it does not require any more of their attention.

Will you not appeal to some of your prospects this way? Perhaps. Not everyone is going to be interested in that one offer, but at least they will have a clear idea of what that offer is. Of course, who says you can't run another marketing campaign next month with a different message and offer?

Once a prospect responds to one offer, present them with a second one. If you were interested in our white paper on financial planning, perhaps you'd like to watch our on-demand webinar on the topic or view our library of other white papers. (Just because they've eaten once doesn't mean you stop feeding them after the meal.)

Here's the point: a single offer stands out and is easier to digest, and easier to remember. People are also much more likely to remember them (and respond to them) than if you introduce prospects to five different offers at once.

So package it up, leave a bunch of the available items in the kitchen off the menu, and serve up a prix fixe. Not only will more of your prospects remember this, more of them will accept. Bon appetite.

¹ Note: At the time of writing this article, I was unaware that the Cheesecake Factory’s tagline is "something for everyone."