In Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow, he writes:
“System 1 averages instead of adding.”
What he means is, when we make a snap judgement (“System 1” thinking), we average what we’re seeing instead of summing it all up.
The classic example is, imagine I offer you a box full of amazing and expensive dishes. And let’s say I’m selling it to you for $100.
You might think that’s fair and reasonable and you might want to buy it for that price.
But if I suddenly say, “And just for good measure, I’m going to throw in a plastic bag full of shattered plates and glasses,” the value doesn’t go up, even though I’m technically offering you more.
In fact, you might suddenly perceive the box of dishes to be less valuable than you did a second ago, even though what you found valuable at first hasn’t changed at all.
What’s changed is you’ve averaged everything in the box. The broken, worthless dishes actually pull the total value down, even though, “logically,” we might think they should have no effect.
This is part of the reason why “throwing in” more services, more offerings, more tactics, more deliverables when a client already sees your value will often backfire.
I think, most often, this is apparent on services pages for professional services businesses, like consultants, agencies, and advisors.
In an effort to appeal to more of the market, we “throw in” extra services that we technically can do but which aren’t core to our value.
So what our prospect sees is not the total sum of our capabilities, but the average of what’s most valuable to them.
And the more things we do that they don’t need, the less valuable they perceive us to be.
The lesson is simple: When you want to add more clients, the next best move is usually focus, not broadness.
It’s about raising the average of our perceived value by doing less of what our prospects don’t need.
Instead of doing more that drags our average value down.
Kelford Inc. is the marketing team that’s never at a loss for words. If you’re struggling with what to say and where to say it to attract ideal clients, we’ll show you the way.