50 marketing mistakes / Mistake #28
Mistake #28 of 50Don’t make people search 10,000 products.
Curate. Show plumbers plumber ideas. Show golf tournaments golf products. Help people buy.
What it costs you
Too many choices is no choice.
You carry a lot. You’re proud of that.
So you show them everything. Every product. Every option. Every color.
Your customer just wanted to know which one is right for them.
When everything is on the table, nothing gets picked.
They say, “Let me think about it.” Then they leave, and they don’t come back.
A real example
The table by the door
A man walks into a garden center. He has a shady backyard and no idea what he’s doing.
Row after row of plants. Every tag in Latin.
He wanders for twenty minutes, buys a bag of potting soil and goes home.
Down the road, another garden center has one table right by the door: “Six plants that love the shade, and won’t die on you.”
He buys all six. And the soil. And asks what goes in the front yard.
The second garden center didn’t show him more. It showed him the right ones.
Same customer. Same kind of plants. Only one of them helped him buy.
Why it happens
Why owners show everything
Nobody wants to shop forever. They want to be done.
Do this instead
Pick for them.
Start with who they are and what the thing has to do for them. Then show a few good choices, not the whole catalog. “People like you usually start here.”
| Your business | Pick for them |
|---|---|
| Hair salon | Three products for their hair type, not the whole wall |
| Restaurant | “Our five favorites” at the top of a long menu |
| Auto repair shop | Good, better, best. Three choices, not twelve. |
| Gift shop | One table by the door: “Gifts they’ll actually use” |
| Financial planner | Two or three plans that fit their age and goals |
| Your website | A page for each kind of customer, with just their picks |
Do the same thing when you pick what to hand out. Don’t scroll through thousands of products. Ask one question first: what’s its job? Then pick the few things that do that job for the person getting it.
Do this today
- 1
Write down your three most common kinds of customers.
- 2
For each one, pick the three to five things they buy most.
- 3
Put those picks first: by the door, at the top of the menu, on the home page.
- 4
Add one line to each: “Most people like you start here.”
Don’t make them search. Pick for them, and ask them to buy.
From the book
Chapter 8: Give It a Job
Starts on page 80. The whole chapter, plus 250+ ways to market your business, in the free book.
Download the free bookIdeas that fix it
Fewer choices. Better picks.
Idea 90 · book page 306Seed Packets$1–$3 eachGrows into a memory, and fits any 'growth' message.
Idea 156 · book page 339Succulents & Plants$5–$15 eachA living reminder on the desk.
Idea 126 · book page 324Tote Bags$2–$7 eachReused for years and carried in public.
Idea 186 · book page 354Aprons$15–$40 eachA uniform and an ad in one.Want a plan picked for your kind of business?
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