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Leslie Presnell
Hey, do you want to know what's possible for you when we work together inside the LocalPreneur Academy? Before you dive into this episode, I wanted to invite you to book a complimentary consult call with me so we can talk about exactly how your business will grow. And listen, I know hopping on a call can feel really intimidating. I've been there. I know it can be scary, I know it can be awkward, and I don't want you to feel nervous or pressured at all. In fact, I want it to be a really fun conversation. Let's like, seriously, how often do we get an hour just to talk about ourselves and our business to someone who actually wants to listen? I'll 100% lead the conversation so you don't have to be worried about being prepared or even knowing what to say. We're going to look at everything you're doing now to market yourself locally. Even if you don't think you are doing enough or it's not working at all how you want it to. We're going to figure out what's working and what's not working and why, and exactly what I'll do to help you inside the LocalPreneur Academy and how it will apply specifically to your unique business. And I know you likely have a lot of questions like how do I reach more people who live in my city and how do I get people to stop scrolling and actually engage with my post? How do I get people to take action and reach out to book or buy? And we can totally cover this for sure. And anything else you can think of that's keeping you stuck and I'll share how I can make the process easier for you to grow your local business. I've been there and I have helped so many local business owners do this work too. So click the link in the show notes to schedule your complimentary consult. Call with me and I will talk to you soon. You are listening to the Grow youw Local Business Podcast where local marketing expert and life coach Leslie Presnell shares the strategies and the mindset to help you reach more people in your city and bring in a steady stream of clients. All right, let's dive in. Foreign hey friends, welcome back to the Grow your Local Business podcast. Today we're going to talk about a really common problem I see with local business owners and that is having too many offers. So we're going to talk about why that is a problem and really how it shows up as a problem. So you can just kind of self diagnose today and see if this is something that could be slowing down your local sales. So last week on the podcast, we talked all about Offers 101, like what an offer actually is, what it means to make offers, and how to create urgency among your buyers with special offers or promotional offers. So if you missed that episode, definitely go back and listen to it. Consider that one like part one, and this is part two. It's the episode right before this one. What I was finding is a lot of people were coming to me asking, what are offers and what do I mean by the word offer? So that's really what I broke down in last week's episode. But the quick version here is an offer is really just what service you're selling and how it's structured or packaged up and priced, and what all is included. And today I want to build on that conversation and talk about one of the biggest reasons business owners stay stuck in not making the amount of sales they want to be making. And that's just because they have too many offers. They offer too many services at too many different price points, or they have too many packages or tiers, or just too many options. There are too many things on the menu for your potential clients. And I know it sounds harmless at first, and it almost sounds like you're doing the right thing to have more offers because you're like, yeah, more offers, more options, more prices, more ways I can serve more people. But really, too many offers is one of the fastest ways to confuse your audience, to. To muddy up your marketing and really exhaust yourself. So I want to break down why having too many offers is such a problem. I have six main reasons that I want to walk through today, and I want you to consider if you are a business owner who has lots of services or lots of options or price points, and if you have the mentality that I have to have something for everyone, or just all of these different options for everyone. So the number one problem is when you have so many offers or so many different options, no one knows what you're known for. That's number one. So when you offer too many things, no one knows what you do. You're not seen as the local go to person for one thing. And I know you are here listening to this because you want to be known locally. You want to stand out. That's one of the top reasons people come to me. You want people in your city to think of you when they need help with a specific problem, or they want a certain result, or they want a certain service. But what I see so often is Someone who is really passionate, someone who wants to make a big impact in their city, they really want to build up their reputation. They end up offering a whole variety of things or services to try and appeal to more people. And I know it can feel like you're being helpful or that you can get more people on every end of like the, the pricing spectrum, but what ends up happening is people get confused, your messaging gets muddy, your offers end up competing with, with each other, which I probably should have listed that alone as a problem, as like a problem number seven, but I'll just include it here. And also, your audience doesn't know what you're really the best at. So let's just use an example of a home organizer. So just pretend for a second that you're a home organizer. You may not be, but let's pretend you are. So let's say that you start out wanting to help busy moms simplify their home. That's like your dream client. That's the, the work you love to do. That's the niche, the messaging that you want to go all into. Helping busy moms simplify their home. You want to help them, you know, getting the kids off to school with lunches packed, everything running so smoothly. The home is organized, there's bins, everything is great. That's your jam. But then you're like, you know what, I could also do office organization for professionals. So I could also do that. And I should probably start connecting with Realtors and offer moving services and I could also do digital file cleanup and like photo organizing and stuff like that. So now, even though you were so passionate about the one thing the busy moms, like those were, those were going to be your people. You were going to be so known locally for that. That was going to be your market. They were all going to refer you to each other. That was like your jam. But now when someone visits your website or they land on your Instagram, they know you're an organizer, but they actually have no idea what you specialize in or whether you are the best fit for them. Because it's like, okay, are they a moving service? Are they a digital organizer? Do they work with moms? Like, what is this? So you kind of become unrecognizable as the go to for that one clear, high value thing that you wanted to be known for. So instead of being referred and recommended among your perfect people and really being their go to person, people end up coming to you and everything's kind of generic now. So people just kind of leave unsure like, okay, well, let me keep looking around. Or they just kind of forget altogether. So it really does become a problem when you try to have all different types of services for all different types of people. People don't know what you're good at. It's like when you go to a restaurant and they have a 20 page menu and they have pasta, they have burgers, they have steaks, they have salads, they have tacos. You're like, okay, but like, what's their signature dish? Like, what are they, what are they known for? What's gonna be the good thing I order? Like, what are they really good at? Here, the same thing comes up for your people. So the second problem, the second way having too many offers becomes a problem is marketing becomes a juggling act for you. So when you offer so many different services, your marketing is like, you're just juggling all these things all the time. So you sit down to post on social media or to write an email and you're like, okay, but what service do I talk about today? When do I promote this one? How do I make sure they all get equal airtime that they need? I hear this all the time. When my clients first come to me and they have all these offers and price points and things they do, they are just overwhelmed with what to market and when. And it starts to feel like this constant rotation when you have, when you're trying to give everything you offer the spotlight that it needs, and then nothing you do ever really stands out. So instead of really building momentum around one service or a couple of strong offers that really work together, your marketing ends up really kind of diluted across 6 or 7 or 8 or 10 or more things that all just kind of blur together for your audience. And it gives off again, kind of that generic vibe that we were just talking about. And it's exhausting because you now feel like you're running 10 different businesses and you're trying to market them all and making sure your audience knows about all of them. So you're just spending way more time and energy trying to keep up with everything. You're creating all these graphics, writing all these captions, and then everything is just gaining way less traction across the board. Okay? The third reason it's a problem is it creates offer overwhelm for your clients. When you have lots of offers or options, your potential people get overwhelmed. They go to browse your website, they're looking at your services page, they're looking at your social media, or they might even be talking to you. And you're telling them about their options. And then they say the dreaded six words, I need to think about it. And this is because they have decision fatigue. Like their brain hurts. They are confused. They don't know which option is the best. They don't know if they want this service or that service or this many hours with you or that many hours. Or they don't know if they want this package or that one or the bigger thing or the smaller thing. They don't want to make the wrong choice. So they do want to go, like weigh their options. And when this happens, when they have to go, think about doesn't lead to a sale right now, today. It doesn't lead them to getting the result they want right now, today either. It just delays the entire buying process. So one of the biggest risk of having a lot of offers or a lot of options is it just slows down your sales dramatically. The next reason is you end up getting fully booked or booked with the wrong offers and the wrong clients. This is a huge problem because you end up filling your schedule with the wrong things. So think about this. An hour is an hour in your day. Whether you fill that with a $75 client or a $300 client, once that hour is booked, like it's gone, it's taken. So the question becomes like, are you filling your time with your best clients and with your best offers? Because when you have a wide range of pricing and packages and offers, it's natural to attract more of those lower tier bookings. That's very normal. Those feel more accessible to people. Those fill up the first faster. I just had a student post in our Facebook group today that her lowest price option is filling up the most and she feels like she's overworking. So if you have different price points and the lower tier keeps getting booked, your calendar gets full of lower priced work. You're spending your time delivering on offers that probably are not your favorite or the top choice, the one that you really want people to buy. And now to hit your revenue goals, you have to work harder. You have to make more sales, fulfill more sessions. You have to manage more clients for less income per hour or per client. It's the exact opposite of what you want. You want to build a sustainable, profitable business that runs with the right clients and your favorite offers in every single time slot that you have. Especially when your calendar starts booking up and there are fewer and fewer spots to be had. Okay. The fifth reason is it leads to resentment. So with all of that, we just said when you have all These, when you have too many options, you end up with the wrong offers, the wrong clients, and it's filling up your calendar. It's natural for this to lead to resentment. When I look at a client's menu of services, I always ask them, but which of these do you actually want people to buy? And they always have an answer. They know which offer or which package or which price point they want to sell. They know which clients they want to work with, but then they still offer all of these other options. We will call them fallback options. And when people buy those fallback options instead of the thing they really wanted to buy, I mean, they really wanted to sell, they feel frustrated because they're like, oh, like I really wanted them to buy that thing instead. And that's where the resentment starts to build. You end up over delivering on offers that you don't even love, or you're undercharging for your work. And that, over time, can lead to burnout. I have seen business owners have to take extensive breaks from their business just because they had to deliver on all of this work and work with clients that they booked. But it wasn't the work that they truly wanted to be doing and they really struggled to bounce back from that. So we really had to work on building and creating them offers at good price points that they wanted to be selling and delivering on. Okay, the last reason you never have to build the skill or emotional capacity to sell when you have all of these offers. So this is like the sneakiest problem that I want to call out and my absolute favorite. So when you keep offering all of these options, all of these fallback options at different price points, you never build the skill or the emotional capacity to actually sell the thing you really want to sell. And that's because you don't have to. Because every time you start to feel uncomfortable putting yourself out there, or every time your brain thinks, well, what if no one wants to to buy this higher price point, or every time it feels awkward to say your full price out loud, you end up giving yourself an out. You lean on the smaller offers, you lean on the cheaper options, you lean on the quick fixes or the one off sessions. And you tell yourself, well, at least they bought something. At least I have revenue coming in, at least to have clients. But it's those fall back offers that are keeping you from becoming the version of you who confidently sells your best work or your favorite services, or your higher priced services or packages. Because selling your highest value offer, like your main service or package, or the offer you want to be selling. It does take practice and it takes belief. It takes overcoming objections. It takes tweaking your message. It takes repping it out. It takes hearing no. It takes dealing with a lot of negative emotion. It takes standing strong and believing in your value. Even when someone says, I need to think about it, or when someone says, well, so and so down the street does it for cheaper. If you always have a backup plan or a fallback option, you never get strong enough to sell the thing you want to be selling. You never have to develop the skill set of selling or to build that emotional capacity to be the person who can sell. You need this skill set and the emotional capacity as a business owner, you need to develop both. So not only are all of these extra offers cluttering up your business and draining your energy and overwhelming your people, they're actually protecting you from the discomfort required to grow. Okay, my friends, so those are the six main problems with having too many offers and why having too many offers may be keeping you stuck, maybe keeping you a little small, and why you may not be making the sales that you want to be making. And if you're listening and you are realizing, yep, this is exactly what's happening to me, I want you to know this is one of the first things that we clean up inside the localpreneur academy. Because getting fully booked with the right clients and with the right offers, it doesn't just happen by accident. It happens when you strategically simplify your offers, when you position yourself as that local go to person, and when you learn how to sell what you really want to be selling with confidence. And that's what I'll help you do. I just helped a client cut down her offers from 10 to 3. She had a lot of offers competing against each other. She had a lot of options where clients could choose the lower option instead of the higher option, which of course they were. And she had a lot of things that were just overwhelming her audience and giving them that decision fatigue. So we cut it down really strategically from 10 options to 3. We increased her pricing on a big ultimate package that she wanted to sell. And we did actually keep a couple of more offers, but we hid them from her audience on the website and, and we came up with some really fun plans of things we're going to do with those offers throughout the year so she can boost her income throughout the year and really increase the lifetime value of those clients. And here's the best part. Within one week. So we just did this work and within one week she posted this in our group. She said, in one week I made more than my highest month in my business ever. Thank you Leslie Presnal for helping me simplify my service page to much fewer services and helping me gain clarity on that. So if you are ready to build a business that is fully booked, that is profitable, that is sustainable, come join us inside the LocalPreneur Academy. You can find the link in the show notes and I'll talk to you next week. Hey, if you enjoyed today's episode, I want to invite you to check out my program, the LocalPreneur Academy. This is the only program for small business owners who want to become the local go to in their industry with a steady stream of clients. You can find more information@lesliepressnel.com and I'll see you inside.
Podcast Summary: Grow Your Local Business
Episode: How Too Many Offers Are Slowing Down Your Local Sales
Host: Leslie Presnall
Release Date: April 29, 2025
In this insightful episode of Grow Your Local Business, host Leslie Presnall delves into a prevalent issue that hampers the growth of many local businesses: the detrimental impact of having too many offers. Building upon the foundations laid in the previous episode, "Offers 101," Leslie meticulously unpacks why an overabundance of offers can cripple local sales and offers actionable strategies to streamline offerings for better business outcomes.
Before diving into today's topic, Leslie briefly revisits last week's discussion on the fundamentals of offers. She defines an offer as the service you sell, including its structure, packaging, pricing, and inclusions. This foundational understanding sets the stage for exploring how an excess of offers can be counterproductive.
Leslie identifies that having an excessive number of offers—varying services, price points, packages, and options—creates confusion both for business owners and their clients. This complexity undermines the effectiveness of marketing efforts and drains the entrepreneur’s energy.
“When you offer too many things, no one knows what you do. You're not seen as the local go-to person for one thing.” [07:45]
When businesses present a wide array of services, they dilute their brand identity. Clients struggle to discern what the business truly specializes in, making it challenging for the brand to become synonymous with a specific service in the local market. Leslie uses the analogy of a restaurant with a sprawling menu lacking a signature dish to illustrate how a singular, standout offering fosters recognition and preference.
“Your marketing becomes a juggling act. You're just juggling all these things all the time.” [16:30]
Managing multiple offers necessitates constant shifting in marketing focus, leading to diluted messaging. This scattershot approach prevents any single offer from gaining momentum or standing out. Business owners find themselves overwhelmed, attempting to give equal attention to each service, which often results in none receiving the spotlight they need to thrive.
“When you have lots of offers or options, your potential people get overwhelmed.” [24:10]
An abundance of choices can paralyze potential clients, leading to decision fatigue. When prospects are inundated with too many options, they may defer purchasing altogether, resulting in lost sales. The plethora of choices makes it difficult for clients to identify the best fit for their needs, delaying or entirely preventing a buying decision.
“An hour is an hour in your day. Whether you fill that with a $75 client or a $300 client, once that hour is booked, it's gone.” [34:55]
Offering multiple price points and packages often leads to an influx of lower-tier bookings. This misalignment means business owners may end up servicing clients who opt for cheaper options, which can be less fulfilling and more time-consuming. Consequently, achieving revenue goals becomes more challenging as entrepreneurs work harder to compensate for lower income per client.
“You end up over-delivering on offers that you don't even love, or you're undercharging for your work.” [45:20]
When business owners cater to a wide range of offers, they often find themselves delivering services they’re less passionate about or undervaluing their expertise. This discrepancy fosters resentment towards the business model and clients, ultimately leading to burnout. The emotional toll of constantly fulfilling unwanted offers can severely impact an entrepreneur’s well-being and business sustainability.
“You never build the skill or emotional capacity to sell when you have all of these offers.” [55:40]
Maintaining numerous offers can act as a crutch, preventing business owners from honing their sales skills. Relying on fallback options means entrepreneurs avoid the discomfort and challenge of confidently selling their premium offerings. This avoidance stifles personal and professional growth, limiting the ability to effectively close high-value sales.
Leslie Presnall presents a strategic solution to the problems caused by having too many offers: simplifying and focusing. Through her LocalPreneur Academy, she guides business owners in:
Leslie shares a compelling success story of a client who reduced her offers from 10 to 3. By doing so, the client eliminated internal competition among her services, clarified her messaging, and focused on higher-priced, high-value packages. The results were remarkable:
“Within one week, I made more than my highest month in my business ever.” [1:05:30]
This dramatic increase in revenue underscores the effectiveness of Leslie’s approach in not only simplifying offers but also in enhancing business profitability and sustainability.
Leslie Presnall emphasizes that having too many offers can significantly impede local business growth by muddling brand identity, diluting marketing efforts, overwhelming clients, misaligning bookings, fostering resentment, and hindering sales skill development. By strategically simplifying service offerings and focusing on high-value options, business owners can position themselves as local authorities, attract the right clients, and achieve sustainable growth. The LocalPreneur Academy serves as a pivotal resource for entrepreneurs seeking to refine their offerings and elevate their businesses to new heights.
For those looking to transform their local business strategies and eliminate the pitfalls of excessive offerings, Leslie invites you to join the LocalPreneur Academy. More information is available through the show notes.
Notable Quotes:
By addressing the complexities of offer overload, Leslie Presnall provides a roadmap for local business owners to streamline their services, enhance their market presence, and achieve sustainable growth.