Stop laying out a buffet

I came out with this phrase during a client session last week.  Not sure why I was thinking about food (!) but I was on a rant about about creating value and stuff that stood out.

The problem with buffets, where you offer everything all at once, is that they can be over whelming.

I am sure you all love a good all-you-can-eat buffet at certain times.  It feels good to go up and cram as much as you can on to one plate.  But the problem is that you probably don’t want to go do it again very soon.

Buffets can look sad and tired very quickly.  Especially after several people have been up to pick before you!  They are often the cheap option when catering for large numbers of people.

It’s easy for buffets not to be very special 

We went to Antigua last Easter and stayed in a wonderful all inclusive beach resort.  The buffets were lovely.  But after a few nights, well … we ended up going to the a la carte restaurants.  Even though we had to pay an extra surplus for our meals, the buffet concept wore thin very quickly.

So why was I talking buffets with my client?  My client was launching a new programme and was offering a free webinar to promote it.  We got on to the topic of content for the free promotional webinar and she explained she was planning on offering a taster of the 3 modules of the programme.

No!  (I started my rant!!)  Don’t offer a bit of everything.

Where’s the value of that?

Far better to focus the time you have (in a promotional webinar you’ve only got 20 to 40 minutes) to make a real difference to your potential clients’ lives.  Cover one topic in detail.  Give them something useful.  Something practical. Something that they go away and do right there and then.

Because if you can give them something that works for them, they will want more.  And more is what you can give them with what ever programme you are offering.

If they don’t want more, that’s perfectly OK.  Not everyone will buy, of course not.  But these people will more likely go away and rave about what it is you offer to others.

Be laser focused with your promotional offer.  Cover one topic in detail and you will see better results than trying to lay out the whole programme as a buffet before them.

Other articles you may be interested in:

1. Are you laying out the welcome mat for your email newsletter subscribers?
2. Stop with the content! Promote first …
3. Stop selling what you do