When Less is More: The Case for a Single Offer in Your Business

For the past several years, I have been recommending to many of my clients that they develop an offer suite, you know what I mean? A signature offer, that's your bread and butter. An entry level offer for people who aren't ready to invest at the higher level in a premium offer for those who are ready to go all in. Or maybe they've already done your signature offer and I still think that model can and does what work brilliantly for some people in some seasons of their business and life. But here's what I've been noticing lately, clients and potential clients are exhausted. They've lost their spark, they're working harder and making less money. So today I'm talking about why you might want a single offer, or as I like to call it, a singular offer, and why it might be the most strategic decision you could possibly make right now. So let's get into it.

Hey there, this is Adhd-ish, I'm Diann Wingert, and if you're new here, welcome. If you've been around for a minute, then you know I don't bullshit you. I'm going to give you the strategic real talk with a side of sass and I'm usually a bit sweary too, you've been warned. You know, over the past year, I have watched so many of my clients, brilliant coaches, consultants, small business owners and creative entrepreneurs struggling with bandwidth and capacity in ways I haven't seen it before. Some are growing their families, some are involved with aging parents, and several of my clients have even lost a parent during our coaching engagement. Some are managing chronic illness or pain and for those living in the U.S., many of us are deeply affected on a daily basis by fear, uncertainty and doubt and we have been ever since January 20th.

And all of us are dealing with the natural ebb and flow of energy, mood and motivation that comes with being neurodivergent, as well as the uncertainty of the entrepreneurial life. When I dig into what's creating their overwhelm, it's typically not the client work that they feel is crushing them. It's everything that goes along with having multiple programs, products or services in their business. So I started asking myself, what if an offer suite isn't the answer? What if for some people in some seasons, a single offer is actually more strategic? It's not because it's all they can do. It's because it's the best thing they can do and they're choosing to focus exclusively on it. So that's what we're unpacking today. And we might as well, just start with the thing that nobody talks about when we're talking about creating an offer suite and that is this.

Each additional offer is not just another program to sell. It's an entirely separate decision tree that you have to maintain in your freaking brain, think about it. Three offers mean three different sales conversations, three different sets of client expectations, three different onboarding processes, three different marketing strategies, three different ways you have to explain what it is that you do. My friend, that is not three times the mental load, that is exponentially more. And if you're dealing with ADHD or any other flavor of neurodivergence, you already know this, executive functioning is a limited resource. Every decision you have to make, every context switch, every which version of this do I use now moment, that shit adds up.

But here's the piece that really got me thinking about this totally differently, when you have an entry level offer, let's say for the sake of discussion, it's your $500 or a thousand dollar gateway drug to working with you, there's always pressure to say yes to people who aren't actually ready for you. But because you created this option specifically for people who aren't ready yet, when someone shows up and they are not ready, well, you've got something for them, right? Well guess what, here's what really happens, you end up working with people who aren't going to get great results because they weren't actually ready to work with you. They're not fully committed even though they think they are, and they don't have the capacity or the ability to follow through that an excellent outcome requires.

Now you're managing frustration and disappointment, theirs and yours, while also trying to serve your fully committed clients well. It is people pleasing dressed up as accessible business strategy, ooof. Listen, with a single singular offer, you get to hold a cleaner, clearer line. This is what I do and when you're ready for this level of transformation, I'm here. Not well, let me try the scale down version first. No, just ready or not ready and I know how scary that feels. We're going to talk about that in just a minute. But first I just want you to really sit with the cost, the actual cost of what you're currently doing. If you have a multi offer suite, if you have several offers right now, what I want you to think about is how much brain space does maintaining them actually take? How often are you second guessing which program, product or service to pitch?

How much time goes into creating separate marketing for each one? How many people have said yes to your entry level offer who weren't truly ready. And how did that feel for them and for you midway into the engagement? I know you're probably starting to have a bit of a panic attack right now, but listen, I just want you to notice, just notice and sit with those questions and more importantly, their answers. We're not making any decisions yet. We're just getting honest with ourselves about what more really means. Now, when is a singular offer actually perfect? When does it make sense? Well, first there's the capacity piece and this is the biggie, especially now. A singular offer is perfect when you're managing chronic illness or pain, whether it's your own or someone close to you.

Folks with ADHD have a lot of empathy and tend to have a hard time holding clean boundaries when someone close to them is hurting. Or you're in the sandwich generation situation, raising your own family, and that could be fur babies while supporting aging parents. When you are navigating any kind of major life transition, when you are recovering from or actively trying to prevent burnout, or just being fucking honest with yourself about the fact that your ADHD brain has limited executive functioning and you need to spend it wisely. This is not about being less than. It is about being strategic and honest with yourself about your actual resources. Second, the clarity piece, some people are genuinely best at one thing. Their zone of genius is very, very specific. And that's actually a beautiful thing, because when these people try to create an offer suite, it actually dilutes what makes them so brilliant.

Here's an analogy, you wouldn't go to a Michelin star restaurant known for its French cuisine and expect to see pizza on the menu because, hey, some people may not be ready for fine dining. They do one thing exceptionally well and guess what, the right people show up for it. The wrong people go somewhere else and everybody's happier. Third, and this one's really important, sometimes a singular offer is actually your evolution, not your starting point. I mean, come on, maybe you tried the offer suite and what you've learned is one of those offers lights you up and the others drain you. Maybe you figured out what actually moves the needle for clients and the others, they're just in the way.

So now you're ready to prune back to what really works, that's not failure, that's not limiting beliefs. That's not playing small, that's maturity and wisdom applied to your business. And you want to know what makes a singular offer not only better, but more profitable. It's this repetition builds mastery, real mastery, the kind you become known for. And talked about, because every time you deliver the same offer, you get better at it. You spot patterns faster, you develop more nuanced frameworks, and guess what else, your results improve, so your confidence grows. And you become known for that one thing without doing a fuck ton of marketing about it because people talk, you become stand out and sought after.

Compare that to the coach who's constantly switching between their $500 quick start, their $5,000 signature, and their $15,000 premium. They're fragmenting their expertise, and I'm going to bet that they're not equally skilled and equally thrilled at all three of those offers. You know what else is a benefit, simpler marketing and who doesn't love that? Because what's really exhausting is trying to create content no matter how much you may enjoy it, although most of you don't. Creating content that speaks to three different segments of your audience following our community, who are at three different levels of readiness to work with you. With a singular offer, your message gets clearer, more repetitive, but in a good way. And you know what else? More memorable, people know exactly what you do.

Every podcast episode can point to the same transformation. Every case study illustrates the same journey. Your what I do explanation is consistent AF. And here's a big one, you become infinitely more referable, too. I mean, think about the people you refer to. Isn't it usually the people who do one thing ridiculously well? Oh, you need help with X, oh, talk to Sarah, that is her thing. But your colleagues with offer suites, oftentimes people don't know what to refer them for. Oh, Sarah does, well, I mean, she's a coach, but she does like a bunch of, I think she has different levels. You better visit her website. Ehhh. Singular offers get folks clearer, stronger referrals. That's the kind of stuff you can take to the bank.

Now, how would you even make this work? Because if you're listening and really resonating, you're probably thinking, okay, okay, I feel that maybe a singular offer is the move for me right now, but how do I actually make it work without feeling like I'm limiting myself or losing out on opportunities? Well, let's start with positioning and by the way, positioning is the first of the four pillars in my program, which is, in fact, a singular offer. It is the only thing I've been selling for over a year. It's called the Boss Up Breakthrough, and positioning is where we start. So let's talk about positioning with your singular offer. The fear I often hear from clients is this.

But what if people are responding to my marketing, but they're just not ready, won't I lose them? Well, it's debatable whether you have lost them already, but here's the reframe and this is critical. This isn't the only thing that you offer because it's all that you know how to do. It's the only thing you offer because it's the best thing you know how to do. You're not positioning from scarcity or limitation. You're positioning from focus and expertise. The language shifts from well, this is what I have available to. This is what I'm really fucking good at. And I only work with people who are truly ready for it. Because whether you realize it or not, you're already not for everyone right now, no matter how many offers you have.

Now, how about this? What about the but what if they can't afford it question? Legit and here are your options, you can offer a payment plan. That's flexibility within the offer, not a different offer when you're ready. Language that plants seeds for later, meaning you have a discovery call or a consultation with someone and they say they can't afford it and you didn't screen them out ahead of time with your scheduling questions. You are planting seeds for them to work with you later. You will also have a strong referral network of people who need something different if you're smart. And if they're not, if they can't afford you, you can send them to someone else who hopefully will return the favor.

And by the way, and this is a biggie, you are very likely creating free or low cost content that serves people who aren't ready to buy right now. This podcast over the last five years has served thousands upon thousands of people who have benefited from it and I hear from them all the time, but they aren't yet ready to work with me. Now here's the truth, you're not responsible for being accessible to everyone, full stop. Even if you priced your services so low that virtually anyone could afford them, you'd have to be seeing so many people to make a living wage at what you do that you wouldn't be serving them anyway. Every one of us is leaving people out, it is a fact of life as a solopreneur, especially if you're someone that doesn't want to grow a team.

Now let's talk about the second pillar packaging. This is where people get it all wrong, they think a singular offer means a rigid one size fits all. Nope, instead of three offers with different scopes, you can build flexibility in your offer and not around it. Here's what I mean, in addition to the payment plans, which offer flexibility within the offer that I already mentioned, you can offer flexible pacing options. So maybe your offer is six months of coaching like mine. You can choose to allow clients to choose standard, which is a call every other week, or spacious, where they get a monthly call with you because they don't have the bandwidth for two calls a month, but you provide more asynchronous support to them via email or Voxer or some sort of shared portal.

That's flexibility within the offer, not an additional offer. Think about it, same price, same scope, same program, different rhythm. And that serves different lifestyles and different nervous systems without creating additional products. You can also do this, you can have modular components within a clear container. Think about like a price fix menu with a couple of substitutions, not a full a la carte menu. The core structure is the same, but there are elements of choice within it. So for example, maybe they choose an area to focus on or which tools they want to go deep on, but the framework and the level of support stay consistent. By the way, I do all of this within the Boss Up Breakthrough and it allows me to serve a lot of different people who are ready for me in the most customized and individualized way.

You can also do payment flexibility. One price point, multiple ways to pay, pay in full, pay quarterly, pay monthly, whatever. This can often handle the I can't afford it because what they might mean is I can't afford it all at once. This deals with the objection without cheapening the offer, also clear boundaries. What is included is crystal clear when you have one offer and you're not having to rack your brain for what goes into this and what is excluded, what is not in the program is also clear. You've got fewer things to think about, fewer things to memorize, fewer things to talk about, fewer objections to skillfully overcome. There's no scope creepy, there's no well in my premium offer I also include.

So comparisons disappear and it's actually easier for your potential customer to decide, are they in or not? Now the third pillar in the Boss Up Breakthrough is pricing, this is where you get honest. The question isn't what can the market bear? Or what are my competitors charging in determining what the price of your singular offer is comes down to these three questions. How many clients can I realistically serve well at one time? With ADHD, it's probably fewer than you think. What do I need to earn annually to support my actual life not the one you're grinding toward or the one that's on your vision board, the life you have now. How much energy does each client actually require? And I'm not just talking about call time. I'm talking about the onboarding, the admin, the questions, the emotional labor, and the asynchronous communication that many of us include in our coaching programs, as well as the brain space our clients occupy between calls.

Once you ask yourself those three questions, then you do the math backwards. So, if you figure out you can serve eight clients really well and you need to gross 150k revenue and you want to take eight weeks off a year, then your offer needs to be priced at around 22,000. This is just one example and the numbers may be way out of line for you. Obviously, it's simplified, but you get the idea. Single offer businesses often need to price higher per client because the goal is to serve clients incredibly well. That's okay, you're not trying to be accessible to everyone. You're trying to support yourself in a sustainable way while creating deep transformation for the right people.

Finally, promotion, the fourth and final pillar in the Boss Up Breakthrough. Marketing a singular offer is like having one song on repeat, you know how we do that? You get a new song and you listen to it over and over and over and over dozens, maybe hundreds of times, and then you never want to hear it again. Well, a singular offer is like that in a good way. It's like having that one song on repeat instead of trying to be a DJ and play something of everything, your content becomes easier. Every single piece of content can point to the same transformation for the same group of people. You're not trying to speak to multiple segments of your audience. Sales conversations get easier. There's no, well, I don't know which offer is right for me confusion.

You're qualifying for fit, not trying to figure out which tier is right and I'm going to say that again because that may be one of the biggest changes of all. That just frees up so much mental space. When you meet with a client, a potential client, for a discovery call or a free consultation, you're qualifying them for fit, that's it. Not trying to figure out which of your many programs are right for them and then getting into the whole negotiation conversation. I promise you there's less decision fatigue for them. And you can get really good at qualifying for fit and at selling your one offer when you're not shifting your focus between a variety of them. So what are the pitfalls because you know, I'm going to tell you the real deal and this is not, you know, Pollyanna.

First, you're going to feel anxious with the notion that you're leaving money on the table. If you aren't already, your brain's going to tell you that you're missing out on the people who would have bought your entry level offer. You know what's more likely? Having three offers that you're too tired to promote well actually leaves more money on the table than having one offer that you're super excited to talk about. Here's the one that you're probably also thinking about and I really do think of it as a people pleasing trap. Even if you don't think of yourself as a people pleaser when you say to yourself, yeah, but what if someone really needs my help and they can't afford my singular offer? Well, the reality is they can listen to your podcast, they can read your blog or your Substack, they can listen to every interview you've done on any other podcast or YouTube channel.

They can follow you on social, they can watch your videos. You can and they can come back when they're ready. I have had a number of clients say they followed me and listened to my podcast for a couple of years before they were ready to work with me. And that's a beautiful thing because I wasn't lifting a finger to help them get ready. They were getting ready, passively consuming my content when I didn't even know they existed. And again, I want to remind you, you are not responsible for being accessible to everyone. Period. The third thing to watch out for, the third possible pitfall, is the comparison spiral. But so and so has five offers and they make seven figures. Well, first of all, how do you know? And secondly, they probably have a team of six. They are probably paying out a fuck ton in affiliate commissions and they probably have panic attacks every time they launch.

It comes down to this. What do you want? What fits your life? What makes you feel alive and excited instead of drained and resentful? And the real question is this. Are you actually serving more people and making more money with your three offers? Or are you exhausting yourself trying to feel like a quote unquote real business owner? Because sometimes the most strategic thing you can do is stop trying to do what everyone else is and start building something that actually fits your one and only life. And hey, I'll be the first one to admit this is not going to be right for everybody. If you've got the energy, the systems, and the genuine desire to serve people at multiple levels and your offer suite is working at every level, keep doing that. But if you're listening to this and feeling a little flutter of relief that maybe I don't have to do all the things feeling, pay attention to that. I know this isn't easy to figure out and isn't easy to give yourself permission to do, so I've created a self-assessment to help you even after you finish listening to this episode.

There's a link to it in the show notes. I want you to go grab it, I want you to sit with the questions and I want you to get honest with yourself. Because remember this, you can always add later. But right now, in this season, if what you need is to subtract to focus, to do one thing so well that people just can't help but talk about you. Maybe you should take that self assessment and start making your business success a whole lot easier. Oh, and speaking of making things easier, make sure you're subscribed or following ADHD-ish because you do not want to miss out on the next episode. My friend Alan P. Brown of ADD Crusher is going to be joining me for a conversation on the five things that you're probably doing every single day that are making your ADHD worse. Join us next week so you can start feeling and functioning better. See you then.