Decisions, Decisions: Simplifying Choice with Good-Better-Best

Curation and clarity is necessary to help your clients make confident decisions

I took 3 of my kids to the garden centre this weekend. We popped into the cafe for a cake. Two of them need to eat gluten free so their options were limited to four cakes. They picked easily and sat down.

Kid number three surveyed the selection and quickly entered a doom-spiral of anxiety. There were SO many to choose from. Every time he got close to making a decision, he considered everything he was saying no to. What if he made a bad choice? How was he to know if the Battenburg would taste better than the chocolate brownie, even though it looked more exciting? He put his head in his hands and started crying.

Seconds later his confidence in the Blondie wavered and he was back to square one

I empathised. I experienced a similar round of emotional turmoil trying to purchase a watering can on Amazon last week. Plastic or metal, 6L or 10L, two handles or three, green or black or red? Reviews, prices, delivery options…you get the idea. It’s too much.

In a previous life I worked in the Buying function at John Lewis. One of the things John Lewis prides itself on - and rightly so - is curation. The Buyers are laser-focused on ensuring there are enough options available to satisfy their customers’ needs…and nothing more. More adds confusion, overwhelm, and decision-making anxiety. All of which means they have not done their job well.

The psychology of Good-Better-Best

A recognised approach to curation and pricing is Good-Better-Best (G-B-B). Humans like G-B-B because it simultaneously enables you to feel you have a choice and not be too overwhelmed about making it.

We are familiar with a G-B-B proposition in software, apps, and service businesses. I manage the Honeycomb LinkedIn pages using Buffer. The free option is Good. But they have a Better option and a Best option, both of which cost more and provide more value. They make it easy for me to pick which one suits my needs.

The G-B-B pricing strategy at Buffer

If you have purchased training from Honeycomb in the past, you will likely have been given a G-B-B choice.

Good - our ‘off-the-shelf’ training modules which do everything some clients need,
Better - courses adapted to your business with bespoke case studies which appeals to most people,
Best - may include ongoing coaching and impact analytics, which 5-10% of clients choose.

The lesson: This same model applies both when you’re selling your consulting services, and when it comes to landing those all-important consulting recommendations.

Here’s what Honeycomb Managing Director Deri has to say about helping your clients take decisions:

“One of the goals of a consulting recommendation is to enable your clients to make a decision to do something. Beyond that, they need to actually do the thing they decided to do. The decision science shows that implementation - seeing through the decision they’ve made - is more likely to happen when they feel that they’ve considered a full range of alternatives.

The Good - Better - Best model (structured around their particular needs, balancing off cost, effort, time etc.) gives a framework to enable them to make decisions that stick, without the paralysis of overwhelming choice”

Another important decision

Let’s return to retail and say you want to buy a new pillow. You’ll already have an idea of how premium you want to go. Is it for your kid going off to Uni, for your spare bed at home, or for you to use every night? You go to John Lewis and they present you with a curated assortment of pillows. Synthetic or feather, a few clear price options with associated value and trade-offs. G-B-B.

But we should also acknowledge that you made an important decision before this one. The decision to go to John Lewis in the first place. Why did you do that? They probably made it convenient for you by having a shop near where you live. You likely trust that John Lewis is a good place to buy a pillow because they have a reputation for quality and value. Your subconscious will trust that the options presented to you are good options because you assume the Buyers are good at their job. You trust that the products have been sourced reputably, and you know that you can rely on the customer service proposition. You therefore don’t worry about the 1000+ other pillow options that exist in the world. You are happy to pick from these.

This primary decision was possible because you know what John Lewis do and when they are your best option (and, by extension, when they are not, e.g. if you want to buy a car).

The lesson: Consulting firms need to be crystal clear on what they do, and what they don’t. And then they need to help clients choose them when they are the best option.

🎣 A good litmus test for this is whether you know your fishing line: seven to 15 words that explain who you work with and the problem you solve.

By way of example, Honeycomb’s fishing line is,

‘We help consulting team leaders develop exceptional teams.’

If you haven’t yet crafted your fishing line and you need some guidance, this podcast featuring David Fields is a great place to start:

Want to test out your fishing line? Drop it in the comments below ⬇️

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