Show Two or Three Options and Say Which You Would Choose

Imagine a home organizer named Signe Albright who meets Mrs. Faraday in her kitchen in August. The kitchen, the pantry, and the mudroom by the back door are all full. Mrs. Faraday has two children, who are 9 and 12. The family spends next week at the lake, and school starts in three weeks.

Mrs. Faraday tells Signe that she wants the work done before school starts. She also says, “It never stays tidy, because the kids don’t know where anything goes.”

Signe has three ways of doing a job like this. She and her assistant can do it in two full days. She can spread it over four afternoons, with the children setting up their own shelves and hooks. Or she can leave a written plan and the labels, and the family does the work.

Signe has a client at two, and she does not want to push. “There are a few ways to do it,” she says. She describes all three, with their prices. She adds that some families do the whole ground floor while they are at it. “It depends what suits you.”

Mrs. Faraday asks which one most families choose. “Families do all three,” Signe says. Mrs. Faraday says she will talk it over with her husband. Ten days later, she writes that school is too close now, and they will leave it until the winter break.

Suppose instead that Signe narrows it down before she speaks. The written plan is out, because Mrs. Faraday has no time to do the work herself. The ground floor is out, because she did not ask for it. Two ways are left, and both of them fit.

“From what you’ve told me, there are two ways I’d do this,” Signe says. “The first is two full days next week, while you’re at the lake, with my assistant and me. It’s done before school, and you come home to a finished room. That’s $3,200. The second is four afternoons over the next three weeks, with the kids setting up their own hooks and shelves. It’s also done before school, and they’ll know where their coats and bags go. That’s $3,600.”

Then Signe says which she would choose. “I’d do the afternoons, because you said it never stays tidy when the kids don’t know where anything goes. If the lake week is the only time you can face the mess, it’s the two days.” Then she stops talking.

Mrs. Faraday laughs. “They’ll hate it, which is exactly why they should do it. The afternoons.” She books the first one for Tuesday.

Signe had the same three ways of working and the same prices both times. What changed was who did the sorting. In the first version, Signe described everything she does and asked Mrs. Faraday to choose. In the second, she left out what did not fit. Then she set the two that did side by side, in Mrs. Faraday’s words, and said which she would choose.

Most of the time, one option fits a client, and you offer it first and keep a second ready. Sometimes two or three fit, and which one is right depends on something only the client can weigh. Mrs. Faraday had to weigh coming home to a finished room against children who know where their hooks are. That is the time to set the options side by side. Here is how to narrow them, how to compare them, and why you still say which you would choose.

A New York-area planner puts only checked names in front of a couple

Danielle is a wedding planner in the New York area, and her company is Rothweiler Event Design. In December 2019, she wrote on her blog about the venue and vendor recommendations that couples hire a planner for. Many people email her asking only for names. “All they want to know is whom I trust in the wedding industry,” she writes.

She could send them her whole list, and she does sell it. Anyone who wants it can “have the whole thing for $500,” she writes. Her planning clients get something else. “I base recommendations off of the budget, style, and so much more of my couple,” she writes. “I don’t put a single recommendation in front of them that isn’t available or that they can’t afford.” She typically offers three.

Danielle’s list and her three names come from the same knowledge. The list is everything she knows. The three names are that knowledge applied to one couple’s budget, style, and date. In her words, “part of the reason I get paid” is that “I make the right recommendations.” A couple handed the whole list would have to do that sorting themselves. So before you compare anything, take out every option that does not fit what the client told you. Take out anything they cannot have, too.

A Philadelphia design firm settles the choice before the meeting, unless it loves two options

Naomi Stein and Megan Stein run Design Manifest, an interior design firm in Philadelphia. In September 2021, Business of Home asked seven designers how they help clients who cannot make up their minds. For the Steins, the key is “not to give them a ton of options.” At the final presentation of a design, they show only one, “unless we are genuinely in love with two options and want to let the clients vote.”

They also said where the sorting happens. Their way is to “hash it out internally, trust our guts and our intuitive sense of our clients.” The client then sees the plan that comes out of it.

The Steins’ rule has two parts. The sorting happens before the meeting, inside the firm. The client sees two options only when the firm would be glad to do either one. Then the choice between them is the client’s to make. So that is the test for a comparison. Suppose you would be glad to do each option, and the right one depends on the client. Then show them side by side. If one option is clearly right, offer that one.

A San Francisco designer explains each option against the client’s own priorities

Lauren Evans is an interior designer in San Francisco, and she answered the same question. “When we narrow down choices, we make sure to add context to each choice that supports their concerns,” she said. “We break down the pros, cons and reasoning behind the options based on their priorities and preferences.”

She also said what that does for the client. It helps them feel “organized and informed,” she said, “ultimately freeing them to offer a decision they feel good about.”

Evans measures each option against what the client told her matters. Mrs. Faraday’s priorities were a finished room before school and children who know where their coats and bags go. In the second version, Signe said what each option did for both. A comparison in your own terms, such as hours or crew size, leaves work for the client. They have to work out what each option means for them. A comparison in the client’s words has done that work already.

A Chicago designer gives his opinion and still keeps the pressure off

Mick De Giulio is a designer in Chicago whose firm is de Giulio. He answered the same question for Business of Home. Clients who struggle to decide, he said, “just need more time and information to feel comfortable with their choices.”

Then he put two habits side by side. “I like to try to remove any sense of pressure so the client feels more relaxed and calm in making decisions,” he said. “Being well prepared and presenting ideas with my own opinion as to why one approach is better is also important.”

Saying which option you would choose can feel like pushing, when the reason you showed two was to let the client choose. De Giulio gives both in the same answer. One opinion, with its reason, is not pressure. Pressure is a second push, or a hurry. A comparison with no opinion hands the client a decision you were hired to help them make. Mrs. Faraday asked which option most families choose, because she wanted to hear Signe’s opinion. So say your choice once, with your reason, and leave the decision with the client.

How to set two or three options side by side

Danielle and the three designers were talking about clients who had already hired them. The step to a first sales meeting is the course’s own, and here it is. A client deciding whether to hire you is also choosing between your ways of doing the work. The sorting is your job before they hire you, just as it is after.

Narrow first. Before you describe anything, take out what does not fit what the client told you, or what they cannot have. If one option is left, offer it. If two or three are left, check that you would be glad to do each one. Keep it to three at most, the way Danielle usually does, because a long list can stop a client from deciding.

Say each option the same way. For each one, say what it is, what it gives the client, and what it costs, in that order. Say what it gives in the client’s own words. The order is the course’s suggestion, and here is the reason. When every option is said the same way, the client can compare them easily. They do not have to hold one in their head while working out the next.

Say which you would choose, and when the other is right. Give your choice with its reason, in the client’s words. Then say in one sentence when the other option would be the better one. That second sentence is the course’s suggestion too. It tells the client which fact decides the choice. It also makes the other option one they can take without feeling they chose wrong.

Then stop. The client needs the quiet to decide, so leave it to the client. If they ask about another option, answer the question and stop again.

Two cases are different. A client who is tired of deciding needs a smaller choice, so give them one option with your reason. Once a client has chosen in the meeting, the proposal carries only the plan they chose.

Why comparing options in your own terms goes wrong

Imagine a specialist realtor named Anselm Kroll who is helping Mr. and Mrs. Whitcombe buy a house. At their first meeting, they said they want to walk their four children to school. They also want a kitchen where all six of them can sit down at once.

After six showings, two houses fit. The house on Fenwick Street is three blocks from the school. Four people can sit in its kitchen, with the dining room next to it. The house on Larkin Road is a 20-minute walk from the school, and its kitchen island seats six.

Anselm has a closing at four, and he compares the two the way he would for another agent. “Larkin is 3,400 square feet at $1.6 million, so about $470 a foot. Fenwick is 3,100 at $1.75 million, about $565 a foot, though the roof is newer. On value, I’d go with Larkin.”

Mrs. Whitcombe asks how far Larkin Road is from the school. Anselm tells her, and Mr. Whitcombe says they would like to see both houses again on the weekend. On Thursday, the Fenwick Street house goes under contract with another buyer. Mrs. Whitcombe tells her sister that Anselm talked more about the roof than about the school.

Anselm’s numbers were right, and he did narrow six houses to two. His mistake was comparing them in his own terms. Price per square foot and the roof are what an agent weighs. The Whitcombes had told him what they weigh, which was the walk to school and the kitchen.

The version that works puts the same two houses in the Whitcombes’ words. “Fenwick is three blocks from school, and four of you fit in the kitchen, with the dining room right there. Larkin is a 20-minute walk, and the island seats all six. Fenwick is $1.75 million, and Larkin is $1.6 million. I’d choose Fenwick, because you said the walk to school matters most. If dinner all together in the kitchen matters more, it’s Larkin.” Mrs. Whitcombe says, “It’s the walk.” They make an offer on Fenwick Street that evening.

How to show a client two or three options

1. Before you offer anything, take out the options that do not fit what the client told you, or that they cannot have. For example, a dog walker whose client works from home on Fridays leaves out her five-day plan.
2. If one option is left, offer it, and keep a second ready. If two or three are left, check that you would be glad to do each one. Check too that the choice between them depends on something only the client can weigh.
3. Say each option in the same order. Say what it is, what it gives the client in their words, and what it costs. For example, a private chef can say, “The first is three dinners a week, cooked at six, so you eat together on the nights you’re home. That’s $2,400 a month. The second is Sunday cooking, with five dinners left in your fridge. That’s $1,600 a month.”
4. Say which you would choose, with the reason in the client’s words. Then say when the other one would be right. For example, the private chef can say, “I’d choose the Sundays, because you said two nights a week you’re at the office until eight. If you’d rather sit down to a hot dinner, it’s the three nights.”
5. Then stop, and let the client be the next to speak. If they ask what else you offer, tell them, and say again which you would choose for them.
6. Once the client has chosen, write only that option into your proposal. For example, a tutor whose client chose two sessions a week puts only those in the proposal. He adds their price and a start date.

Next: You will see how a client decides on their own when the time is right, and why you should not interrupt.