I spend a lot of time writing (and talking) about how to construct offers.

Let's go a different direction today and talk about what NOT to put into your offer. Because there are little things you may be doing that are:

• confusing your clients

• boring your clients

• dropping the value of your coaching in their eyes

No bueno.

So here are three mistakes I see frequently that are screwing up your offers:

MISTAKE 1: JAMMING IT FULL OF STUFF

All right, cool. So you want your value to experience tremendous value. You want them to feel like they are getting the best deal ever. That whatever they invest, 10x is coming back to them, right?

Yes, right. Correct.

But...

That doesn't mean you want to keep stuffing things into a proverbial bag and assume they like it.

Make no mistake: your clients don't care at all about all the bonuses, workbooks, courses, affiliate products, swag, and junk you add into your offer.

ALL they care about is this: how much confidence do they possess in you getting them to their desired end result?

That's it.

Loading your offer full of add-ons not only muddies the water. It can actually irritate them too.

While you may think the extra stuff is fascinating and interesting, they probably view it as more work they have to wade through.

The most powerful offers draw a very distinct, straight-forward path to the end destination. No detours off into "BONUS LAND" or "WORKBOOK PARK"...

Unless...

The workbook is PIVOTAL in getting your clients to their most precious outcome. Then include it. Otherwise, take a very stern look at what you're including in your offers and ask yourself, "is this in there because it's pivotal or because I just want to jam as much "value" as I can in there?

MISTAKE 2: PUTTING VALUE ON TIME

Are you charging per hour? Per month? Per session?

If so, you're basing your price on one of the least important variables your clients care about.

Giving your clients more time rarely means more value.

Mostly, it just means more listening and talking. Which is fine because you love what you do. But not so wonderful when you'd like to do other important things, like scale your business, hang out with friends and family, or get some much needed self-care.

Here, let me give you a quick metaphor.

Imagine you have a glass of orange juice. Feel the weight and texture of the glass in your hands.

As you bring it to your lips, take a moment and smell the citric aroma. Drink it slowly and taste the juice in your mouth. Swish it around if you like (or don't - that's not wine) and then drink the rest.

Now what was most valuable about your experience?

The glass in your hand? Or the juice?

Time is the glass. It's the container that houses the value. But time is NOT the value.

Time is necessary for us to structure our coaching (without the glass, the juice spills all over the floor) but we shouldn't be pricing based on time.

Instead, discover the orange juice of your coaching. What is MOST valuable?

What experiences, transformations, processes, and game-changing revelations give your clients the most value? Which ones help them seriously move the needle forward toward their desires?

Base your value on THAT. Not the time.

MISTAKE 3: PROMISING TO DO A LOT

In the consulting world, there are three major ways you can serve clients:

1. Done for You: the consultant does the work for the client. They're not hired for passing on their wisdom or knowledge...but instead are put to work to get a result for the client themselves.

2. Done with You: the consultant works with the client, splitting the workload more 50/50.

3. You Do it: the consultant doesn't perform any work for the client but instead guides and advises them toward the best actions to achieve results.

Option 1 (Done for You) requires the most effort. Option 3 (You Do it) requires the least. And yet consultants who exclusively offer option 3 charge more money.

Why is this the case?

Because while doing work for the client requires more work and effort, it is the simplest skill to master. Guiding them without directly getting hands on requires a much deeper ability to teach, mentor, or facilitate a transformation.

That's what we do. That's why we coach.

Coaching should be paid as top-level consultants. But frequently we're not...for a litany of reasons. One of the primary ones I see is the coach is just throwing too much weighted energy into their offer.

They're all over the place, scrambling. Scrambling for ideas, scrambling to help, scrambling to do things for the client...desperate to win them over yet failing to see the obvious truth:

Coaching should be easy. It should require the least amount of energy and effort. It should be fun, even.

Once you can relax into the full extent of your value...recognizing that all of your experiences and knowledge leading up to the moment of your offer is really why your clients hire you...you take solace in knowing you've already done the work.

So keep your conversations simple. Keep your offers simple.

You don't have to throw a ton of spaghetti against the wall. Just put your emphasis on the power of your client's transformation. And know with complete conviction this evolution is worth its weight in gold.

So there you go...three major mistakes that can easily wreck your offers. If you want even more help with owning your value, figuring out what to charge, and overcoming internal obstacles around setting your prices, check out my free guide here.