Why we sell three offers and list what each one excludes

This site used to sell four tiers and twelve individually priced services. It now sells three offers, and each one lists what it does not include. Here is the research behind the change.

More options, fewer buyers

In the study most people know as the jam experiment, Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper set out a tasting table with either six jams or twenty-four. More people stopped at the larger table, but only 3 percent of them bought a jar. At the six-jam table, 30 percent did. Later work found limits to the effect, but for a first-time buyer facing unfamiliar options the finding has held: a long menu feels generous and performs badly.

The first number is the ruler

Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman showed in 1974 that people estimate from whatever number they saw first, even when it is irrelevant. On a price page, the first price a visitor reads becomes the measure for every other one. Our old page led with a $3,500 tier; the diagnostic that most businesses should actually start with costs $1,500. Leading with the wrong anchor made the right first step look like an afterthought.

Regret is about what was not said

Gartner Digital Markets found unexpected costs to be the most common cause of software buyer regret, cited by a third of buyers. Capterra's 2025 study put unmanaged expectations at 41 percent and problematic hand-offs at 38 percent. TrustRadius found 74 percent of buyers want detailed pricing up front. None of these say buyers want cheap. They say buyers want to know the edges before they commit.

What we changed

• ✦Three offers in sequence: a diagnostic, a fix scoped from it, and a care plan that keeps the numbers honest.
• ✦One default, marked Start here, so a first-time visitor is not asked to compare.
• ✦A Not included list on every card, as long as the You receive list.
• ✦Washington sales tax stated next to every price, because it now applies to this work.
• ✦The individual services kept their own pages and prices for people who already know what they need.

A price list is a promise about scope. The exclusions are the part of the promise most vendors leave out.