Have you ever tried shopping for toothpaste at Target or Wal-Mart?  Once you decide on your brand of toothpaste (I've always been a Crest man), you're still faced with a dizzying array of choices.  And, if you're like me, you spend far too much time deciding upon a product and often feel dissatisfied with your ultimate choice.

Turns out we are not alone.  In her new book The Art of Choosing, business school professor Sheena Iyengar presents research that proves people's decision making skills  worsen when presented with a plethora of choices.  In other words, people decide better (and spend more) when given fewer choices.

In this Wall Street Journal article, Professors Iyengar's famous "jam experiment" is detailed:

In a Palo Alto, Calif., supermarket known for its exceptionally vast range of products, she set up two different booths offering shoppers the chance to sample various unusual preserves. One booth offered 24 different options; the other only six. You would think that, with more choices in the first booth, more shoppers who stopped there would find a flavor they liked and go on to buy a jar. But the opposite happened: People tried more samples and bought a lot more jam at the booth with six varieties.

The people who stopped at the 24-jam booth didn't say: "Please take away most of these options so I can more easily make a decision." They simply felt overwhelmed and less willing to make any choice at all. The same feeling can arise in people who are offered an array of detailed investment options or in college students who must choose four or five classes from among the hundreds listed in the course catalog. In these situations, perhaps some strategy for choice, established in advance, could help discipline the decision-making process by focusing it on a manageable set of options.

So, next time you have a client conversation, remember that you may be better off discussing a few options instead of many.  Instead of giving your clients lots of choices, curate the list down to a solid few.  You'll end up with happier, less-confused clients who will thoughtfully consider their options, instead of being overwhelmed  by them.