Why Your Offer Is a Translation Problem (Not Pricing)

Most experienced professionals think they have an offer problem.

They tweak pricing. They debate formats. And they second-guess what to sell.

But that’s not the real issue.

They don’t have an offer problem – they have a translation problem.

They know what they do – they just haven’t worked out how to make it legible to someone else.

What an Offer really is

An offer isn’t a funnel. It’s not a package. And it’s definitely not a sales page.

An offer is a promise. It’s a boundary.

It’s a clear entry point into how you think.

People don’t buy depth. They buy clarity about where to start.

The Map vs the Territory

Think about a map.

You know the territory deeply. You’ve been there before and taken different routes. You know where people usually get lost.

Your client doesn’t need the whole territory.

They need a map they can follow.

An offer isn’t the territory. It’s the map that lets someone enter it safely.

How Expertise Becomes an Offer

This is how expertise turns into an offer.

Your expertise is the territory.

Your system is how you navigate it.

And your offer is the part of the map you hand to someone.

And this matters: An offer doesn’t contain all your expertise. It contains just enough of it to be useful.

That’s not dilution. That’s design.

When I stopped trying to Price everything

I noticed this in my own work.

For a long time, I kept trying to price my expertise as a whole. All of it. Everything I knew. Every direction I could go.

And it felt impossible.

Not because I didn’t know what I was worth – but because I was trying to sell the entire territory at once.

Nothing clicked until I stopped asking, “What should I charge?” and started asking, “What’s the smallest useful map I can give someone right now?”

That changed everything.

Why Offers don’t oversimplify your Work

This is where people push back.

  • “My work doesn’t fit a neat package.”
  • “I don’t want to oversimplify.”
  • “Every client is different.”

But a good offer doesn’t simplify your work. It sequences it.

It says: Start here. Then go here. Don’t worry about the rest yet.

That’s not selling out. That’s leadership.

How this fits the Whole Series

This is where the whole series comes together.

  • Clarity helped you see your value.
  • Naming articulated it.
  • Shape gave it form.
  • Systems protected it.
  • Ownership claimed it.
  • Offers translate it.

They turn owned expertise into something another person can actually step into.

The Real Role of Pricing

You don’t need ten offers, perfect pricing or a funnel.

You need one clear way for someone to begin.

Your offer is not your expertise. It’s the translation of it.

And when the translation is clear, the pricing usually takes care of itself.

More on How to Monetize your Expertise

If you want more clarity and to make sense of what you already know, read these posts next:

Geoff McDonald

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Geoff McDonald

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