Say What You Don't Do

WHY IT WORKS

Generalists are compared on price; specialists are chosen for fit. Stating what you do not do signals focus and confidence, pre-empts scope creep, and helps the right clients self-select. It also gives you a ready, non-personal reason to decline requests later.

WHEN TO USE IT

• Clients keep asking for adjacent services you do not want to provide.
• You are positioning a new offer or rewriting a proposal.

WHEN NOT TO USE IT

• You genuinely need the adjacent work and would accept it.
• The exclusion would leave the client stranded without any referral.

SIGNALS IT FITS

• You often do unpaid 'small extras' outside your core service.
• Prospects are unclear what makes you different from a generalist.

PREPARATION

• List the three requests you most often get that sit outside your focus.
• Decide whether to refer, decline or offer them as a separate paid service.

STEP BY STEP

1. State your core service in one sentence.
2. List what is explicitly outside it.
3. Offer a referral or separate option for the excluded items.
4. Repeat the edges in proposals and onboarding.

OPENING LINE

“To make sure we're a good fit, here's what I focus on — and what I don't.”

SCRIPT

I focus on brand identity: logo, type and guidelines. I don't build websites, but I work with a developer I can introduce you to.

LIKELY RESPONSES & COUNTERS

If they ask you to make an exception

Restate the focus kindly and offer the referral or a separately priced option.

If they seem disappointed

Acknowledge it and point to the benefit of specialist work in the core area.

SECOND MOVE

If an excluded request appears mid-project, use Name the Scope Change.

FOLLOW-UP

Add the 'not included' list to your proposal template.

COMMON MISTAKES

• Listing exclusions so long that the offer feels defensive.
• Making exceptions quietly, which erodes the positioning.

WALK-AWAY CONDITIONS

• A client repeatedly insists on excluded work as a condition of the core engagement.

EXAMPLE (FICTIONAL)

A photographer added 'Not included: video, retouching beyond colour correction' to proposals. Unpaid video requests stopped, and two clients booked a separately priced retouching package.

RELATED MOVES

• Move 40: Write the Out-of-Scope List
• Move 37: Name the Scope Change
• Move 50: Say No with a Path