Hi all —
This week, I’m reflecting on a conversation I have with *literally* every founder.
What do your buyers want to buy?
Very few buyers want to buy software.
Why?
- They already have a lot of software
- Most of their software sucks
- They associate software with a lot of things that aren’t good →
- There are a billion different software companies with virtually identical websites, how the hell am I supposed to decide?
- Why do I have to talk to a 22-year-old who doesn’t know anything before I can talk to a 28-year-old who’s just gotten a training on “challenger sales” and is telling me about how they’re creating a new category… when I just want to know how to accomplish my goals and if this damn thing can help me
- Setup & implementation is super annoying, and I need to dedicate a ton of time to “make this damn thing work”
- Oh great, the tool is way more complicated than it looked in the demo
- It’s not working the way I thought it was, now I need to talk with support out of Turkmenistan, damn it
- What if, when it IS set up, it doesn’t help me accomplish what I was trying to do in the first place?
- If this thing is software and costs you like zero dollars to maintain, why do you need to charge me $200 per month for it?
- Someone on my team sees that I bought this and just says, “that was a dumb idea, you could have just used this thing we already have for it”
This is an opportunity for thoughtful founders.
Every other software company is trying to compete by selling “better / differentiated software.”
That’s a lot of time & energy competing to sell something very few people *actually* want.
What do you do?
- Figure out what your buyers are desperate to achieve
- Hint: It probably has nothing to do with software
- Position something that helps them achieve (1), that your buyers want to buy & can buy quickly
- Many can buy consulting + services much more easily than they can buy software
- “8-week programs” or courses are easier to buy
- These also have weird economics: Much higher buyer WTP, relatively lower expectations, and “services” need not be a dirty word because you can automate a bunch of services
- Package your software into (2) above
This works wonders. Give it a try. Reach out to debug.
