Image credit: UserOnboard
This distinction is incredibly important for founders to internalize as they start pitching and selling their product / service / vision to customers / investors / employees. And of course, like any good founder – anyone who will listen 😉
It's also a mindset that developers turned entrepreneurs have a fundamentally difficult time executing against. I think that's because we're so used to focusing on the product, features, and implementation which are all important but won't serve you very well in terms of actually selling your product and being successful.
https://twitter.com/jasonfried/status/400733165964099584?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^400733165964099584|twgr^|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.saasify.sh%2Fwhat-are-you-really-selling%2F
So here's a simple exercise that I'd encourage every founder to try:
<aside> 💡 What are you really selling?
</aside>
Answer each of these questions as concisely as possible – no more than one to two sentences per answer.
What? Problem / Need – What problem are you solving? 🤔
Who? Target Customers – Who are you solving it for? 👨
How? Product / Features – How are you solving it? ⭐️
Once you've answered these, then comes the most important question with regards to selling your solution:
Why? Benefits / Powers – What concrete benefits do your target customers ____ gain from solving their problem ____ with your solution ____? 💪
Your answer to this last question will form the core of all of your marketing and sales strategies.
If you're just reading along up to this point, that's great and all but seriously, stop reading and write down your answers to these questions right now.
...
You may already have a good idea of your answers, but I can assure you from experience that there's an incredible amount of value in articulating each of these early on and updating your answers as your direction inevitably evolves.
This will really help you internalize your business' answer to what exactly you're selling as you make hundreds of seemingly unrelated decisions about core features, marketing copy, landing page design, branding, etc etc.
This relaxing pic reminds me of my good friend, Chris Villa. Hi, Chris 👋