Is what you are "making" the same as what you "selling"?

HEY has been generating a lot of buzz. So what does it offer? Email? That's correct. But does it also "sell" Email?

Make vs Sell

You see, every company offers either a product or a service. But we need to recognize whether the thing we make and the one we sell are the same. Let's take an example.

My friend is in the Real Estate Consulting business. But there are so many others offering the same in the market, they just can't "sell" their services. They need to sell trust. At the moment of reckoning, the client won't remember whose features were the best, but the one whom they trust the most.

Similarly, HEY's sell is "User privacy". So every communication from Jason Fried or DHH is about privacy, not about its features. Could someone else have made a better product? I surely think YES! But they have taken the product out of the equation, because they have sold people their vision around "user privacy".

Application

This plays a very important role in our products. You see our understanding of what we are selling is very important in:

• the way we build our product
• our conversations with our customers
• our communication on social media, etc.

So, ask yourself if all these things are tying with what you are selling. The problem is that many times these are not tangible features but an ideal or an emotion.

Closing thoughts

There is no point in just selling your features if that's not what your customer wants to hear.

• Nike doesn't sell shoes, it sells aspirations.
• L'Oreal doesn't sell cosmetic products, it sells self-respect.
• Gillete doesn't sell razors, it sells confidence.

So, are you sure that what you are making and what you are selling are the same thing? Let me know :)