2 builders who never spoke to each other

Write the description in outcomes a boss rewards

Nobody is promoted for buying something described as simple or beautiful, so aim at lower overhead, hours saved, more revenue and fewer outages. Answer two questions in order, what the product is and then why that matters, and stop opening with novelty, materials or looks. A wall of feature text swapped for a short segmented list of benefits gets read further rather than skimmed past.

The method

1. 01

   Pitch business buyers strictly on utility: whether the product gets more done in less time, and whether it earns or saves them money.

2. 02

   Stop leading with novelty, materials or aesthetics when selling to businesses; the pitch has to answer how this beats the tool the buyer already runs.

3. 03

   Stop marketing your product's looks and lead instead on the pain it removes, how efficiently it works, its reliability, and the support behind it.

4. 04

   Stop leading with feature lists: buyers are asking whether it solves their basic problem, whether it makes sense to them, and whether it's easy - so answer those questions instead.

5. 05

   Aim the description at the outcomes buyers are rewarded for - lower overhead, time saved for their team, more revenue, fewer outages - since nobody gets promoted for buying something described as simple or beautiful.

What it returned

• 2010

  Jason Fried, 2010.

• 30%

  Average time on Scalyr's features page rose 30% after that rewrite.

• Justin parodies enterprise pitches boasting Bluetooth speakers, NASA springs or the colour red, and credits his product mentor Gregg Oldring with repeatedly asking whether a new feature is meaningfully more useful to a customer.

• Examples he praises: Tessian on preventing human-caused security threats with machine-intelligent email security, Gravity as a Kubernetes packaging tool that removes the drama from on-prem deployments, Datree on code policy enforcement for compliant code, and Singular's marketing intelligence platform.

Sources

• People want the basics done wellJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · People want the basics done well · undated
• Building a better mousetrap? It had better catch more mice.Justin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Building a better mousetrap? It had better catch more mice. · undated
• Pretty doesn't sellJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Pretty doesn't sell (anymore) · undated
• Bad Words for Describing Software ProductsGreg Kogan · gkogan.co · 2. No Significance · 2019-02-09
• Usability Testing is Easier Than You ThinkGreg Kogan · gkogan.co · Results: Insight and a Better-Performing Site · 2014-05-07