Difference between a product users like and something they pay for

Question

How would you describe the difference between a product people like to use and something they are willing to pay for?Many of you must have thought about this quite a bit so I'm curious to read your take on this. I'm thinking about it specifically in the context of software, people rarely pay for just the software these days but seem more willing to pay for SaaS products.

codingdave · Accepted Answer

Many decades ago, there was a "solution selling" sales trends, where you focused on resolving "pains". Despite its age, and despite its focus on services vs. canned products, it is still the best analogy I've found for non-sales folks to understand how to price software to sell:
Your product needs to not just be cool and likeable, it needs to fix a pain. If it doesn't, there is no reason to buy because any level of cost hurts more than a non-existent pain. But when you do fix pain, pricing becomes an exercise of ensuring the pain at seeing your bills/invoices hurts less than the original pain.
If it does, people will buy.

mouse_ · Answer

If you're actually trying to sell a product (I should hope so, if you're here asking this sort of question) then HN is probably the wrong target demographic to ask. I suppose it depends on what exactly it is you're trying to sell, but you'd likely do better with a tent outside your local mall.HN is not going to be representative of the vast majority of software market sectors.

fuzzfactor · Answer

Not much like software, but a representative example could be insurance policies.
All kinds of people pay for them in all kinds of ways, some mandated, others reluctantly, while some pay enthusiastically for the coverage.
But even the most willing payers often don't actually like the product they are getting at all.

beardyw · Answer

Something they need.