4 ms·

I have literally asked people "would you pay $5 for this?" they say yes, then I tell them to buy it and they say no. When this kept happening I realised the on

I have literally asked people "would you pay $5 for this?" they say yes, then I tell them to buy it and they say no. When this kept happening I realised the only thing that matters in sales is... actually making sales. Everything else is window dressing.

HPsquared 3y ago
Stated preference vs revealed preference.
- JackFr 3y ago
  Free lunch at start up - workers: “We want healthier options!!” A dozen catering trays of salad get tossed into compost. All the fried chicken is gone in less than 5 minutes.
oh_sigh 3y ago
Hence ABC - "always be closing"...giving interested people an extra second is giving interested people an extra second to get cold feet.
mcpackieh 3y ago
Probably they're interpreting your first question as "would it be reasonable for me to offer this for sale for $5?" They may not be personally interested in buying it but can still tell you whether a price seems fair or not. For instance, I think it would probably be fair for you to sell your car for the blue book value... but I'm not offering to buy your car. I don't need another.
- signaru 3y ago
  Agree. The question also lacks a "when" part. If it were "Would you pay $5 for this NOW?" then the answer has a higher chance to be NO, regardless of whether the other person think it is a good deal. The question is more like a phrasing trap to make the other person look inconsistent.
Buttons840 3y ago
> then I tell them to buy it and they say no Were you asking them to open their wallet and hand you 5 dollars and that's it, or were you asking them to go to an unfamiliar website, click around, enter their credit card information, and then spend time learning how to use the software, and do it all right now?
- judge2020 3y ago
  The difference between "Would you pay for this if it was instantly applied and took 0 effort to implement" versus "would you go through <these steps> and pay <this much> to achieve <this> outcome?"
- kaashif 3y ago
  I think people just kind of don't expect you to have a card reader and be willing to take payment right there if it seems like you're just explaining your startup idea. They're just being nice to you. It's all really dumb and obvious in hindsight.
- makeitdouble 3y ago
  I think that's still a good measure of things. What people say they'd do, and whether they'll actually do it involves all of these details, the time spent, friction, mental burden, sheer changing of mind at the last minute etc.
  - kevindamm 3y ago
    GP has a point about Point of Sales tech, and especially the reluctance of many people about giving credit card info to a random website. I wonder if the use of a Sales Website facade is more accurate about this -- by this I mean the practice of setting up a sales site before the product is ready, solely to count how much of your traffic converts. It's not an uncommon practice and I'm guessing it would give a more accurate estimate than simply asking "would you pay for this?" merely as a hypothetical.
kristopolous 3y ago
There's an entire book on this I read a few years ago, let me find it
- kaashif 3y ago
  Is it https://www.momtestbook.com/ https://www.momtestbook.com/? That's a good one.
  - kristopolous 3y ago
    Edit: I'm back. It's "The Right It" https://www.albertosavoia.com/therightit.html https://www.albertosavoia.com/therightit.html Essentially the observation was the same. A person claiming they'd buy something is worthless information. He had some strategies for getting around it that I've long since forgotten. It's apparently not on archive.org yet. I just dropped my copy into my next donation box. It'll be there eventually now. The term he used was "pretotyping" that term will probably yield everything you need.

HPsquared 3y ago

Stated preference vs revealed preference.

JackFr 3y ago
Free lunch at start up - workers: “We want healthier options!!” A dozen catering trays of salad get tossed into compost. All the fried chicken is gone in less than 5 minutes.

oh_sigh 3y ago

Hence ABC - "always be closing"...giving interested people an extra second is giving interested people an extra second to get cold feet.

mcpackieh 3y ago

Probably they're interpreting your first question as "would it be reasonable for me to offer this for sale for $5?" They may not be personally interested in buying it but can still tell you whether a price seems fair or not. For instance, I think it would probably be fair for you to sell your car for the blue book value... but I'm not offering to buy your car. I don't need another.

signaru 3y ago
Agree. The question also lacks a "when" part. If it were "Would you pay $5 for this NOW?" then the answer has a higher chance to be NO, regardless of whether the other person think it is a good deal. The question is more like a phrasing trap to make the other person look inconsistent.

Buttons840 3y ago

> then I tell them to buy it and they say no Were you asking them to open their wallet and hand you 5 dollars and that's it, or were you asking them to go to an unfamiliar website, click around, enter their credit card information, and then spend time learning how to use the software, and do it all right now?

judge2020 3y ago
The difference between "Would you pay for this if it was instantly applied and took 0 effort to implement" versus "would you go through <these steps> and pay <this much> to achieve <this> outcome?"
kaashif 3y ago
I think people just kind of don't expect you to have a card reader and be willing to take payment right there if it seems like you're just explaining your startup idea. They're just being nice to you. It's all really dumb and obvious in hindsight.
makeitdouble 3y ago
I think that's still a good measure of things. What people say they'd do, and whether they'll actually do it involves all of these details, the time spent, friction, mental burden, sheer changing of mind at the last minute etc.
- kevindamm 3y ago
  GP has a point about Point of Sales tech, and especially the reluctance of many people about giving credit card info to a random website. I wonder if the use of a Sales Website facade is more accurate about this -- by this I mean the practice of setting up a sales site before the product is ready, solely to count how much of your traffic converts. It's not an uncommon practice and I'm guessing it would give a more accurate estimate than simply asking "would you pay for this?" merely as a hypothetical.

kristopolous 3y ago

There's an entire book on this I read a few years ago, let me find it

kaashif 3y ago
Is it https://www.momtestbook.com/ https://www.momtestbook.com/? That's a good one.
- kristopolous 3y ago
  Edit: I'm back. It's "The Right It" https://www.albertosavoia.com/therightit.html https://www.albertosavoia.com/therightit.html Essentially the observation was the same. A person claiming they'd buy something is worthless information. He had some strategies for getting around it that I've long since forgotten. It's apparently not on archive.org yet. I just dropped my copy into my next donation box. It'll be there eventually now. The term he used was "pretotyping" that term will probably yield everything you need.