You need to sell the transformation people will experience (the change in behavior) and NOT the features

This is one of the most important lessons I can share with you all, and one that I have experienced personally in digital transformation projects (and even with startups).

The transformation is not the technology, it is the change the people will experience, and many times this is entirely forgotten, and technology becomes the change we sell.

That is not the right way, if you are going to sell something, then sell the change.

In order to sell the change, you need to understand how to help people change, and to do that you need to know how to bring behavioral insights into your current work.

Therefore, It made me happy to see how a memo written by Stewart Butterfield Slack from 2014 captured this so well. (The link is in the document if you want to read it)

As he said:

"What we are selling is not the software product — the set of all the features... — because there are just not many buyers for this software product. (People buy “software” to address a need they already know they have or perform some specific task they need to perform, whether that is tracking sales contacts or editing video.)

<This is where I think Tony Ulwick and Jobs to be done makes so much sense - as it is about a job to be done.>

However, if we are selling “a reduction in the cost of communication” or “zero effort knowledge management” or “making better decisions, faster” or “all your team communication, instantly searchable, available wherever you go” or “75% less email” or some other valuable result of adopting Slack, we will find many more buyers.

That’s why what we’re selling is organizational transformation.<This is where Behavior Science Insights come in> The software just happens to be the part we’re able to build & ship (and the means for us to get our cut)."

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