Surprising Things about Selling Spreadsheets

<div>00:00 So in this video I want to share with you surprising things about selling spreadsheets. These are things that surprise me. 00:07 I've been selling spreadsheets for about three years now since I started Better Sheets. Originally I started to actually give away templates to try to sell my tutorials but I figured out that I was coding a lot more, I was putting a lot more into templates and spreadsheets themselves, so I wanted to  00:22 charge for the spreadsheets themselves.

And it's been about three years that I've been selling spreadsheets and, again, no bullshitting you, not six figures yet. 00:32 But it'll get there eventually, I do believe. But I want to share with you these five surprising things that I was surprised at. 00:41 That before I was selling spreadsheets, I was doing spreadsheets, I was working at a startup for five years where I built all internal tools. 00:48 Around spreadsheets, in spreadsheets, and we did a lot of scaling.

And afterwards, I really thought I knew about spreadsheets and then I started selling them and now I have a whole new perspective on how to sell spreadsheets, not just make spreadsheets. 01:02 And so, I want to share with you the first I think it was surprising because, this first thing was surprising because I did it myself, I added videos, and I didn't know that that was going to be one of the best selling points. 01:21 So what this is, what was surprising, was adding videos to your onboarding process helps immensely.

Not many people think about this when I talk to individuals who are selling spreadsheets or trying to sell spreadsheets, they are very much focused on this. 01:37 The spreadsheet itself and having a single image or some kind of hero image and sell the spreadsheet and done. They are not thinking very deeply about the onboarding process, how people will use the spreadsheet . 01:51 They think, oh, I am. I can use this spreadsheet because I knew X, Y, and Z and now I am doing ABC. 01:58 And so other people will figure it out.

And they are not really considering the onboarding experience is the sales process. 02:07 And so I think adding videos once someone is has bought your spreadsheet is one thing, but also making videos about the problem it's solving and maybe even showing a little bit of great marketing. 02:21 Great to put it on YouTube, on TikTok, even on things like Udemy. I'll bring that up.

Again, later on but I, I want you to not be scared of making videos. 02:33 I think making loom videos is super awesome and very simple because you don't really need to have like a lot of good. 02:41 Video presence. You don't have to be very charismatic on video. Your face is just this tiny little circle in the bottom corner and this sheet is gonna be filling the whole screen. 02:53 So, I want you to consider making loom videos for, your onboarding process.

It helps immensely and it cuts down on a lot of customer service, which I'll talk about later in some other video modules in this course. 03:06 The second thing that I think was surprising about selling spreadsheets was that landing page copy usually is, here's the problem and here's the Google sheet that's the solution. 03:19 I've seen that so many times. What landing page copy should do is agitate the problem and even agitate the solutions. 03:29 Any possible solutions and how they are problematic in their own individual way.

Everyone's going to have a different solution and everyone's going to have a different problem for that solution or the solutions beget more problems and the savior ultimately will be this spreadsheet template that you create 03:47 but that landing page copy I've seen so many examples of just here's the problem and here's the features that solve this problem and that reads it doesn't read trustworthy. 04:02 It's just text.

But if you can tell the story of what you went through, what you were dealing with, how you came up with some solutions and those solutions were not very correct and then here's a better solution that wasn't correct either but here's the actual solution that I built with my own sweat  04:19 and blood and my own time. That kind of story translates very well to a sale and if it doesn't then that person probably wouldn't have bought no matter what. 04:30 And so I want to urge you to think about this journey.

I have said it in a past video and I'll say it again in a future video about landing page specifically that I think this kind of story and this user journey that you go through in going through the problem and having a solution that happens to be 04:45 a Google Sheet, I think this translates very well to more sales and converts way better. Than any other kind of landing page copy that might be like, here's the problem and here's the solution. 04:57 The third thing that was surprising to me about selling spreadsheets is that sheets are not sold. They're bought.

It is nearly impossible. 05:06 In fact, it is impossible to sell someone something they don't want. And I want you to think about this now because creating a spreadsheet that that is a solution to an uncommon problem will have far fewer sales. 05:22 Than a spreadsheet that is a, a solution to a common problem.

So think about what people are trying to solve, but also think about what are people already paying for. 05:35 If someone is paying for consultation, mentorship some kind of productized service, these are great problems that a spreadsheet template might actually be bought, instead of, or as a stepping stone. 05:52 If you can create, like, a stepping stone from, like, hey, I've- been solving this problem by not doing anything to, hey either that or I have to pay $5,000 a month retainer for something. 06:03 If you can bridge that gap, you can be selling a spreadsheet for $50, $100, $500, if you're gonna save someone $5,000. 06:11 That's a stepping stone, right?

I think one of the coolest ideas is sort of a repository of like PR opportunities. 06:18 This is something people are signing up for Haro for free, spending a lot of time going through or paying $5,000 a month for a PR retainer. 06:27 Right? There is a huge gap in between that you can come up with a really interesting solution in a spreadsheet that can help automate outreach, can help automate other things or gathering of information. 06:40 Also, things like backlink building.

If you have some solution to backlink building, either by listing a bunch of directories for a certain niche, like AI directories, AI product directories, for instance, that's something that I've been looking for, I've been hoping for there are services for like a 06:57 hundred, two hundred dollars that'll put your listing on a bunch of places, but you can sell a template of these or a list of repository of these for $25, $35, $49, and it's right there in that middle part where someone saves a lot of time from searching through all the muck and stuff and says, Here's 07:15 all the information I need to submit my application to 100 AI directories so I'll get 100 backlinks, right?

Super cool. 07:25 But again, look for those opportunities where someone is spending a lot of time, for free, and then their only option to pay for a service is something around $2,000 to $5,000 a month. 07:39 Those are super great opportunities for spreadsheets, especially in the directory or repository of information, kind of.

Spreadsheets you can sell. 07:51 Fourth surprising thing that I think not many people think about, but it's probably in my blood now after three years of selling spreadsheets is that selling a great sheet is selling a great process. 08:05 If you can help someone through the process of solving the problem and then it just so happens that a spreadsheet is the solution to this particular problem, you're really selling a great process. 08:16 You're selling a great workflow. So again, I'll repeat this from earlier. Go through your Google Drive.

Look for what you are working on. 08:23 What is your workflow look like now and where you know in your mind, you're like, Hey, I do this thing in this particular spreadsheet that has saved me X number of hours, or I'm doing something in this spreadsheet that I could not possibly do any of. 08:36 I didn't know any other way.

Selling a great spreadsheet is selling a great process and that's going to show up in your onboarding, that's going to show up in your marketing, that's going to show up in your sales page, sales land, salesmanship, and if you're really helping people through a workflow that's 08:53 very difficult you'll be able to sell those spreadsheets very, very well. The last thing and final surprising thing about selling spreadsheets is that you can launch again and again and again. 09:08 See me.

I want to tell you this now because one of the simplest problems or challenges I've seen people in selling spreadsheets that people have when selling spreadsheets is that they have a list of features they think they need in order to sell. 09:28 And I would recommend you write this list, absolutely, write all the things you want the spreadsheet to do, but you probably only need the spreadsheet to do one or two things. 09:39 That is it.

Why I say that is because you can create the spreadsheet now, put it up for sale, have the same problem, and the solution happens to be a spreadsheet . 09:49 And only have one or two features. You can always add features later, have updates, have upgrades. Always build out more tiers later. 09:58 I'll talk about the multi-tier problem later. Start selling a spreadsheet now. See if people are discovering this through SEO, through marketplaces, and buying it as is. 10:12 Always make it better.

Get those early reviews in, get those early customers in, trying it, onboarding it, and then you can always add more features later. 10:23 You can even launch every single time you add features. I just I think it was two years ago that I launched OnlySheets , which is an app script . 10:32 I sell an app script in a Google Sheet, and I have some onboarding videos with that.

Takes about 20 minutes to install. 10:39 But two years later I created OnlySheets 2.0, which is just some upgrade, some, some more features that people were asking for, and I actually put them in. 10:49 You can launch things again and again. You can launch it on Product Hunt again and again, every six months, I think, is the, one of the soft limits. 10:57 You can launch on multiple platforms. You can say, hey, I'm going to OnlySheets 2.0 launch this product to my own existing email list first. 11:05 Get some feedback. Then a month later, I'll launch on Reddit.

Then a month later, I'll launch on Twitter. A month later, I'll launch on Hacker News. 11:14 A month later, I'll launch on Dev.2. I'll launch on Dev.2. And you can talk to like all sorts of journalists who are talking about weird ways to make money or, or weird ways to solve these problems. 11:42 Lots of ways to launch again, and again, and again, seemingly forever. Thanks so much. For watching this. I'm gonna see you in the next section. 11:52 Bye. Thank you.</div>