The Strangest Secret to Selling a Spreadsheet

<div>0:00 So I think the strangest secret of selling spreadsheets is to not sell spreadsheets. This is a strange secret because if you look for spreadsheets for sale you're going to find spreadsheets. 0:16 And very clearly most people nowadays are selling spreadsheets by selling sorta uhh template . You see this on Etsy, you this even on gumrow, discover, you see a visual template that looks and feels like a spreadsheet . 0:32 I think the absolute best way to sell a spreadsheet is to literally not sell it as a Google sheet.

Not even to mention that it's a Google sheet at the beginning. 0:42 And just to say, hey, this is solving this particular problem and it's solving it. in the cloud or in this online software and it just so happens to be a spreadsheet . 0:54 Uh. I think this is a strange secret because probably because most spreadsheets being sold now again are templates. They don't have automations. 1:03 They don't have any- any kind of app script in the back.

They don't have kind of any um moccanation machinery happening. 1:11 And so I would like to get across to you that even adding a little bit of custom app script a little bit of on open menu, a custom menu , something even- like an e-mail series or an export to PDF button that is designed for your sheet. 1:28 Uh, anything like this, this simple little thing can turn your spreadsheet template into an actual tool. Umm. And this- is something that you can get across in your sales page. 1:40 You don't have to say I made a Google sheet and it is for sale.

You can talk about the features, the benefits of those, the problem it's solving, the journey that you're taking on in the last video I talked about that journey. 1:53 And how that user that's trying to buy your sheet is going on the same journey you did of why did you make that sheet. 2:00 And so you should have that in your sales page of like I made the sheet because I want to solve this problem. 2:05 I saw here's the expensive solution. Here's the time consuming solution.

and here I made it for you in this like you can buy this bundle, this little goo sheet access for 20, 30, 40, 50 bucks or 99 dollars if it's more tool oriented and it does a lot more stuff. 2:22 And it just so happens to be a goo goo sheet. And I think that's the key here is don't sell a spreadsheet sell a solution. 2:32 You can easily do that again in the sales page but I would also recommend trying or at least coming up with some type of way to get cross way. 2:41 But you're solving the problem solving in that hero image .

Now this is probably the biggest thing that's keeping google sheets as google sheets is that people will take a screenshot of the google sheet and then have that as the hero image and that's probably where I have the fuzziest uh solutions to. 3:00 I don't have any clear cut solutions to other than like talk about in even in the hero. Make the hero a little bit of a some type of animation like moving animation but some type of character. 3:14 What I did for coupon code maker was I went into chat GPT and I had it come up with an email. 3:20 Uh no not an email.

Like coupon generating machine that had some an anthropomorphic features. It was a little. Concaction with a little face. 3:32 Very cute. Uh and it made you feel very fun and easy and I made that this main image not a screen shot of the Google sheet itself. 3:43 And so. can chat you PT as a good solution here even talking to an actual illustrator and saying hey. I want to create a hero image for this Google sheet that is not a Google sheet. 3:55 It's not a screen shot but here's what it does.

And talk about the things the features that it does talk about the benefits to the user. 4:02 You can always have a hero image that is an evocation talking about the feelings that this tool is going to evoke. 4:12 Is it making something faster, easier? Is it making something more structured? That's a very different feeling. The structured planner then uh executing something. 4:23 So coupon code maker was something that like one click it generated a thousand coupons. Uh and it did this very fast. 4:29 It did this very efficiently.

Uh something that like you literally had to do each and every one. and so I wanted to make a little cute fun kind of feeling. 4:37 But say you are helping someone through some emotional trauma. Uh there are some energy management.

Uh create an image or a hero image about evo- that energy managing energy. 4:52 Again you can go down to the church pd or talk to an illustrator about this and have them illustrate Some character tour or some event or situation. 5:01 You can always have the hero image be some situation or event that's happening in your user journey in your user's life. 5:07 Umm.

You also just be very uh forward about this emotions that are coming out from using this or the emotions they have before they're using this and maybe even have it before and after. 5:22 But I think the point of this video was don't sell spreadsheets.

That's I think the number one mistake that people do is say hey I have a Google sheet, I made a Google sheet, here's a Google sheet for sale. 5:32 And if you do that uh immediately there are these ideas in people's heads uh of what a Google It should be which is free, Google sheets essentially is free, Excel , uh Microsoft Excel has a uh connotation of business and being used in business so it has a higher level of like value in the user's mind. 5:53 So the moment you say Google sheets it's just going to degrade but you don't have to hide the fact and that's one interesting thing about selling a spreadsheet is you don't necessarily actually have to hide the fact that you're selling a spreadsheet . 6:05 You just have to mention it as a last resort and say hey we're solving this cool problem that we had in this really cool online way or in this template or in this planner or in this thing or this automation we made in a goo sheet. 6:18 Yeah it just so happens to be a goo sheet.

Uh and that's what I think is the secret or at least the stranger secret to selling a spreadsheet . 6:25 Don't sell a spreadsheet . So solution that just so happens to be a spreadsheet .</div>