Hey there stranger!

Sign up to get access.

The #1 Mistake Spreadsheet Sellers Make and how to Save People Time

About this Tutorial

Scope down from an existing problem to a sheet that still solves a juicy problem. If you can solve something in 10x less time, you win. Find out how lack of specificity is the #1 mistake. I’ll share with you a quick way to figure out if you’re really saving people time.

Video Transcript

0:01 In the last video I shared with you these five sort of solutions that you can build in spreadsheets and I presented to you some ideas of problems that these solutions can solve.
0:11 And it's a one-to-one ratio. You're creating one spreadsheet to one, problem I have to tell you and I have to divulge that a simple mistake I made very early on and I still have youll see this in some past products that I have where I was not specific enough the one big mistake I would make early on 
0:34 and this is a very early problem and later on it's not as much of a problem once you sort of start selling spreadsheets but if you're not yet selling a single spreadsheet do not do this which is sell a suite of spreadsheets or a series of spreadsheets to solve one problem for one person ehm cause it 
0:53 wont a series of spreadsheets is not a single solution to a single problem I would urge you to be way more specific specificity really matters on two fronts one on your ability to build it okay you're just gonna make one spreadsheet do the thing and done second on your ability to sell it when you're 
1:16 writing your sales page and you're trying to market to an audience that doesnt know who you are specificity matters it matters that you can clearly define what theyre going through the solutions that they might be already pursuing or the software theyre already using to solve this problem how its more
1:38 costly and convoluted and that your solution is to one specific problem and it is one specific spreadsheet it just happens to be a spreadsheet if you can if you can share that you are going to sell a lot problem to one audience with one spreadsheet you can make an absolute rager of a spreadsheet i think
2:20 it's thomas frank who sells one notion templates and i think he's made over a million dollars off of one notion template i think now he also sells two but if you have not sold a single spreadsheet yet this is going to save you time energy a lot of effort and it's going to save you a lot of a lot of brain
2:39 energy a lot of frustrations find one thing to solve and ive given you here five things i would say take off the last one tool don't even think about that yet and if you've if you have not sold a single spreadsheet or not made a single spreadsheet to sell yet i would look at databases the easiest one
2:58 to sell i would look at checklists and planners as well and trackers too if you get a to get out your expertise and your experience of going through some problems so having some solution and then selling it and i think even second or third spreadsheet you sell should not be more than one single spreadsheet
3:30 that does one single thing i will share with you now what i think is a very easy way to test yourself one thing we do when selling spreadsheets or at least i like to say is to get that spreadsheet out in the market as soon as possible get it on the gumroad page for free put it up on some site some marketplace
3:52 get it on absolute marketplace and just see how it goes and you're still going to have a little bit of frustration or a little bit of insecurity and thats really fine ive been insecure myself i still am insecure about some solutions i mean i just made coupon code maker which is a tool to create coupon
4:11 codes in appsumo and i was a little insecure about it when i was presenting it and selling it in its first iteration and yeah then people started using it asking for more features and i built some more and i got a little more confidence but i will tell you there is one little trick that you can do that
4:29 you will absolutely solve your insecurity to know if your solution is actually 10x better or 10x faster than what people are doing now so what i would do this is this is the trick is without your spreadsheet without your solution execute the thing you're trying to do I will be like okay I gotta move 
5:09 this here move this here go and do that do do one time record a loom even tracking go through the act action of tracking something and record a loom literally record yourself doing it from step zero starting it to finished product okay do it you only have to do this once you only have to record one loom
5:33 and it and it can be your own you don't have to release it publicly just record a loom uhh if youre using loom for free i think its max 5 minutes so maybe use quick you can use quick time software if youre using a mac its free just record yourself doing it the reason were doing that is because were checking
5:52 the time we want an actual number a real life number of i have done this thing and it took me this amount of time thats all you need but you need to actually record it and then using your solution either your planner your checklist your database record another loom and now what you're gonna do is compare
6:16 those two now most of the time i would say you should have about 10x difference like it should take 10 minutes to go through doing this social media post Do this, do this, and it's 5x faster or 10x faster.
6:47 It doesn't matter what the actual difference is. The reason we do this is to have that number. That number is now on your sales page, but really the most important number.
6:59 The important part of this is that you have now secured your ability that this is really helpful. This is literally saving time.
7:10 Ok? One of important things that I think are really good for selling something which is it's a very specific solution and you're saving people time.
7:24 You're saving people time, energy, effort, you're saving them the amount of time you are trying to figure out this thing youre saving them time of context switching youre saving them time to learn something I think all of these are really special and really awesome for you to be able to sell your spreadsheet
7:45 so Im gonna talk in the next video about the customers context and how context is king here and this is going to lead very clearly into the next major section which is actually sorry not the next section the section after which is the sales page but I want to talk about it first here with you now a little
8:04 bit for a couple minutes about how the context of your customer is super important and that will give you I think some more ideas on what to build and how to build them.

Courses

Selling Spreadsheets Course Introduction

SECTION 1 - You Are The Sheet

Coupon Code Maker Updates February 2024 - New Dashboard

How to Make Good Looking Spreadsheets

Curate Google Sheets Easily - Automatic Bookmarklet Maker

Explore Your Spreadsheet Selling Options

What you know matters

Who you are matters

How you think matters

Why you think it matters, matters

Surprising Things about Selling Spreadsheets

SECTION 2 - Your Spreadsheet Blueprint

Easiest Sheet Ever to Sell

Problems Everywhere, and the Spreadsheets that Solve Them

The #1 Mistake Spreadsheet Sellers Make and how to Save People Time

Customer’s Context Is King

The Two T’s: Turn Templates into Tools

Create a Branded Lead Magnet from Qualitative Data

Tracker Tactics

SECTION 3 - How to Make a Spreadsheet

Ask Questions

Quality Curation

Fabulous Filters

Wield Wizardry

Automatic Calculations

Automate Emails

You Must Double Duplicate (If you're selling a sheet you use)

Different Kinds of Automation

How do I prevent people from sharing my spreadsheets by making a copy?

SECTION 4 - Spreadsheet Sales Mastery

Write The Sales Page

The Strangest Secret to Selling a Spreadsheet

The F Word

Reciprocity Rules

Pricing Strategies for Spreadsheets

Upselling and Cross-Selling Techniques

Avoid A Multi-Tier Approach

SECTION 5 - Marketing Mastery

Where to Sell Spreadsheets - Marketplace Marketing

Customer Service is Marketing

Six Figure Secrets

How to Sell Spreadsheets on AppSumo Marketplace

Protect Your Spreadsheet IP

Lock Your Sheets with OnlySheets

Weird Idea: Find a Great Sheet Domain Name

A Few New Spreadsheet Business Ideas

SECTION 6 - Spreadsheet Breakdowns

Maximize Spreadsheet Sales to Startups

A Spreadsheet CRM: Automation at work

How to Make Better Lead Magnets

How to Turn a Simple List into an Epic Lead Magnet

The Art of the Sell: Breaking down a Free Title Generator

How to Make an AI Integrated Freebie Spreadsheet