The Advantages Of Selling Products Instead Of Services
As a business, you have two main options when choosing what to sell to your customers. You can sell services, which basically means you provide something for a client depending on their needs. Or, you can sell products, which are physical or digital items that someone buys and can use however they wish. Some companies do a bit of both, but you tend to either think about one or the other.
Speaking of which, today’s post will explore the idea of selling products instead of services. Specifically, we’ll look at some of the benefits of choosing this approach over the other…
Instant gratification
A benefit of selling products is that you and the customer both get a sense of instant gratification. You list a product for sale, someone buys it, and you get the money. The customer may have to wait a day or so to receive it, but the transaction is pretty much over as soon as it started. With services, you have to actually go out and complete the service before you get paid. Even then, it can be another 30 or so days before a client pays you if they’re not up to speed. Products are sold as demand requires, possibly generating a faster cash flow for your business.
Sell all over the world
Yes, you can sell some services to a global audience. If you provide your services online, then there won’t be issues. However, services that require face-to-face contact can only be done within a certain geographical area – unless you open numerous branches. By contrast, anyone can set up an online store and sell products literally all over the world. Yes, you have customs to deal with, but fast custom brokerage services exist to handle this for you. If your products are digital – like applications or software – then things are even easier. Here, you literally do get instant gratification in that the digital product is bought and received by the customer instantly!
Less effort on your behalf
Finally, the advantage of selling products over services is that it requires less effort on your behalf. Most businesses will sell products that have already been made. Or, you have a manufacturing team that makes them for you. It’s rare that you will actually hand craft products yourself! Therefore, the effort to reward ratio is in your favour – you don’t have to do much, yet you can make a lot of money. Especially if you look into something like dropshipping, which is literally the art of selling products that you have bought previously from a supplier. With service-based businesses, you will have to spend your own time carrying out the service for the customer. This can restrict how many customers you have at one time – another thing that’s not an issue when you sell products.
Overall, there are some very compelling arguments put forward in favour of selling products. By all means, don’t take this to mean that selling services is an awful idea. No, it’s simply a way of letting you see the benefits of products. For the sake of fairness, if you’d like to see a similar article from the services perspective, feel free to let your feelings known!
