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6 basic characteristics of a "Maximally Buyable Product"



Either applying to startups or well-established corporations, the concept of "Maximally Buyable Product" can help either to determine the features of a future product or to define the sales and marketing strategy that applies to it. The two goals are related anyway, as a customer’s experience with the company or brand (which is critical for future purchase, recommendations, etc) is determined both during the buying process and during the product-use cycle.

Furthermore, some product features can be assimilated with sales and marketing strategies, such as when "signing up for a trial" or "upgrading" a product/service.

  1. Easy To Understand

    2. The "KIS" principle should be applied most of the time: Keep It Simple!

  2. Easy To Try

    3. If the product cannot be easily "tried", then a clear, convincing demonstration should be used.

  3. Easy To Buy

    4. There should be a minimum degree of pain in the buying process. This includes having clear, simple pricing and payment mechanisms that map to customer expectations, for a website for instance. Where applicable, the product should also be made available across numerous channels, to maximise contact with customers.

  4. Easy To Stay

    5. A company can generate revenues from a customer over an extended period of time either by charging on a subscription basis (monthly, quarterly, etc), by making some trailing revenue in terms of maintenance/support/upgrades/cross-sells etc or quite simply by selling another product to the customer.
    Customers should then be kept happy as long as possible, therefore products should be designed for customer longevity and not just for customer acquisition. Sometimes, a different set of dynamics will be at play.

  5. Easy To Leave

    6. Although you want customers to stay as long as possible, designing products which make it easy to leave is an important part of their "buyability". No customer wants to go somewhere to be trapped.
    For instance, an "export" feature can be added to a software, to avoid data lock-in.

  6. "Purple Cow" differentiator

    7. Every product needs something truly "remarkable" that highlights its unique selling point and causes people to talk about it and spread the word.



based on the article on OnStartUps.com: "From Minimally Viable To Maximally Buyable Product" (2010)