I was reminded this morning of a simple marketing truth that app developers so often miss: when talking about your service:
Skip the features.
Talk about value.
What does looks like? When someone asks “Can you sync with Twitter?” the answer isn’t “Yes, we have an API that exposes 127 data points to third-party developers.” but “Yes, we can sync with several social media services, which a gives you a lot of power to gain insight on your customers.”
I’m horrible at this personally. I swing between totally-cheesy-sales-speak and in-the-weeds-tech-specs. And a lot of it depends on who you’re talking to. But by and large, especially if you’re selling to the enterprise, the person making the purchasing decision is non-technical.
Steve Jobs was, of course, the master, because he presented Apple products as the solution to problems you didn’t even know you had.