Don't sell the build effort.

There's a trend I have noticed when folks try sell software, their perception of how hard it was to build the software influences their comfort in setting a price. More difficult to build, more expensive. Easy to build, we can't charge a premium for that! This is tangentially related to cost vs value based pricing but the 'cost' here is the one time build cost rather than the ongoing running cost. In recent conversations I've seen this phenomenon affect people in both sales and technology.Lets think about a scenario here that might illustrate the point. Imagine a startup that's been building a product for two years and is now hiring their first sales person. They have some initial users but it's now time to price and sell the product outside of any 'early adopter' discounts.First, imagine you're the technology lead. You've proven people want the thing you're building and now you need to recoup the time and effort you've put into the product. You know every feature inside and out and…