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Here’s a real life example of selling the wrong thing
A young man stood behind a small wooden cart, pouring tea for passing commuters in Shanghai.
He worked hard, showed up early and stayed late every day, but he barely made enough to get by.
One afternoon, a sharply dressed businessman stopped, took a sip, and paused.
“This is excellent,” he said. “But you’re selling the wrong thing.”
The young man blinked. “People want tea. I sell tea.”
The businessman shook his head.
“No. People don’t want tea. They want a moment. A pause. A feeling before the day begins. You’re selling a product… when you should be selling an experience.”
The young man didn’t understand, but he listened as the businessman pointed at the cart.
“Get off the street. Rent a small room. Two tables. One lantern. Soft music. Multiply your price by 5 and people will gladly pay it. Because they’re not buying tea anymore. They’re buying how it feels to sit there.”
Then he continued:
“Create three blends. Name them. Tell stories about them. Now they’re not choosing tea—they’re choosing who they want to be.”
“Keep offering the tea to go, so customers can choose to sit and enjoy it or take it with them.”
One last instruction:
“Package the leaves. Let people take it home. Now you’ve sold the same thing three different ways to the same person.”
The young man took the advice.
A small room. A lantern. A handful of named blends with handwritten stories.
That was it.
The tea didn’t change but everything else did, and the business took off.
Now Let’s Talk About You
Right now, you’re probably the young man with the cart, selling the wrong thing.
You’re showing up. You’re putting in the work. You’ve built something that actually helps people.
And yet…
The revenue doesn’t match the effort, the conversions don’t match the quality and the growth feels slower than it should be.
So you assume the problem is the product, but it’s not. Instead, it’s what you’re selling about the product.
Look at how you describe what you do:
If you’re a copywriter, are you selling words? Or the relief someone feels when their funnel finally starts converting?
If you sell a course, are you selling information? Or the identity shift from “stuck and overwhelmed” to “I actually know what I’m doing”?
If you’re a consultant, are you selling strategy? Or the calm that comes from finally having someone competent in their corner?
Your audience doesn’t wake up wanting deliverables. They want outcomes. Certainty. Momentum. Status. Relief. They want to feel different.
And right now?
If your marketing leads with features, formats, and what’s included, then you’re still standing behind the cart.
Here’s How You Fix It
Build the room.
Stop presenting your offer like it’s sitting on a street corner. Your landing page shouldn’t feel like a transaction, it should feel like stepping into something. Your tone, your visuals, your messaging… all of it should create a sense of this is different. Same offer, new environment, higher perceived value.
Name the blends.
“A 12-week program” is forgettable. The Momentum Method is not. Names, positioning, and specificity turn generic offers into something people want to identify with. When you give your offer a personality, your audience starts to see themselves inside it.
Sell the leaves.
Your best customers don’t just want the main thing, they want more access, more insight, more tools. The templates, the frameworks, the behind-the-scenes thinking — that’s all product. Package it. Because once someone trusts you, they don’t just want results. They want proximity.
The Real Shift
You don’t need a better product; you need a better lens.
Because the value of what you sell isn’t in what it is… It’s in what it means to the person buying it.
And if you’re not actively shaping that meaning – through story, positioning, and experience – you’re leaving money on the table every single day.
Here’s the Part You Can’t Ignore
You can keep tweaking your offer, adding bonuses and lowering your price.
Or… You can step back and ask the harder, more important question:
What am I actually selling here?
Because the moment you answer that honestly and build your marketing around it, everything changes.
Higher conversions, better clients and more demand with the same product.
You don’t need a new business.
You need to stop selling tea… and start selling what the tea does.
The room is waiting.
Light your lantern.
In My Own Business Portfolio?
The OLSP business that has earned me five-figure OLSP commissions over several years, and several more 4-figure commissions in other affiliate businesses, has rebranded itself to a full-blown Academy with expert coaches in 11 different niches.
This means that there’s far more choice, and experts devoted to your success in whatever area of experitse you may choose.
Still the same easy entry point to get started watching free training, then after that – choose your expert.
