Many Customers Are Actually Willing to Pay More, Not Less

Unraveling the "More Cheaply" Conundrum in Jobs to be Done

One of the core tenets of Jobs-to-be-Done Theory that we often hear is that customers will switch to products that get their jobs done better and/or more cheaply.

One the one hand, this goes against everything we see when we conduct this kind of research. On the other hand, it’s not that simple. So, let me break it down for you.

Willingness to pay

We should keep in mind that there are two major customer groups: consumers and businesses. These two groups will have different reference points when evaluating the cost of using tools or in our case getting jobs done. These two things are also quite different. Let’s take a brief look at each category for some perspective.

Consumers (B2C)

There is a theory that consumers will use a frame of reference relative to their income (or pay). Where a marketing strategist might survey customers in…