nickgallick Skill: Revenue Validation
Demand is not the same as willingness to pay. This skill verifies people actually spend money to solve this problem.
The Three Revenue Questions
1. ARE PEOPLE ALREADY PAYING FOR A BAD VERSION?
Search for:
- Competitor pricing pages — what do they charge? What tiers?
- G2/Capterra reviews mentioning price: "overpriced but no alternative" = holy grail signal
- Reddit/HN threads: "cheaper alternative to X" = confirmed willingness to pay
- Upwork/Fiverr: search for the task being done manually — that's money being spent RIGHT NOW
- Freelancer hourly rates for this work × hours per month = the budget you're replacing
- Check if companies are posting job listings for roles that do this task manually — that's a salary software could replace
2. WHAT'S THE REPLACEMENT COST?
Categorize:
- REPLACING A SALARY: Target customer currently pays someone $40-100K/yr to do this manually. High willingness to pay for software. ($200-500/mo is easy to justify.)
- REPLACING AN EXPENSIVE TOOL: Target customer pays $200+/mo for an enterprise tool they hate. Room for a cheaper, better alternative at $50-150/mo.
- REPLACING A CHEAP TOOL: Target customer pays $10-30/mo for something basic. Hard to compete on price — you need to be dramatically better.
- REPLACING NOTHING: Target customer uses spreadsheets, email, or manual workarounds. They've never paid for this. HARDEST to convert. You must prove ROI clearly.
- REPLACING AGENCY/FREELANCER: Target customer pays an agency $500-5000/mo. Software at $100-300/mo is a no-brainer pitch.
3. VITAMIN OR PAINKILLER?
- PAINKILLER: Solves an active, urgent, recurring problem. People seek this out. They KNOW they need it.
- Signals: people searching for solutions, complaining about the problem, hiring to solve it
- Examples: invoicing for freelancers, scheduling for service businesses, compliance tracking
- VITAMIN: Nice to have, improves something, but life goes on without it.
- Signals: people think it's cool but don't actively look for it, "that would be nice" vs "I need this NOW"
- Examples: productivity trackers, habit apps, social media analytics
- CANDY: Fun/entertaining but no real utility. AVOID for SaaS.
Pricing Confidence Rating
- HIGH: Multiple data points showing people actively pay to solve this problem. Competitor pricing exists. Freelancers are hired for this.
- MEDIUM: Adjacent spend exists (people pay for related tools). Some willingness signals but not direct.
- LOW: No evidence of spend found. Purely speculative that people would pay. RED FLAG.