Imagine a world where people didn’t distinguish between candy and medicines,** and instead mentally lumped them all into a vague category called “soothe snacks”.
Ridiculous, of course.
And also exactly how the “services market” works today.The commoditized services, the ones that could be done by basically anybody with a couple of months of training, are like candy. Immediately effective, easy to understand, and easy to compare prices per gram. The supply is endless, and whether you should choose cheap lollipops or pralines is largely a matter of taste.
The expertise-based services are like medicines. They can be highly effective but only if you know what you need. It’s also hard to spot fake, ineffective, or destructive choices. Direct comparison of different kinds tells you nothing useful, and adequate supply is never guaranteed.
You might hope that in the real world, clients do understand that these two categories cannot be viewed as basically the same. And it’s true for some, but definitely not most of them. Not by a long shot.
It’s a real mess, but if at least we can all see it clearly in its absurdity, we will not have to wonder whether the client had a point when he told us that our pink anti-depressants seem very expensive compared to the light purple cherry delights they bought last week.