Same Skill, Different Buyer
Before you build a new product, check who else needs the skill you already have. The same skill, sold to a buyer with a much bigger problem, can pay far more.
By James Schramko · Updated October 2026
One of the fastest results I have had with any client came from one change. He kept his skill. He changed who he sold it to.
When a founder feels stuck, the first move is often a new product. A course, a tier, a second service. Sometimes the skill is fine and it is pointed at the wrong buyer.
Look at your own offer this week. Ask who else has the problem you solve, and who has it much bigger.
The Skill Stays, the Buyer Moves
A traffic specialist I coach had spent years in the network marketing world. He knew how to bring buyers to an offer. He used that skill for himself, and the business was doing about thirty thousand dollars a month.
We looked at who else needed the same skill. The people running those networks, and the others working the same events, needed what he was doing for himself. Nobody was offering it to them as a service.
He switched. Within a month the business went from thirty thousand dollars a month to three hundred thousand. The only change was who he sold it to.
That is a fast result, and it will not be typical. Copy the question he asked. The timeline was his.
Built for One, Sold to Many
Sometimes the other buyer is the next one in the same category.
A technical specialist inside an implementation agency I coach built a compliance workflow for one lawyer. It was a single job for a single client, built in a way that could be offered to other law firms.
Law firms responded. There were job offers of up to four hundred thousand dollars, and a white label opportunity came up. Nobody has bought it as a product yet. It still shows how one build can point at a whole group of buyers.
The Buyer Decides What You Get to Keep
I used to run a white label SEO service. My customers were agencies. Their clients got amazing results, and the agencies would not say where the work came from. I learned to tell true client stories without names.
Who you sell to can decide more than your price. It can decide whether your name goes on the work, whether you talk to the end user, and whether a referral can find you. Weigh that before you move.
How to Find the Other Buyer
Write the skill in one line, with the outcome it produces. Bringing buyers to an offer. Getting a compliance process through. Ranking a page.
List everyone who has that problem. Start with your current buyer and look up and across. Who employs them? Who sells to them? Who runs the platform or network they sit inside? Who has the same problem in a different industry?
Beside each one, write a rough guess of what the problem costs them. Pick the buyer whose problem is much bigger than your current buyer's. Ten times bigger is a good target.
Then test the guess before you pitch. Talk to two or three of them. Ask what the problem costs, who decides, and what they pay now to fix it. Your guess is not their number until they say it.
Check what it takes to serve them. More capacity, more cost, new terms, or proof they will accept. Check what you can keep: your name on the work, a line to the people who get the result, the right to tell the story. If you built something for a past client, check you own it and can reuse it.
Why Founders Miss This
You spent years getting good at the skill, so the skill feels like the business. The buyer feels fixed. A new product feels like progress you can show someone.
A buyer switch is often the smaller change. The skill and the proof come with you. My client kept his skill and had a different conversation with a different buyer.
Self-Diagnostic
Who has the problem you solve much bigger than your current buyer does? If no name comes to mind, start the list above.
Could the thing you built for your last client be sold to others like them? If yes, and you own it, that may be a buyer list.
Does your current buyer let you keep your name on the result? If not, your wins build someone else's reputation.
What would you have to change to serve the bigger buyer? If it is mostly the conversation and the price, the switch may be close.
What To Do This Week
Write the one line skill. List five other buyers with the same problem, with a rough cost of the problem beside each. Pick the biggest. Ask two of them what the problem costs and who decides. Then write the first offer, using the result you already produce and the numbers they gave you.
Quick Reference
- Keep the skill. Look for a different buyer before you build a new product.
- Look up and across: who employs your buyer, who sells to them, who runs the network they sit in.
- Guess the cost of the problem for each buyer. Then test the guess with real conversations.
- Check what you can deliver and what you get to keep: your name, the end user, the story.
- One build for one client can become an offer for others like them, if you own it.
If you want someone to walk your current skill through the buyers who could pay far more for it, with your own numbers on the table, that is the kind of conversation I have with founders inside Mentor.