Insights — Channel Creation & New Revenue Streams — 3 min read
How a Product Business Can Add Services Without Losing Focus
Services usually carry better margins than the products wrapped around them. The businesses that capture that value are the ones who build the service deliberately, not the ones who stumble into it through ad hoc requests.
In short
A product business can add services by identifying the support, expertise and advice it already gives away informally, pricing the version customers would pay for separately, and building a clear, resourced offer around it — installation, training, consulting, or ongoing support. The service should complement the product rather than compete with it for the same stretched staff and time.
Most product businesses already do some service work — installation help, troubleshooting, bespoke advice — but treat it as a cost of selling the product rather than a revenue opportunity in its own right. That's often a missed margin, because customers are frequently willing to pay for exactly this kind of support when it's offered clearly rather than given away.
Adding a services layer properly means deciding what to charge for, what stays free as part of the core offer, and how to deliver it without pulling the team away from the product business that's funding the whole operation.
Find the service you're already giving away
The starting point isn't inventing a new service from scratch — it's noticing what customers already ask for informally that goes beyond the product itself: advice on specifying the right configuration, help with installation, troubleshooting calls, or guidance on getting the best use from the product. If this is happening regularly and for free, it's a strong early signal of what a paid service could look like.
| Common free extra | Possible paid service |
|---|---|
| Pre-sale technical advice | Paid consulting or specification service |
| Ad hoc troubleshooting calls | A formal support plan or helpdesk tier |
| Informal installation help | A structured installation or commissioning service |
| Training users on request | Scheduled paid training or onboarding sessions |
Why services usually carry better margins
Physical products compete on cost of materials, manufacturing and logistics, all of which are visible and comparable. Services are priced on expertise and outcome, which is harder for a buyer to compare directly and often commands a premium relative to the direct cost of delivering it. A product business that's spent years building genuine expertise usually has more pricing power in a services offer than it realises.
Avoiding the trap of underpricing or overcommitting
Two mistakes are common when product businesses add services. The first is underpricing, because the team is used to giving this away and defaults to a token fee that doesn't reflect the real value or cost. The second is overcommitting the same stretched technical staff to both product delivery and the new service, creating a bottleneck that frustrates customers on both sides. A services offer needs its own resourcing decision, not an assumption that existing staff will simply absorb it.
Deciding what stays free
Not everything should become a paid service — some support genuinely belongs as part of the core product offer, and charging for it would damage trust or make the product feel worse value. The useful line is usually effort: brief, standard questions that take minutes stay free; substantial, bespoke, time-consuming work becomes a paid service. Being clear and consistent about where that line sits matters more than exactly where it's drawn.
A short framework
- 01List the support and advice currently given away informally and how often it happens.
- 02Decide where the line sits between standard product support and a chargeable service.
- 03Price the service to reflect expertise and outcome, not just time.
- 04Resource it separately from core product delivery, so one doesn't bottleneck the other.
- 05Test with existing customers before marketing the service more broadly.
Evans' Channel Creation Programme helps product businesses identify where a genuine services opportunity exists and build it as a properly resourced, priced offer rather than an informal extension of product support. It runs from £1,995 + VAT/month over six months, from £11,970 + VAT at starting price. Managed Channel Growth continues ongoing commercial management from £1,995 + VAT/month.
Could your business support another route to revenue?
Evans Channel Creation identifies, validates and builds additional revenue channels from capabilities a business already has — B2B to D2C, D2C to B2B, product to service, recurring revenue or partners — and says so plainly when a channel should not be built. Programme from £1,995 + VAT per month over six months.
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