What is Productization and Why Should You Productize Your Services?

Productization is the process of transforming a service or part of it into a standardized product that can be sold automatically, without requiring custom consultations or quotes. Productization also focuses on automation of the delivery of the chosen service to an extent that is reasonable.

Essentially, a productized service must have:

• A fixed price
• A clear, understandable scope
• No need for prior consultations or proposals before purchase

There’s quite a lot of further aspects that are important to follow in a productizing project (such as designing a solid customer onboarding process, focusing on cash-gaining pricing policies, enabling an easy opt-in-opt-out mechanism, and many others), but the three above mentioned are a must-have.

Why should service-based businesses consider productization? Let’s break it down into three key reasons:

You Want to Scale and Grow

When your business is dependent on you or your team to deliver custom, tailor-made services, growth becomes challenging. The demand might be there, but handling it efficiently is another story. You might be facing:

Increasing costs

Hiring (and retaining talent) challenges

Difficulties managing operations as you grow

and other problems.

Productizing allows you to scale because you’re no longer delivering a custom service from scratch every time; you’re delivering a repeatable, well-defined product.

For instance, Design Pickle, a graphic design service, scaled from a small business to handling thousands of clients by offering a fixed-price, productized, subscription-based service.

You Want a More Predictable Business

Custom services often come with peaks and valleys of demand, creating stress and unpredictability. By offering productized services, you create a smoother, more consistent flow of work. Customers know what they’re getting, and you know exactly what you’ll deliver. This helps with better forecasting and less stress for your team.

WP Buffs, for example, offers clear care plans that generate recurring revenue by maintaining websites. This allows them to plan and grow steadily without surprise lulls or spikes in workload.

You Want to Reduce Dependency on Key People

Many service businesses struggle with dependency on the founder or key employees. When a business is too reliant on specific people, it becomes hard to scale, sell, or maintain long-term stability. Productization allows you to create systems and processes that make your business more independent of individuals. It gives you the freedom to focus on growth without being tied down to day-to-day operations.

One of the most important, though, is that for productized service there is no need for prior consultations or proposals before purchase, so it can be sold without YOU or another key person getting involved. According to a survey by Gartner, 75% of decision-makers prefer a completely “sales-free” purchasing process, highlighting the growing demand for transparent, streamlined service offerings like productized services.