Two sales calls, same script, same price. The first one is over in under a minute: the owner is polite, says it sounds interesting, and never replies again. The second one ends with the owner asking how soon it can be in the App Store.

Nothing about the pitch changed. What changed was who was on the other end of the phone. Learning to tell those two apart before you dial is most of this job, and it has very little to do with what industry they are in.

You are not selling an app. You are selling the second visit.

An icon on someone's home screen is a standing invitation to come back. That is the entire product. Everything else — the design, the push notifications, the native screens — exists to make the second visit easier than it was before.

Which means the business has to have a second visit to sell in the first place. If their customer buys once and gets on with their life, there is nothing for the icon to do.…