Customers want problems solved. Tech people (me included) assume that once the hard part is done (the product/software), the rest is a minimal effort.
This is usually false. Customers are not familiar with the software, they may have a tech knowledge gap, its usage may entail organizational change. There are many possible reasons for adoption to be a very relevant factor.
Consulting means you are responsible for the whole process, not just providing software.
This. People don't buy technology, they buy solutions to problems they have.
People don't buy new network infrastructure for it's own sake, they purchase a solution to eliminate bandwidth issues and increase productivity of the employee base.
This is why a lot of tech companies have professional services departments internally as well as partner out with established players who already have clients, because customers want solutions, not technical details.
I think it's more than this. Lots of people are willing to pay consultants $50k to build something for them. They are much less inclined to pay exactly the same price for the same product if it's pre-built and off-the-shelf.
People subconsciously feel that paying for someone's time is "fairer" than paying for something that's already built.
It may also be why aftersales and support contracts are so lucrative (in lots of industries).
Yes! This is an underappreciated reason why Twilio was such a success early on. Every employee (including software engineers) had to work 10 or 20 support tickets in the first two weeks on the job.
This is usually false. Customers are not familiar with the software, they may have a tech knowledge gap, its usage may entail organizational change. There are many possible reasons for adoption to be a very relevant factor.
Consulting means you are responsible for the whole process, not just providing software.