In our house we eat a lot of fruit. We tear through cherries, raspberries, strawberries, apples and bananas faster than we can buy them. Grapes in particular rarely last the day.

Unless they have seeds.

Last week we tried a different kind of grape. They were tasty, fresh and crunchy; everything a good grape should be. But they had seeds. They slowly disappeared, the last ones thrown away after they softened and browned. That bag of grapes lasted a week rather than a day.

Dealing with seeds isn’t a big deal. You bite the grape, it splits, you tongue around and then spit out the seeds. Who cares?

We all care. Everyday, we evaluate businesses and products based on seeds. Is their service slow and indifferent? Do they charge extra fees to use debit and credit cards? Do they have a take-a-number dispenser in the waiting room? Do they charge for baggage?

Seeds are those small annoyances that reduce subscriptions and leave products on the shelves. Seeds are carabiners with notches, pens with super fine tips, a web app with an ugly interface. Because of seeds, your customers choose your competitors.

Don’t seed the sale. Keep pitches and products simple, effective and to the point. Extras that you “just like the look of” or “heard about in a focus group” or “have always been done that way” are probably seeds. Be careful they don’t sabotage your product from being a rabid success.

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