Prepare the Market

Smack! That’s the sound of your sales hitting a brick wall -- a market that just isn’t ready for your brand spanking new idea. You’ve spent loads of money on product development and market research. And your new sales team has enough mousse in their hair to grease the skids with any customer. The only problem is that markets take their sweet time embracing anything new.

If your idea is the least bit disruptive, you need to start warming up the market with some serious foreplay, long before product launch. This concept always gets entrepreneurs riled up. “How can we sell something that doesn’t exist yet? If we can just get this thing built, our investors will be happy and everyone will want it.”

Well, they may want it -- ultimately. But they may not be ready to buy it. In fact, potential customers may not even understand what it is you’re offering and how it fits into their world. Interestingly enough, entrepreneurs often solve legitimate problems well in advance of the market’s admitting that the problems exist. Being ahead of your time is mandatory for product innovation, but it can be a disaster for sales.

It’s not that you should neglect product development in favor of selling. However, while you’re in development mode you should also be out testing the market and preparing buyers for your revolutionary new offering. This will give you an opportunity to shore up your business plan, fine tune your product, develop important relationships, and build a more compelling story for investors.

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