Getting out of the Building (and out of your Head)

The Most Effective Strategy to Validate, Refine, or Pivot your Idea for a Product or Business.

From the outside, Sara Blakely, the founder, and CEO of Spanx, now a billionaire, seems an overnight success story. But when the fax machine saleswoman first came up with her idea of the invisible panties, she didn’t just trust her gut and launch her business solely on intuition and prayer. Nor did she, in 1998, surfed the Net high and low for virtual evidence that she was unto something. She simply marched outside her office and talked to real people. One of these humans was a sales associate at Neiman Marcus. This simple initiative accomplished two critical steps in the success of her company:

1 – It validated that her idea for her innovative product was not just a creation of her own fantasy that no one else would buy.

2 – It helped build an important channel to her ideal customers by connecting with a strategic partnership:  Neiman Marcus eventually became a key retail partner.

I recently did a bit of investigating with various entrepreneurial and business owners’ groups. It verified my suspicions that most people who launch a new idea for a product don’t do any research before launching their business. 9 out of 10 entrepreneurs in these groups didn’t spend any time at all interviewing their audience, and here is why:

– They don’t know how to interview and they expect it to be more complicated than it is.

– They think they need to interview hundreds of people to be effective.

– They assume they know who are their ideal customers and what they want.

– They believe their creativity and intuition are good enough.

– They don’t realize how much time and money (and agony) they could save with a few simple interviews.

This poking around made me realize that entrepreneurs need this one essential business tool: a template with a simple system that shows how to interview an ideal audience for any new business idea.

Believing that we know what our customers will buy is the fastest way to fail in business. Yet, when launching a new product, most entrepreneurs make unverified assumptions about who their customers are and what they want. As a result, these business creators end up wasting their money and time because of a misaligned product/market fit. The majority of startups fail not because they fail to create the product they intend to build, but because they fail to create the product their customers need and are willing to pay for.

So, how can you be sure your customers will want to buy your product? It simply begins with you talking to them directly, by interviewing them.

In my next bi-weekly Saturday Morn’ Brew & Chat, on 11/21/20 at 9:00 AM, we will discuss strategies and tactics to get your customers’ input, to verify your assumptions, and even get their “buy-in” before the launch of your product or business. During this free mini-class, I will share how to first test, refine, and even pivot your product entirely based on the feedback you’ll get from your market segments. You’ll discover:

– Whom to interview when collecting intelligence about the product you are building.

– How to find interviewees and set-up the interviews.

– How to document the interviews.

– Why surveys don’t always help and when they are useful.

– How the interviews can warm your audience and build future channels to reach your ideal customers.

Knowing how to interview your ideal customers is one of the most useful tools in your entrepreneurial toolbox. Once you have it, you will use it anytime you have a new idea and save yourself significant time, money, and energy.

Cheers to building a life you love with the right business for you!

Patricia