I see it all the time. And I have been guilty of it as well. Entrepreneurs decide they want to offer a product. They spend countless hours (and dollars) developing and marketing the product.
And do you know what they DIDN’T do? They never asked the market if they wanted the product!
They didn’t find out if their market would actually pay money for this product.
I am often called in when things are in dire straits. The owner says “I need help marketing. I am just not selling anything.” My first question is “are you sure this product is viable?” I usually hear “oh yes, I asked 5 different people, and they liked it.”
HUGE MISTAKE!
First of all, do those 5 people know you? They are probably just being nice. And 5…that’s not enough to know if the market is there. Did they pull out their wallet and buy the product?
One of the first things I do is test the product with the general market through a variety of approaches (online ad, phone call, in person). I will then try to identify a few specific markets and do the same thing.
I have seen thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on a product that will never even hit breakeven.
So how can you avoid this? Do your research FIRST! Write down 2-4 target markets your product will appeal to. Go ask questions (don’t sell — you are not trying to convince anyone at this point). Find out what the REAL pain points are for your clients. Find out what benefits they really need. And build your product (or service) around that!
And keep testing and tweaking and testing and tweaking to create the right product for your market!