I am almost finished with my product. (Professional Web Application) now what do I do?
My product is for a specific niche and so I am able to easily locate prospective clients online, I am just not sure what to do with that knowledge. I don't want to quit my current job until I have had at least enough sales to support me (3-4?). Am I crazy to think I can do it that way? Like I said the product is not yet complete, and probably has a few more months of development left, but when it is finished, I would like to hit the ground running. I also have two pricing models to accommodate a wider client base and am not really sure how to determine a price point that smaller clients would pay for. Any help or guidance you can provide would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
David Michaelson
Thanks,
David Michaelson
While developing a great product is important, working without customer guidance on features, your sales pipeline, and pricing is difficult – if not impossible. The key to selling is to get an early working version of the product into your customers’ hands and get feedback to help guide your business.
To start, take 3 hours a day and just call potential customers. Talk to them about your idea, talk to them about their pain points, talk to them about their workflow, and ask them what they would like to see in a product.
Using that feedback, build to a working alpha product. It doesn’t have to be pretty (and in most cases, it really shouldn’t be), but bring that product to the customers from your interviews and ask them to play with it. Observe how they use it, what features they use (and don’t use), and what features they would like to add.
Once they have a clean understanding of the value proposition you are offering – ask them how much they would be willing to pay monthly for this product. Chart all of this data in database and graph the results. From the graphical results, you should be able to find clusters of pricing points for different user types for use to determine your pricing.
Then go back and develop into a cleaner working Beta product – bring it back to the customer again and go through the same steps as above. This time, ask for a nonbinding letter of intent that says if you build the product – the customer would purchase it. Though its nonbinding, a letter of intent is a great signal that customers are truly interested in purchasing your product and can be used to help close future deals.
Finally, after completing all of the previous steps, launching your product becomes a far simpler process. In addition to already having a group of people who intend to buy your products - because they were part of the product development process and feel an affinity to your product - they will want to tell their industry friends – helping sell your product and build your brand.
Hope this helps – feel free to follow-up if you need additional detail<
To start, take 3 hours a day and just call potential customers. Talk to them about your idea, talk to them about their pain points, talk to them about their workflow, and ask them what they would like to see in a product.
Using that feedback, build to a working alpha product. It doesn’t have to be pretty (and in most cases, it really shouldn’t be), but bring that product to the customers from your interviews and ask them to play with it. Observe how they use it, what features they use (and don’t use), and what features they would like to add.
Once they have a clean understanding of the value proposition you are offering – ask them how much they would be willing to pay monthly for this product. Chart all of this data in database and graph the results. From the graphical results, you should be able to find clusters of pricing points for different user types for use to determine your pricing.
Then go back and develop into a cleaner working Beta product – bring it back to the customer again and go through the same steps as above. This time, ask for a nonbinding letter of intent that says if you build the product – the customer would purchase it. Though its nonbinding, a letter of intent is a great signal that customers are truly interested in purchasing your product and can be used to help close future deals.
Finally, after completing all of the previous steps, launching your product becomes a far simpler process. In addition to already having a group of people who intend to buy your products - because they were part of the product development process and feel an affinity to your product - they will want to tell their industry friends – helping sell your product and build your brand.
Hope this helps – feel free to follow-up if you need additional detail<
