Every entrepreneur wishes to build a successful business. Journey starts with finding great product ideas and evaluates its viability through market research. Based on the initial research about customer, market as a whole and competition, entrepreneurs build products that they believe will be appealing to the market but the fact is 90% of startups fail.
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A well-researched product and business model is the key to success but testing and improving it is decisive between failure and success. Gathering Customer Insight and adjusting your business model according to it, is what makes a business successful. Your sales team can be of strategic importance to deliver the insight since they are the closest to the market and well placed to derive and deliver the insight.
However, it is equally important to understand what insight is of strategic importance and how to gather it from the sales team through discussion and analytics. It is also important that information should be
organized to make it actionable.
Market Segmentation
Entrepreneur’s first focus should be to identify the early adopter business segment that is completely ready for your solution including features, pricing, packaging etc… If you have precisely identified your early adopter segment and adjusted your model to their needs then you are well on your path for early success.
a. Is your sales team facing challenges in engaging prospects? Or
b. Do they have trouble with maintaining prospect’s interest and converting them even after generating enough marketing leads?
c. Your sales team members consistently mention to you that prospect is interested and delighted but you don’t find real business coming in?
I have seen managers relating it to team skills but this can be an early sign that your target audience might just not be ready for your solution. Your market research may confirm that they may have a need for it but realizing the need might require you to invest efforts through thought leadership and content marketing before you can penetrate the market.
This can be done if you have resources, expertise, time and funds but if any of it is missing then it’s a clear message that you should shift your focus to the segment that is already matured and ready. This will help you focus on the right customer segment.
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