I always imagined that coming up with a product or service to sell is the hard part of running a business. I learned the hard way, that this in fact is the easiest part.
When I first started out with my web design and development business, I was enthusiastic and naive. I had an irresistible urge to bring something of my creative abilities to the world, and nothing was going to stand in my way. A lot about how I perceive the world has changed since that time.
For one thing, Webmobyle wasn’t the name I started with. Initially I had named the business Abacus Computers and then changed it to The Point IT, and then Synergy Kinetics, before it finally became Webmobyle.
The reasons for the name changes had a lot to do with the directions I was taking as an individual and also the change in the business model. Perhaps a discussion for another blog post.
For this blog post however, I would like to talk about something which people seldom discuss, which every individual should be aware of when going into business. Businesses don’t fail for lack of product. This is so crucial a point, that if someone had mentioned this to me before, I would have gained traction in business sooner.
So, in my ignorance of this fact, I spent most of my early years striving to create the best services and business processes my low budget could allow, and ensured that the business appeared professional. I spent most of my time crafting the business website, never satisfied with my work, and aiming for perfection, always changing it numerous times.
Do not get me wrong, I do not regret spending a lot of time working on the business and the business processes. There are numerous advantages to this as the business matures. I just wish someone had told me the importance of being able to sell, because no matter how shiny and impressive your business, at the end of the day it has to bring in clients.
I was telling a friend of mine of the need to be able to sell your business, and his response was, “Isn’t it obvious?”. It might seem obvious when I bring it up, but most people going into business do not adequately consider this problem. They think about it, but what is lacking is the depth and emphasis that needs to be placed on marketing and sales.
In the Book Ready.Fire.Aim, Michael Masterson emphasises the importance for a business, particularly a start-up, to focus on its sales strategy. He even goes on to say that selling should make up to 80% of the business’ activities.
Other activities such as making things look good and the nice office building, should come as a tertiary consideration, with product development coming as a secondary consideration.
I think a lack of suitable mentors is what is missing in our communities to foster the growth of successful businesses. A while ago, when I started experiencing a shortage of new leads, and was on the verge of quitting, I turned to reading certain types of books to help me along. That is when I discovered that I should have started solving this problem a long time ago, by dedicating the majority of my time and effort to marketing and sales.
Aiming to produce the perfect product or service is not enough. Our natural way of thinking inclines us to think that, if we build good enough products, or great enough services, then they will practically sell themselves. This is far from the truth. The reality is that there is a lot of work involved, to get your product or service to sell.
The first step in selling a product or service, is getting the word out. You have to find an effective and affordable way, to let your customers know of your great product or service. There are many ways and approaches to doing this, ranging from going door-to-door, to placing posters along the street, to social media, or even pay-per-click advertising. Each approach that you choose has its advantages and disadvantages, as well as cost implications.
There is a problem with assuming that the perfect product or service will always sell. At the end of the day, it’s your customers who have a final say whether your product or service resonates with them, even if they are “perfect” in your eyes.
Supposing you spend thousands or even several million Rand developing a product or service, only to find that no one wants it? It is better to produce a minimum viable product, and improve on it once you get customer feedback.
Discovering that you cannot sustainably find customers to patronage your business can be a devastating feeling, especially when you had such high hopes and dreams. That was what happened to me recently, and I was seriously considering throwing in the towel. Finding the strength to carry on, I am now looking for ways to finding a solution to my predicament.
What is needed in my case, and I think in the case of anyone in business, is to find a suitable way to bring in validated customers, and make sure that the sales process should be repeatable. This is customer development.
This can best be achieved by developing a customer development process, alongside the existing products or services development mechanisms, and giving the customer development process priority in terms of time and allocated resources.
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