Stop Overthinking…Execute
I have a friend that created a product and for the sake of inspiration and motivation I hope he reads this article. Too often I meet people with seemingly awesome ideas or products they create and fail to execute them into the actual market. In some cases it’s about perfecting the product, or refining the idea, but in the end, ideas are shit if you don’t execute.
We’ve all been there!
An idea that we know is too good to keep to ourselves and we tell a friend. In most cases, people share in your enthusiasm and you both sit there talking about all the possibilities. It’s fun for about five minutes that it’s starts to become destructive. I would argue that it’s a destructive habit to talk about future plans surrounding an idea because you never discuss actual substance. I’ve been there and I know most of my readers have too.
Now back to my friend, he has created a cool, cost effective product that actually serves a purpose and fails to execute it into the market. I continue to suggest that the best critics are people and the only way to get the opinions of people is to put it out.
All questions get answered by putting your product out into the market.
1. What should I charge?
This is absolutely easy to determine, because you know your actual physical cost to develop. Let’s say it costs you $10 to make and competitors sell similar products for $40, try selling it for $40 and know that you can’t sell it for less than it costs to make it. The beauty of the market is that it will buy if the value matches the cost. If you don’t see sales like you expect for $40, make it $35, $30, $25 and so on till you start to get a positive response from the market. Lets be clear, when I’m talking about the “market”, I’m talking about people; i.e., the consumer.
2. Who is my target market?
When you’re marketing your product, make your target broad and pay attention. If you’re using Facebook, adwords, etc., there will be analytics associated with these tools and you can begin to paint a picture of who buys your product. This isn’t exactly rocket science folks! if you spend $100 targeting to ages 18–65 and you notice only people that are 25–40 buying, than make your target ages 25–40. Than you if you notice that people are buying in a certain area, or with certain interests, certain levels of income, etc. make the appropriate changes till it’s all locked in.
3. What changes should I make to the product?
This is another simple problem that is solved by actually selling it. Your consumers will be your quality testers because they are actively using it. If there is a consistent number of complaints about a certain feature, focus on that solution and stop re-re-re-re-re-altering your products based on what you think needs to be the focus. This is the fundamental problem with designers gone salesman. They become obsessed with their product and are convinced that it needs to be 100% before they can release it to the market. This is a problem because their 100% might be the markets 70% and their 70% might be the markets 95%.
Never underestimate the power of the market. If you have something developed and you need to get feedback, consider selling it first because ultimately that’s your goal. You will gain valuable feedback, a better understanding of your market and a little cash in the process. Cash is valuable as it goes a lot father when most your questions are answered.
If you’d like to connect or have any questions, I’d love to connect. Here’s how!
