Customer development as part of building a business is extremely difficult. There are certainly several psychological barriers the entrepreneur should overcome in order to get out of the building and meet his/ her customers in person.
I do not intend to go through these barriers in this post but I would like to focus a little bit more on the excuses they come up in order to avoid the painful process, even though they are aware of the Benefits of Customer Development.
Over the past few years I heard the most amazing reasons for not doing customer development. Amongst them, the most common are:
1. I do not have a clue where to start.
You do not have to start at the beginning. Pick any point of the process and launch. If there are any gaps, you can always go back to fill them up. It is never too late.
2. I do not have anything concrete to sell.
Initially, you just need to test your idea. You should not even attempt to sell anything until you identified the problem and came up with a valid solution. Customer development is part of this problem identification.
3. I am still in the process of finishing my business plan.
Once you finish your business plan, you should set it on fire in an elaborate ritual. A business plan is useful only after you know who your customers are, how many of them will buy your product, at what price. If you do not have this information at hand, you are probably writing a work of fiction.
4. I already know what my future customers would like to buy.
You ASSUME what your customers would like to buy. This assumption needs to be proven through the customer development process. Until that happens do not spend loads of money in chasing chimaeras.
5. My product/ service is not perfect. If my future customers experience or hear about it at such an early stage, my business will get a bad reputation.
If you try to perfect your product, you will lose a lot of money and time on something that may or may not work. The risk you are taking could cost you the business, since the number one reason for a startup’s failure is the eventual lack of funds. Actually, I think that this is The No. 1 Mistake New Entrepreneurs Make.
6. I do not have the time to do the interviews.
Find the time by using time management techniques. If necessary, cut down from other aspects of the business, such as product development.
7. At this early stage, I am afraid none will be interested in my product/ service.
You will not know, if someone is interested or not until you ask.
8. I do not know how to approach the customers.
Take a course in customer development or ask an expert to teach you. I would not advise you to hire a consultant to do the job for you, as this is an invaluable part of the learning experience.
9. I am afraid that the competition will find out about my business idea and copy it.
If the competition is successful, they will keep ignoring you until your idea has been validated. Ideas are ten a penny, anyway. There are probably another thousand people around the globe that came up with the same idea as you have at more or less the same time. Implementation is what counts.
10. I have to plan every one of my steps before I get out of the building.
Just place one foot in front of the other. You do not have to plan everything, especially since your original ideas are certainly going to change as soon as you come in contact with the customer.
11. The idea is not complete yet.
Ideas are fluid; they are never complete or perfect. They change according to the circumstances, the feedback, the environment and a hundred other volatile factors.
12. I do not have the money to pay someone to do market research (that is what customer development is).
If you have more time than money, you should use it to educate yourself in customer development and do it yourself. It may not be perfect but it will be a good start towards the validation of your idea.
13. I am waiting for the economy to turn around, so that I may charge more.
History teaches us that the largest of fortunes have been made during economic crises. Take advantage of the situation and launch your business as soon as possible.
14. I have to find a technical founder first.
You do not necessarily need a technical founder, or indeed many founders. Just make sure you find external collaborators that you trust and can work well together.
I can elaborate a lot more on the above excuses but I will leave at that. Take this article as ‘food for thought’ and try to identify, which of the above limiting beliefs stops you from doing customer development.
For more information on lean startup methodology, you could take a look at my other blog posts.
An Entrepreneur’s (Permanent) Failure
How Can you Come Up with a New Business Idea?
Best Social Media for Lean Startups
Why Personal Branding is Essential for Lean Startups?
Direct Benefits from Customer Development
Simple Pricing Strategies for your Products or Services, the Lean Way
The No. 1 Mistake New Entrepreneurs Make
“How to Get 10000 of Facebook Likes”. Is this the Lean Way to Start a Business?
9 Basic Lean Words you Need to Know.
Lean Methodology and Growth Hacking Combined
If you need more information on the subject, write as an email in the box below and we will be happy to help.
David Telleen-Lawton
Great list!
Fundamentally, I have found one of the primary underlying reasons that customer development is not done is that one does not truly believe it can benefit their business.
I heard a riddle that illustrates this point: If I were to give you a list of names and phone numbers of people who would absolutely buy your product if you contact them, but the names disappear at midnight, then what time this evening would you stop calling them?
Of course, the “perfect” answer is midnight (factoring in other non-business priorities such as family and health). So, why don’t salespeople call every night until midnight, much less during the day, etc….well, because they are not convinced that next call will be a sale.
I find this similar to why some people don’t do something such as customer development/discovery. They are not truly convinced this is a better way than what they are doing.
I try to focus discussions with those who are hesitant to start customer development and customer discovery around on what they are currently working and then turn the discussion around to how customer discover will speed up that process.
The other hurdle I find is that when someone does not know the standard of performance (i.e., the expected action and meaningful reaction), they often stop far short of the threshold of discovery. Not that the threshold is very high, but their inexperience causes them to think they are not learning and they switch paths prematurely.
Lastly, it’s hard work in an area not comfortable for many. Most people have all sorts of excuses to keep working in the areas in which they are comfortable rather than wade into the fog to an unseen destination without a guide.
admin
Thank you David. You are of course right. The biggest problem is that entrepreneurs are not educated enough on the benefits of customer development. Even the term is in most cases alien to them. I will see, if I can write something to clarify at least the value of this process in another post.
As far as hard work is concerned, most entrepreneurs do not shy from putting in long hours, if the target is clear and the steps towards it are well defined.
Neels
Another excuse is the awkwardness, fear, anxiety, whatever you want to call it, of walking up thru the front door like an unsolicited sales person and talking to a complete stranger, trying to sell them a figment of your imagination! I took my very first customer development trip yesterday and despite the fact that I am a marketer, love talking to people and have no fear of talking to strangers, I felt quite awkward,. But it took just a couple of these conversations to make me feel comfortable. I had such a productive day yesterday talking to my potential customers that I cant wait for my next trip.
admin
My best advice for this type of akwardness is to start the interviews with friends and family. You should not use this data but it will definitely help you to break the ice. Well done for conquering your fears!
DTLinSB
For others that feel like Neels did originally before a few interviews, I’d suggest…
The key is NOT to “walk up like an unsolicited sales person and selling them the figment of your imagination”.
Instead, approach them explaining that you are looking for folks who have a particular problem because you are working on a solution. Discuss the problem with them (NOT YOUR SOLUTION) at the beginning (that is, get the facts) and then if it makes sense (because they have the problem and it’s costing them a bunch not to solve it) start to tell them about the solution you are developing (now opinion…you think you can solve it based on their facts). Go on from there.
Think like a detective, not like the caricature of a salesperson. The best salespeople are detectives, not ones to yap about their figments…
admin
Thanks for this advice. You obviously have a lot of experience on the subject. I took the liberty of reading your blog and I found it very helpful. If you want, you could stick the url in one of your comments for my readers to take a look at
Alternatively, if you would like to write a guest post in my blog, I would greatly appreciate it.
6 Lessons Learnt from Customer Development Interview Says :
[…] 1) If I can afford to fail, I am more likely to postpone daunting tasks I have been postponing this scary task with lots of excuses; such as “I should focus on studying today” and “I don’t think the people I want to interview will be there today (I know this is lame but I really came up with this excuse)”. It is very easy to come up with a list of excuses not to interview people. […]