Taking your product to market is an important step for every startup. It is the moment when you can first receive broad customer feedback and properly test the product that you have been diligently developing. When taking a product to market it is important to define and follow a detailed go-to-market strategy.
To make sure you do it right avoid these mistakes.
Poorly defined customer profile.
If you go to market without a clear understanding of who your ideal customer is you will end up targeting the wrong people. Your go-to-market strategy should include a customer profile that includes size, revenue, employee count and country. You should also have a clear understanding of the roles you are targeting within the company. Who are the users and who makes the purchasing decision.
Targeting the wrong market segment.
Your target market consists of multiple market segments. Positioning yourself by targeting the wrong market segment is a big mistake. You need to carefully find your market position and focus your go-to-market strategy on that. For example, will you be the lowest cost or a premium product? Will you target smaller customers or mid-size and enterprise customers?
Forgetting their product why.
Losing focus on your unique value proposition once your product is in the market will likely see your strategy fail. When taking your product to the market always stay true to your why.
Choosing the wrong sales strategy.
There are 2 strategies you can adopt to sell your product to the market. Product led and sales led. Choosing the wrong sales strategy will significantly impact your product’s success.
Too much focus on getting new customers.
Customer acquisition is meaningless if those customers are not activated, engaged and retained. Make sure acquisitions are becoming activations and then encourage those loyal customers to refer their friends.
Not selling based on benefits.
People and businesses don’t purchase things for the features they have but for the benefits and value they provide. Stay focused on selling based on the value to the customer and not the benefits.
Focusing on the wrong metrics.
Startups are renowned for either tracking every KPI imaginable or none. You need to be tracking metrics but not too many. Focus on one “North Star metric” and then 3-4 main KPIs.
An ineffective pricing strategy.
The same product priced differently can have very different levels of success in the market. Ensure your pricing is aligned to the value you are delivering for your customer. Don’t forget lowering prices is not the only option, quite often raising them can be just as successful.
TAKEAWAY: Avoiding these 8 mistakes when taking your product to the market will substantially increase the chances of it being well received. Very few startups get more than one chance to go to market so make sure you do it right the first time.
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