One of my (good) habits at work is watching deal notes to see why we’re winning or losing customers - it’s a great way to keep a pulse on what’s actually happening in the market vs pitching ideas in your cushy product strategy circle (where there are no sales quotas or churn events).
This is great, though I’ve always wondered why everyone says “timing” is important (unless, it’s qualified by a definition, which you added).
Timing isn’t the important thing, there’s no “good time” inherently for anything. However, when you have a perfect storm of customer pain, differentiators and GTM strategy, that’s when it’s a good “time” to ship. And that could be in 1975, 2022 or 2050. So it’s not timing per se, it’s the underlying factors that create the right environment for launch.
Hi, Ibrahim. It's great to have more people thinking about solving customer problems earlier in the product development process. I think the three questions you posed would be familiar to most people in sales (and probably those in marketing, too); it's the way most sales funnels work.
Another way to think about the problem, is as a 2x2 where the vertical axis has "Customers Recognise they Have a Problem" at the top, and "Customers Do Not Recognise They Have a Problem" at the bottom. That axis relates to your first question (why buy anything)? Then on the horizontal axis starting with the left: "Customers Are Not Looking For A Solution", with "Customers Are Looking for A Solution" at the right". This mostly relates to your third question. Then in the top right quadrant, you position your solution in a category for customers that recognise they have a problem, and are looking for a solution. For the other quadrants, you can use different tactics to help move customer toward the top right.
This is great, though I’ve always wondered why everyone says “timing” is important (unless, it’s qualified by a definition, which you added).
Timing isn’t the important thing, there’s no “good time” inherently for anything. However, when you have a perfect storm of customer pain, differentiators and GTM strategy, that’s when it’s a good “time” to ship. And that could be in 1975, 2022 or 2050. So it’s not timing per se, it’s the underlying factors that create the right environment for launch.
well said!
Hi, Ibrahim. It's great to have more people thinking about solving customer problems earlier in the product development process. I think the three questions you posed would be familiar to most people in sales (and probably those in marketing, too); it's the way most sales funnels work.
Another way to think about the problem, is as a 2x2 where the vertical axis has "Customers Recognise they Have a Problem" at the top, and "Customers Do Not Recognise They Have a Problem" at the bottom. That axis relates to your first question (why buy anything)? Then on the horizontal axis starting with the left: "Customers Are Not Looking For A Solution", with "Customers Are Looking for A Solution" at the right". This mostly relates to your third question. Then in the top right quadrant, you position your solution in a category for customers that recognise they have a problem, and are looking for a solution. For the other quadrants, you can use different tactics to help move customer toward the top right.
Here is my crudely drawn diagram: https://s3.amazonaws.com/shared-ha.rley.org/buying_funnel.jpg
I really like your quadrant visual - mind if I add it to the article and credit you?
That would be great. Thanks!