What’s the #1 Thing Entrepreneurs and Product Owners Should Stop Doing?

You have successfully developed and launched your product. Congratulations! Now you may be working with initial lead customers or you may be well past that stage, but something is just not right. The sales pipeline is thin, deals are taking forever or aren’t closing, and maybe sales team turnover is high or you’re hearing complaints the product is hard to sell. What is going on!??? This is an all too common a situation for many early stage tech companies and it is often identified as “poor or lack of market traction”. In addition to the symptoms noted above, the condition of “poor market traction” can be experienced in many ways. Here are some examples: Your pilot projects with initial innovator/champions were wildly successful in producing strong business cases. Despite this, you’ve been repeatedly stalled trying to close the deals to have the pilots converted into production systems. You have a deliriously happy initial customer. Other target customers seem less interested. At the outset, your sales close rate was quite high and is now rapidly slowing. So, what is really going on? In fact, each one of the above examples had a unique set of circumstances that were ultimately explained by: A systemic barrier in target organizations that means they only buy that type of solution as an add-on from their primary system vendor Work processes and tools that were unique to that customer and not universally applicable to others in the same industry Business relationships and programs that could not be easily replicated in other regions. Regardless of the cause, the results are poor sales and a barrier to growth. If any of the above seems to match your situation, that brings us to “how to fix” or more accurately, what specific steps should you take to correctly diagnose the problem leading to “how to fix”? This is where a Customer Discovery initiative can generate the insights you need to accurately determine what’s going on and to gather actionable feedback that can lead to a suitable fix. A Customer Discovery process, as we at Evidology Group define it, starts with changing your perspective from what you’re trying to sell to what customers want to buy; it involves using simple templates to articulate your current customer knowledge, then a methodical approach to validating and filling gaps in that knowledge by securing and conducting highly structured “customer conversations”. For more information, I invite you to contact us at the Evidology Group. We’ll share the templates, provide a more detailed description of the process, and a guide on how to structure effective discovery conversations. Of course, if interested, we would be happy to learn about your business, share our experiences, and discuss whether we may be of assistance.

In an earlier blog post, we covered the five major elements of a Customer Discovery Conversation Plan. One of the elements was a Conversation Script. Our clients tell us this script has more value than they ever imagined prior to creating and using one. What exactly is a “script” and why is it needed? Isn’t a simple list of questions sufficient? Briefly, our version of a customer conversation script for concept validation has: A framework of topic areas and their planned order in the conversation Statements to set the context, for discussion, and to transition between topic areas A list of specific questions to be asked under each topic Sure, you could just make a list of questions but here are three reasons why you should consider creating a script: The context you set, the order in which you explore topics, and the way you ask questions can make a huge difference in the relevance and quality of information collected This approach is more likely to foster a true conversation, rather than a transactional Q&A exchange, and one that could become the first of many conversations with that individual Conversations easily go in directions never imagined. Suddenly your time is up and call goals have not been met. A script containing a framework or roadmap makes it easier to keep your goals in mind. So for this post, let’s focus on the starting point – a general-purpose framework you can adapt for conversations based on the evidence you need to collect from each target persona. For each persona and set of conversation goals, develop a targeted script by keeping the topic sequence but removing non-relevant topic areas, adding/deleting/altering the number and type of questions in each area, and updating how you transition from one topic to the next. For example, when talking with end-users about simulation-based training you’re more likely to focus on their priorities and problems: how they do things now (simulators being used), and what capabilities deliver value for them. And when talking with department heads (budget owners) about the same subject, the focus will be on their priorities and problems: how they do things now (how simulation-based training fits within the curriculum), and how they fund and buy these types of things. With that in mind, here’s a master framework you can adapt to your own needs: 1. Conversation Expectations At the outset, you want to take a minute or two (literally) to set up the conversation for success. You want to demonstrate professionalism, establish credibility, and show respect for their time. This section is primarily statement-based where you: Introduce participants on your end and their role in the call (conversation leader, notetaker, observer, etc.) Restate the reasons and objectives for the call to reinforce prior communications leading to this moment Tell the customer what to expect during the call (you’ll make statements, ask a series of questions, etc.) and how their feedback will be used Confirm the available time 2. Customer Profile In this section, you ask questions to understand the scope of their role and responsibilities, about their team – its size and structure, how long they’ve been in that position and/or the industry, etc. Your goal is to understand the basis of each person’s perspective and what might be shaping their feedback. Equally important, you want to be able to identify common characteristics about them and their organizations for creating segment profiles when looking across all conversations for patterns or trends. Additionally, this information informs a more granular Ideal Customer Profile. 3. Problem Importance & Change Motivation Next, start collecting the evidence needed to answer the critical questions driving your conversation plan. We like to start with validating whether the problem you’re trying to solve exists in their mind and where it fits relative to your customers’ perceived priorities, problems, and their urgency to solve the problem. You want to know: The order of magnitude of this issue; is it a 5-out-of-5 burning issue or a 1-out-of-5 nice-to-have? How they measure the impact of this problem being solved or not being solved; the KPI or performance metrics impacted Whether solutions to problems like this get funded 4. Current State Once you know how your target problem fits in their world, it’s natural to shift the conversation to how they do things today, dig a bit deeper into how the problem manifests itself, and what current plans or projects exist to solve the problem. In this section, you uncover critical information such as: Existing tools, systems, and processes Competitive options with associated strengths and weaknesses Current economic impact if not covered earlier Solution compatibility considerations Change management challenges General background for interpreting responses in the next topic area 5. Solution Value Drivers & Differentiators Now with an understanding of the problem from their perspective, how things are being done today, and what’s being considered for the future, the conversation easily shifts to getting feedback on your proposed solution. This part of the conversation is about getting their thoughts on each major capability that makes up your solution. Does each capability have value, how much value, how is that value measured, and which capabilities are more important than others? You want to know the “why” behind their answers and dig into what they believe to be meaningfully different and better than other available options. 6. Future State. After receiving feedback and creating an understanding of your proposed solution, it’s time to probe a bit more on its relevance and overall value by assuming your solution – plus their view of the ideal solution – has been implemented. You want to further uncover the impact on their business, objectives, and goals. 7. Buying Process After validating the target problem and proposed solution, it is critical to gain an understanding of how customers buy. What triggers the buying process, who are all the stakeholders, what decision-making steps do they go through, where does funding come from, how does that process work, and how long does it typically