In a recent article in “Venture Beat”, Venture capitalists (aka institutional investors who hold an impressive amount of cash) talk about their experiences of getting bored of reading presentations from businesses that are seeking funding.
Three things we can take from their experiences:
1 “Fancy” Marketing and Sales Strategies Are Underrated
If you don’t have an impressive and innovative idea about how to present an item to the marketplace, do not spend too much time thinking about “fancy” marketing and sales strategies. Instead, focus on the two other aspects we’ll be discussing during this post (market size and the use case).
The presentation of marketing and sales strategies usually involves the presentation of generic numbers that demonstrate that similar businesses or products have had the same results in the past and present in your field and that using the same strategy can work for you.
It’s not always a good idea because your product likely isn’t on the marketplace yet (or at least not on a massive scale), and there’s a chance that there are many different hurdles that competitors using similar strategies may have overcome already.
Instead of getting too deeply into numbers that won’t matter anything to your investors, brainstorm some simple and efficient marketing and sales strategies that may not appear “fancy” on the surface; however, they will do the job and increase the chances of selling your products.
Additionally (and particularly with venture capitalists), the most common thing that happens is that they will be the ones who recommend specific strategies or employ experts to help. Don’t waste your time trying to appear like an expert in marketing and sales.
Be sure to convey your understanding of the importance of this; however, If you’re not a business major or have no experience, don’t make an effort to sound intelligent; however, instead, remain practical and focused. Sometimes, the most basic and “primitive” looking strategies may be those that actually perform since they likely work for the product or service you offer.
2. Focus on user-cases instead of too many technical details.
This is especially true for companies that develop software or other technology-related products. Many times, they get caught in trying to come up with the best solution in advance instead of just creating one, failing that they learn from and then moving on to the next version of the product.
What makes it difficult is when you’ve spent months, weeks, even years trying to find an answer and then finally share all your findings in a tidal wave of technical details… only to discover that there’s no use-case that your item is addressing.
Who will be using your product, and what problems is it solving? If you don’t have at a minimum one case of a user, it’s challenging to promote your product. And creating an effective sales and marketing plan for a product that doesn’t have users is harder even or even useless.
Therefore, before you waste all of your time trying to figure out the technical aspects, consider:
What do you mean by it?
What is it that they do?
Who could benefit from it? (can be multiple user groups, but it must be at minimum one!)
What are the best ways to use it? (in what circumstances, when and where, etc.)
What is the reason they would need it? What is the problem it will solve?
And why should they purchase my product over others?
If you can answer those questions and others similar to those should give you an idea of what an excellent user-centred case could appear to be… And no, you and your coworkers aren’t actually users. You may be like those who aren’t, but others aren’t necessarily able to meet identical expectations or needs as you do.
3. What is the size of your market potential?
There could be a case for an idea for a user case; however, it’s evident that there aren’t that many within the same group who would utilize your product. It’s not worthwhile for an investor to invest in something that has a tiny market and has little room for expansion?
It’s probably Not.
This doesn’t mean that you need to eliminate everything and throw your plans to the wind. It’s just that you’ll need to think more about ways you can improve your product (or develop several different versions) to reach a larger market, ideally one with ample room for growth with the hope of millions and millions of potential buyers.
Conclusion
Before diving into too many details about business strategy and technology, determine what you’re offering or offers and what the possible scenarios for users you can imagine could be. If you find that the outcome is the result of a specific target market, continue exploring and being creative in figuring out how to expand the reach of your product to ensure that it is able to be utilized within a larger market. It is able to accommodate a wide range of users and provides a fantastic chance to grow and earn profits.