OK, so you have a great idea. What creates value is understanding your client's needs -- not your engineer's ideas -- from the beginning of the process. If you cannot answer this question with "because," you are thinking from your developer's perspective, not your customer's. Spend time with your customers because knowing your customer creates a valuable feedback loop in case there are issues with your product. Writing and collaboration allows you to to get better at relating your product to the customer. Engage in public speaking opportunities. Do you express your ideas in an engaging way? How is your body language communicating your vision and building customer trust? Once you are comfortable speaking publicly, you will be forced to be compelling about your company and your product. Communications with the consumer need to be ongoing and engaging, and when they are, you will find better success for your product, company, and vision.
It doesn’t matter how great your product is if you can’t explain it to others.
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In Silicon Valley, there is no dearth of seemingly great ideas. However, as tech founders our creativity, vision and drive often prevents us from effectively communicating our idea’s value to our target customers. Becoming an effective communicator is not only helpful — it is essential for taking a startup from incubator conception to widespread success.
Wear your customer’s shoes.
To change your frame of mind, start thinking like your customer.
OK, so you have a great idea. You’ve logged hundreds of hours coding with your engineering team, hashing out its functionality. Now you’ve launched, and you’re expecting customers to excitedly purchase your product — but instead your would-be customers aren’t buying it and maybe even seem confused by it altogether. Sound familiar?
The underlying problem is that you think your great idea is also a value proposition. It’s not. What creates value is understanding your client’s needs — not your engineer’s ideas — from the beginning of the process. For instance, imagine that your product predicts the buying patterns of shoppers at retail stores. If you pitch your product by emphasizing its data mining capabilities, new technology features, innovative processes, etc., the potential customer won’t understand how that is valuable to his or her business. You instead have to think from the customer’s perspective — in this case, business bottlenecks, such as inventory lags. Lead with questions, not tech geek enthusiasm.
According to University of Florida’s MECLABS — the world’s largest choice-theory research institute — your value proposition argument needs to lead with “because” in order to answer this central question: “If I am your ideal customer, why should I buy from you instead of any of your competitors?” If you cannot answer this question with “because,” you are thinking from your developer’s perspective, not your customer’s.
Have a high-touch relationship with your customer.
Working in your comfort zone won’t attract customers — engaging with them on their terms will.
Spend time with your customers because knowing your customer creates a valuable feedback loop in case there are issues with your product. Ben Silbermann, the co-founder and CEO of Pinterest, considers this approach the key to his app’s success. According to a recent New York Times profile, he “dedicates an outsize amount of time to meeting with Pinterest…
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