Decision-making made easy – Market Insights for New Start-Ups…

So, you’re interested in venture capital to get your start-up off the ground and running at full pace? You’ve got a belief and a passion in your new product (or service), you know who your target audience is, you know what their emerging needs are, you know how it can help them in their business… you know you’re going to be a success.

But, as with any new business, it can prove to be tricky. There’s a bit of trial and error as you establish yourself,  develop your markets and then go on to exploit them to their full potential.

Understanding what your investor wants is another key consideration. They’re looking at maximizing the return on their investment; and, ASAP. That means you can’t afford to take wrong turns!

Imagine your new product hitting the market, it’s a growth sector and you believe you can clearly differentiate yourself out there. But there’s a few hurdles: you’re “market-making”, you’re evangelising, you’re having to convince the world you have a great proposition; it’s uncharted territory!

So many critical questions and few, hard facts to base your business planning on…

• What are product awareness levels like and how interested are prospects in your product?
• Will you have to educate the market or will they understand your proposition?
• Are there different product needs and uses; and, if so, what do those segments look like?
• What are the specific features/benefits that “trigger” interest in your products?
• How do your prospects currently buy products like yours and what channels to market should you be using?
• What is the optimum pricing for your product?
• And, finally, how big is your true, addressable market?

Perhaps it’s time to consider getting professional market research help and building a low-cost web survey to answer those simple questions. Get them to show you the shape of your market, to identify your key segments and what key features/benefits your prospects are most interested in.

But hold on…you also need to get “inside” the heads of your prospects and understand the “triggers” that will convince and compel them to buy your stuff.

Imagine getting a bunch of prospects in a room and letting them brainstorm about your products, about what they like, about what they don’t like, how it could be changed and improved, about what they’ll need next year that will be different. You even get them to compare your products against your competitors; they start talking about the branding, the straplines, the messaging. They tell you what makes a convincing story, what’s differentiating and why they buy from their current suppliers; and, critically, what would make them change. It’s pretty compelling stuff! Guess what – you’ve just got “inside” the head of your hottest prospects!

To me, as a professional market researcher, it’s a no-brainer. We can quickly understand the structure and fundamentals of your market; and, we can get “inside” the heads of your prospects. Better still, we minimize your exposure to the risks of market-making; we improve your strategy and decision-making processes; and, we lower your sales and marketing expenditures because you get it right first time!

Technology insights & decisions made easy...

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