Quick And Cheap Tests

Here’s a bullet from a list of business growth recommendations in Management Today.

Find a way of testing out new products, services or markets quickly and cheaply

Whilst primarily aimed at start-up design, this particular pointer has great relevance for more established sales teams.

Your development resource have toiled to produce what they believe buyers want. Marketing have created hooks they feel prospects will lap up. Your delivery machine has plans to get resulting clients smoothly up and running.

Yet these forces often all come together like a sledgehammer to pressure salesteams to race from zero to riches in an instant. Consequently, it’s all systems go in double-quick time. But the deals don’t flow.

I’ve long been an advocate of avoiding the big bang approach that typically occurs when it comes to launching a new product.

I’ve worked around countless new product initiatives over the years. The majority have been with large companies, FTSE100 even, that boast geographically dispersed, highly reimbursed salespeople. It is flabbergasting that they never seem to engage prospects beforehand. The first time the marketplace learns of the ‘saviour’ product is always when their account managers stutter something akin to “…I don’t suppose you’ll be interested in…”.

There are many avenues of priceless pre-launch activity open to those inclined to test first.

There are indeed ‘quick and cheap’ tests out there. You’re best advised to follow them through.