Build, Sell, Sell, Sell – Build, Sell, Sell, Sell – REPEAT

I have been learning a lot lately in building and modifying some businesses I am fully engaged in.  I have also had some good meetings with other entrepreneurs wanting to discuss their growth strategy.  I am not sure if I have blogged about this before, so I apologize for any redundancy in advance if so.  Anyhow, in working daily on my own businesses, and meeting with others on occasion to discuss theirs, I am constantly reminded (and continually contemplating) the title of this post: Build, sell, sell, sell – build, sell, sell, sell – Repeat.  Sounds kind of simple, right?  Well, I think it actually is.  The funny part is human nature and conventional thinking are usually a different. They encourage:

Build, build, build, build, build, build, sell.  Build, build, build, sell.  Build, build, build – run out of money because all ‘build’ no ‘sell’.

Why is that? I run into a lot of businesses that are near the end of the aforementioned cycle.  They have a product, but not enough sales to garner investment/debt needed to continue.  Coincidentally, what do you think they need the money for?  Sales.  Ironically, sales are what creates less of a need for money – so it’s a vicious cycle and one that you should avoid from the get-go.  My CPA, and now personal friend, often reminds me of the fact that “sales cure a multitude of ills.”  So true.  If you are building a product or service business, you have to have SOMETHING to show your customer.  But it doesn’t need to be the fully featured version of your product and/or service.  It needs to be enough to get them interested, perhaps enough to get some of them to buy.  Once you get enough to buy and/or trial your product/service you can get the potential paying customers to TELL YOU what they want.  It’s okay to ask them directly – “tell me what you would be willing to pay for – what is it that we could to that you would pony up cash to get?”.  Some won’t give you a straight answer for fear this loaded question locks them into a purchase.  But if you couch it right, you can get great R & D feedback on the backs of the same people that will be the most likely to actually write you a check.

How important is that?  Vitally important.  If you cannot get your target customers to pay you at some stage of your process, you are dead.  D-E-A-D.  You do not have a business without paying customers, right?  So instead of spending 1 year and $200K going thru the old model, how about spending 6 months and $30K trying the the other model?  You will know sooner rather then later if you have something that can bring in more then it costs.  Again, simple – but vital.  That’s me in a nutshell – K.I.S.S. (I’m the last ‘S’ in K.I.S.S.).

Does this apply to your business?  What good and/or bad experiences have you had with the different approaches I describe?