When no one shows up to your party

It’s every business owner's nightmare.

You spend your precious time and hard-earned money bringing a product to life, only to be met by -

Nothing except the chirping of crickets.

Complete indifference.

If you're like a lot of new entrepreneurs, you started off with a great idea.

Driven by passion and possibility, you've invested countless dollars and hours into making your thing “real.”

Friends and family tell you what a great idea it is.

They'd LOVE to have one!

And when your website is finally live, or when you hold the "thing" in your hand for the first time, it can be an overwhelming emotional experience.

The culmination of so much effort.

But when you launch it, no one shows up.

Not even your mom.

Just crickets.

Believe me, I know how painful and discouraging this is.

It's happened to me more than once.

Thankfully, launches don’t need to be white-knuckled dice rolls.

My best advice is to build an audience of ideal customers first, involve them in the product development phase, then launch to them.

(If this sounds confusing, take a look at my last post.)

But there’s another (faster) way, if you’re willing to pay for it.

It lets you find out IF people are willing to pay for your product idea, WHO they are, and HOW MUCH they are willing to pay for it.

You can test targeting, marketing and messaging angles and craft the combo that converts.....before you even commit to creating the product.

You can incorporate real time feedback into product development.

Even collect revenue and buying commitments from interested buyers before you place an order with a manufacturer.

Rather than gambling thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on a dice roll, why not invest in stacking the deck in your favor?

This works for brand new products and brands as well as established businesses.

This also works whether you sell on Amazon, Etsy, or your own website.

The method I’m describing is called a Reservation Funnel, and it has been used in the crowdfunding industry for years.

(Read a very good blog article about Reservation Funnels from one of their pioneers, Launchboom.)

But even if you’re not planning on running a Kickstarter or Indiegogo, this method can be used effectively if you need to do some product validation + list building, fast.

Yes, even if you’re selling on Amazon.

(Hit reply or comment if you want me to do a future post specifically about Reservation Funnel + Amazon.)

Never fall flat on your face again.
Validate first.

Rooting for you,

Greg

P.S. Hey Premium subscribers, I’ve got the results of the poll I sent you last week-

Subscribe to Founders pricing to read the rest.