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5 P's Model

In business schools we all are taught the 4 P's of marketing but, essentially we should start with the most important P that we often think we already know, that is "Problem".

Find Market Problems

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We typically start looking to find market problems from our typical sources of ideas called the noisy 20% list, as a best practice we should never forget to engage with the other important sources listed below that I call the quite 80% list.

"The building is full of product experts. Your company needs market experts"
Typical Sources of Ideas (noisy 20% list)

  • Sales

  • SE/Consultants

  • Development

  • Technical Support

  • User Groups

  • Enhancement Requests

  • Contracts

  • Executives

  • Analysts

Other Most Important Sources  (Find the quite 80% list)

  • Industry Conferences

  • Professional Associations

  • Executive Colleagues

  • Social Networks

  • User Activities (end-user training classes)

Importance of Buyer and User Personas
User Personas

Persona is an archetypal profile about an excellent example in your market.

  • Demonstrate ROI for buyer personas

  • Solve problems for user personas

Personas should be the loudest voice to be heard in an organization, the product manager should be responsible for crystallizing the problems that our personas are facing.

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Get out of the office!

The answer to most of your questions is not in the building.​ You wont learn anything about problems in the market while sitting at your desk

Observe Your Personas:

( all levels - Vendor, Distributor, Seller, Buyer, User, etc.):

  • Start with an open agenda

  • Understand "a day in the life"

  • When do they "pick up a pencil" or utilize another technology?

  • How do they survive without your technology?

  • When in doubt, listening is better than talking

Engage Customers:

  • Let them know you are not selling

  • Ask them how you should deploy resources for next year

  • Show domain expertise for added credibility

  • Keep it informal

Ask Them (open-ended questions)

  • What drives you crazy about your job?

  • What drives your buying decisions?

  • What do you think of my company and product?

  • Who are my competitors, and what do you think of them?

  • What great products have you seen lately?

Proactive Market Research:

  • Assess implementations

  • Measure satisfaction

  • Find unresolved problems

  • Uncover references

Win/Loss Analysis

  • Understand why you're winning and why you're losing

  • Align your selling process to the buying process

  • Evaluate the selling process, not the salespeople

Engage Recent Evaluators

  • Get channel clearance

  • Identify whom to call

  • Wait until the deal is done

Identify, validate and measure to determine how pervasive this problem is. Set aside your opinions and listen to the market to understand the problem.

"Your opinion although interesting is irrelevant."
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