INDEED, THE 15/85 RULE: EARLY ADOPTERS AND MAINSTREAM BUYERS
If you want to build predictable revenue, you need to keep your customers happy and keep them returning. FaceValue Application, the Purchase Generator, helps you to load the customer details into CRM, automates the messages, and keeps a constant watch on the customer responses.
You do not get into correct hyper growth mode until you can get beyond your networks and market to 'regular people.' When people get it, trades are simple. When they don't, it is hard, and maybe you are stuck in trading on the high-trust side of the Arc of Attention.
If you want to benefit from things like referrals and risk-taking Early Adopters, you don't want to be dependent on them for growth because you will plateau. You can't scale if you can sell only to Early Adopters.
Pay attention to these points.
- You are an early-stage company trying to get to or past your first million in revenue.
- You have been growing through word of mouth and inbound marketing, but now you want to get more aggressive.
- You are starting a new marketing initiative, event at a Big Co-usually with a new product or target market.
When growing a company, there is a significant milestone in getting your first 10-20 paying consumers for a new product or target market.
When you are marketing to friends of friends, or you are a startup, you are still part of the involving 15% club. You have not "crossed over" until someone from Iowa buys your stuff.
The feedback from these Early adopters is more positive and generally does not reflect that of the general masses, which is the other 85%. They are willing to jump through more hoops and tend to be more tech-savvy or risk-friendly, giving you inaccurate positives about the market's reaction to your product.
They are willing to push hard within their company to get it done on their initiative. But when you depend on these people to land deals, it limits you. They are hard to find.
Mainstream Buyers Are Different
Early Adopters are not like the rest of the much bigger market-that 85% of the world who don't know you, are not like you and don't like to take risks. The Mainstream Buyer only interested in your product because they have a problem they need to solve. They or their team members need a lot of guidance, frequently repeated.
With the help of Early Adopters, it is impossible to grow fast because there are not enough of them. Same as Mainstream Buyers grow fast, but it is hard to at first because they are more demanding. Internal trading in the Mainstream Buyer is possible, but it heavily relies on you to help them. Moreover, in Early Adopter, the documents may or may not required, but concrete results are needed in Mainstream documents.
Another thing, the Early Adopter will work out the details during implementation. Mainstream Buyers need every question answered before they buy. Mainstream also cares a lot about what other people are doing, and Early Adopter doesn't care about what other people are doing and what they think.
The Challenge
You have been exchanging with people who are extra-trusting in working with your new thing. When you try marketing to Mainstream Buyers, it is incredibly frustrating because they buy differently from your first consumers.
Mainstream Buyers buy only real things. They need everything spelled out, what they want, expected results, the time frame, cost, risks, and steps. It is a lot more work you to figure out all the tools they need to trade and justify the purchase internally.
Early Adopters need some of this as well, but they tend to be entrepreneurial and know how to push and sell internally to make things happen. They are not demanding.
“Just Show Me”
Mainstream Buyers often will go to your website and contact you for inquiries. They want you to explain things to them with a demo over the phone; they want more support from people. Because they are less risk-tolerant and they work in complex organizations.
When you find ways to systematically-seeing six months of month-over-month growth in qualified leads-you, you are approaching hyper growth territory.
Looking for an easy way to understand your customers?
Use the Customer Survey feature in the FaceValue Application to send out relevant survey questions. You can easily use the survey answers to analyze the response, cross-verify with the customer information and gain vital information about your customers. You can do all of it and much more from FaceValue. Want to know more about what you can do? Try FaceValue now.
This blog is excerpted from: ‘From Impossible to Inevitable: how hyper-growth companies create predictable revenue’ co-authored by Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin.
Break your revenue records. The Silicon Valley’s 'Growth Bible' makes very clear how to get to hyper-growth and the work needed to actually get there.
Try FaceValue now and get for FREE the bestseller 'From Impossible to Inevitable: How Hyper-Growth Companies Create Predictable Revenue'. Try It Now.
