How to I make people feel the urgency?

What happens when everyone understands what your product does but no one seems to think the problem is urgent enough to deal with right now?

Usually, the solution to this problem isn’t to change your market category or even to change your message. It’s definitely not to change your product.

The solution is to change who you are talking to.

If you keep talking to people who understand perfectly what the product does and don’t want it, at least not right now, you need to talk to someone else.

Whether in our private lives or in our business lives, we don’t generally make purchases until we actually think we need something urgently. There is usually some kind of trigger. I had been meaning to buy a flashlight for months, but didn’t do so until I was about to go camping. In another example, I didn’t sort out a mess with my calendar system until I missed an appointment and fixing it became urgent.

If your product makes the most sense for companies that have over 100 developers, it would probably be best practice for fast growing companies to call you when they have 50 developers. In real life, your phone won’t ring until they have 200 developers.

In other words, if people understand what your product does and theorectically want but not enough to give you a check, you should:

• Figure out what triggers make the problem you solve become a hair-on-fire emergency

• Figure out what types of company is like to experience those triggers

• Find a way to contact companies only after they have experienced a trigger.

BTW, I’m doing a webinar on Friday about talking with customers to figure out things like what triggered the purchase. Register here.