THE PRINCIPLE

Preparing your audience helps make them receptive

You may think that perfecting your product or service before approaching your target audience (which might be customers or your boss) is the best strategy, but often it is much more effective to prepare them in advance. If you can also give them a sense of participation, they will be even more receptive.

The fact behind this principle is that however much we like to think of ourselves as forward-looking, innovative risk-takers, most people are scared of change. And if you have come up with something new, it will involve change. That’s why most innovations are resisted. A blogger who identifies himself only as John (at www.indefinitearticles.com) summarised the five stages of innovation as follows (I’m paraphrasing them here):

1. Denial. Saying the new thing will never work.
2. Anger that some people seem to be embracing the change.
3. Bargaining. Trying to figure out a way to accept the change without actually changing.
4. Sadness because you feel too old or not tuned in enough to cope with the change.
5. Acceptance.
   I would add a sixth step:
6. Pretending that you were for it all along.

If you’ve ever tried to introduce change within a large corporation, these steps may seem dispiritingly familiar. Here are three ways you can prepare your target audience for the great new thing you are developing:

1. Make them more aware of the problem that your innovation is designed to solve. For instance, for my Time Management programme, I could send my mailing list a survey of ten questions about their time issues. Do they find it frustrating to deal with email? Do they have any ‘time vampires’ in their lives – people who drain their energy and their time with trivial matters? Do they procrastinate? At this point I’m just gathering data, not trying to sell anything. But when I follow up with an offer of a product that addresses these issues, my target customers will have been sensitised to their need for it.
2. Ask them for input. I could also send my target customers a questionnaire asking them what features they would like to see in a programme on Time Management. Again, at this stage it’s not about selling. But if I later offer them a product that clearly addresses the issues they have raised, they will be more likely to buy.
3. Ask them for feedback. Give them a beta version of your product or allow them to sample your service and ask them what could be improved. When you later offer them the actual product and show that you have incorporated their ideas, they will feel a sense of ownership which, again, will incline them to buy.

While these strategies will help you to sell, they are also extremely valuable in their own right – they help ensure you are designing a product or service that meets the actual needs of your potential customers, not just your perception of those needs. These two benefits make this a crucial part of turning your idea into profitable reality.