Creating the Sellable before Selling

There are few things more difficult than trying to sell the unsellable.

When I coin the word “unsellable,” I am talking about cheap, tacky, useless, unhelpful, items or ideas or services that will not satisfy the buyer. A lot of unsellables exist today to haunt consumers across the world: from shoes that tear easily to headphones that break in a few weeks to a teacher who cannot teach a class. Our world is wrought with disappointment.

It is easy, once you have created an idea and a pitch to share the idea–to jump right into the selling process. Perhaps you are already building a prototype or a social media base to sell your product.

If so, you’re skipping a step in the process of sales.

Before selling something, it is your ethical duty to your customer to make sure that the product or idea or service that you have is, in fact, sellable. Here are a few ways to do consumer research to reach this conclusion:

• Focus groups. Get a group together of five or six individuals who are in your target market and come up with a series of questions. Ask them to be honest and to share ideas with how to improve your product.
• Interviews. Take some time to interview people who encapsulate your ideal customer. Ask them specific questions like: Why would you purchase this product? Would your friends purchase this product? What is most important to you about this product>
• Polls. If you want a larger sample, sending out a survey or a poll with a handful of questions is also an excellent way to see if your idea is sellable.
• Market research. Spend some time on sellable to see if any similar products/ideas have been created. What makes yours special? How is yours reliable?

Once you have something that is sellable, selling itself will be much easier.

Happy selling!