What ‘idea’ person hasn’t been disappointed at some point when they realized their idea was good (acknowledged as ‘good’ by others as well), but not ‘absolutely necessary’?
I once had an invention that I thought for sure was going to make me a rich woman and an early retiree! Due to the above predicament, this invention was shelved indefinitely. From time to time I think about it, especially when people lament the problem that my invention could potentially solve for them.
One of the first steps might be to: Revisit your positioning of the service/product offering to make absolutely sure you have covered all angles in which the client might view it as a no-brainer, must-have, low-risk purchase.
Beyond obvious steps like the one above, here are the choices that I felt I had when it came to my own invention. My engineering client in Part I had some of these same options to ponder:
#1. Research any and all options to enhance the product/service so that it becomes more of a necessity to potential buyers.
#2. Be satisfied with a smaller pool of buyers, knowing that the prospect pool itself will be quite large, but the buyers pool within will be small. This will mean lots of extra marketing to locate the minority within the buyer pool that is willing to invest in your service/product.
#3. Re-purpose the service, design, technology, idea, product and apply it to something or someone that really does need it. Must have it.
#4. Reach out to your entire network about the good service/product offering, even beyond your targets. Hold focus groups to see if the idea sparks intrigue from others. Rather than keeping it proprietary, as we tend to want to do with something we have created that we think is amazing, you might as well make it public. Think of it this way; it’s already not selling in the current scenario. What do you really have to lose?
Again, I’d really welcome any and all thoughts, insights, comments, ideas from my readers on this topic.
