Page 105 - 6 Secrets to Startup Success

84 6 SECRETS TO STARTUP SUCCESS

ness. As we saw in Chapter Two, your attachment to a cool business
concept can amplify your inner world of belief and optimism so much
that you lose your objectivity about the needs, desires, and fears of
prospective customers and move forward with a product that nobody
wants.

The best possible antidote is to bring a strong market orientation
to your new venture. A market orientation will immunize you against
one of the most dangerous effects of the passion trap: your blind faith
that customers will believe in your product simply because you do.
And although it won’t guarantee that you’ll immediately find the per-
fect market for your idea, a healthy market orientation will dramati-
cally improve your odds of finding a ready base of customers to sustain
your startup.

What is a market orientation? I’ve found that market-oriented en-
trepreneurs do three things to ensure that their passion connects with
ample opportunity:

1. They obsessively emphasize the market and the customer. This
is a mindset issue. How do you think about your business relative
to the customers you serve? Are you determined to build your business
from the outside in? Are you starting with the market, and developing
your business from there, or are you a “product in search of a market”?

2. They strive to know their markets and customers. How fully do
you understand your customers, their needs and preferences, and the
problems you are solving for them? How will you continue to improve
your knowledge over time?

3. They execute on the market opportunity. How will you success-
fully market and sell your offerings? What kind of sales engine is re-
quired for success? Do you really understand how customers experience
your products and services, and what kind of value is created for them?

Through the rest of this chapter, I will further define these three
strategies to ensure that you find and connect with customers who
are just as passionate about your offerings as you are. Then, I’ll share
a set of questions for giving your startup idea a market scrub to scru-
tinize your concept in the bright light of the marketplace.

American Management Association • www.amanet.org