Selling to a potential customer when you have only a vague sense of their needs

Until there is a product to offer, time just needs to be spent listening to the problems of these potential customers. There shouldn't be any solutions offered at this point, just listen and take note. Asking when they are most busiest during the year - and why. Even what processes they have in their business and how long they take. Learn, learn, learn. Let them talk, they are so used to being sold to.

When a solvable problem is found, the customer should be asked what solution they can envisage, they don't always know exactly - but it leads you in a better direction. An application isn't always the solution.

If these problems can be solved with consulting - that's fine, it's paid product discovery. Over time, when speaking with the same type of customers these problems will repeat and there will come a point where the company can build a solution that can be re-sold over and over.

Is it a bad idea to sell to a potential customer when you know high-level topics of interest to the customer, but you lack good info on what the customer's pain points are, and therefore you do not know what they truly need?

No. That's why you have sales meetings with the customer - to work out exactly what their problems are (and how they think about these problems/potential solutions you could sell them on).

More background: I'm with a small startup, and the CEO/chief marketer is desperately trying to snag a paying customer.

Uh-oh, major red flag alert. If there's a team, and that team already has titles/a CEO, they really should already have customers. Or a crazy technical product, like a rocket.

Prior to the meeting, he also wants to a brand new demo covering a complex business management topic, even though there is good reason to believe the potential customer already has a solution, and he has no knowledge of what their solution is.

Reading between the lines, it sounds like there may be some friction between yourself and the CEO (not necessarily related to the topic at hand). Alternatively, maybe you just don't have the full picture. Not knowing what your role at the startup is, I'm hesitant to suggest that is the CEO's failing. But I definitely think it's something you should chat to him about and clear up. In a non-confrontational manner.

Needless to say, if your assumptions are true, this probably isn't a great move on the CEO's side.

I think the CEO is more consulting/contract oriented than focused on building a product that could be applicable to multiple customers.

Again, not knowing the product/area you're working in (and assuming these are large clients you are selling to) this could be a good approach. Better to make a niche audience love you than a large audience kinda like you (as Paul Graham said).

Being more on the analytical side than the sales side, this plan of attack does not sit well with me. I understand you have to sell, and that can mean selling even when the real product is not yet built, but I feel like this is a case where the attempt to make a sale is too desperate, the needs of the customer have not been researched well enough, and if the customer does buy, the "product" will be more of a contracting/consulting gig than a repeatable product.

This is a really difficult one for me. On the one hand, I do think that (for the first few sales where there's no market fit yet) it's clever to take a more consultant-y approach, really learn about your prospective customer (via sales meetings) and then build a product/provide a service which solves their problem. Ideally, you're thinking of how to productise and resell this product/service to other, similar, customers as you are building.

Yet on the other hand, I'm really not positive about a startup with a team and CEO already in place, but no concrete product/problem to solve and no paying customers. In your position, I'd definitely be asking myself tough questions about the quality of my team, leadership and strategic planning.

Good luck!

I was the product guy at a funded startup for 5 years, and faced this situation all the time. It was especially true in the early stages of the product, when we didn't have a clear enough sense of the product-market fit but needed to drive revenue anyways. I also have a consulting background prior to that, so i hear ya :)

I seems from your description that you are still trying to define your product offering and don't have a developed product yet. I'm also going to assume that you will not have the time or the resources to completely research the client's current needs/gaps before your demo. If that's truly the situation, then I would view this demo as a learning opportunity, present everything you have and see what sticks with the client. Worst case, they will throw you out of the conference room and never let you back in again. That will essentially tell you that nothing stuck, and you are on a 100% wrong path at least as far as this client is concerned. Most business clients I have come across are not always looking for a product to buy - rather a solution that addresses their problems. So, utilize this time to listen to the clients. There is nothing unethical or wrong in pre selling a product that doesn't exist yet, as long as you are honest about it and set the right expectations with the clients. Good luck!