How I systematically tested my target market to finally get a paying customer

Do you really know who your 'best' customer is? I didn't.

TLDR takeaway

1. If you aren't getting traction, think of any other customer group who could potentially want your product. Try going up and down the value chain, i.e. sellers or buyers of your current target.

2. Test a small number from each group with whatever you have now – mockups, prototypes or a demo. Whichever group has the most positive response is your 'best' customer.

3. Pivot your positioning around your new target customer – it may change the problem you're solving, the benefits of your product and your value proposition (you'll hear all these from the mouths of your target customers!)

4. Look for sub-segments in your new customer group and go back to step 2.

It's hard to spot real excitement the first time

I'm building https://perci.ai/, an AI writer that generates product descriptions. It's my first time building something.

I talked to potential customer segments: agencies, entrepreneurs and marketing managers. Marketing managers gave the best response. It wasn't wildly outrageous, but what do I know? It seemed good enough.

And marketing managers made sense to me! I saw plenty of reasons they should want it – no more managing costly freelancers, or worse, doing it themselves. Of course they should want this!

But they just weren't buying. Clearly something was wrong.

Testing for a better customer

It hurt to pull out of marketing mode ('It's already built! I just have to go sell it now!') and retreat back into market research. It felt like I was going backwards.

But talking with @typeofgraphic, we realized that I had tested my AI writer tool with agencies, entrepreneurs and marketing managers, but never writers themselves. I had always assumed that my advantage was helping people to cut out writers, rather than to enable them.

@typeofgraphic proposed a quick test: do 5 demos with marketing managers (my current target) and 5 demos with freelance writers. Whoever responds better is your better customer.

Certain that it would go nowhere I did the demo test anyway, and I was blown away by the response from writers.

Writers were so much more excited than I had expected!

What to do when you find a better customer

I learned that instead of replacing writers, my benefit was to help writers work faster and more creatively.

Suddenly I had an entirely new way to position my tool.

Now instead of helping reduce freelance costs, I was solving writer's block and long hours at the keyboard.

Now instead of helping marketers reduce freelancers (which isn't actually a problem), I was helping freelance writers with a pain they really feel (long hours at the keyboard, lack of inspiration and creative burn out).

Best of all, this is a very quick change. I didn't have to change the tool itself. But I changed who I was talking to and why they would want to use it, which is very quick.

Test again with different niches

Once I learned that writers were a better customer than marketers, I discovered sub-groups of writers: general freelance writers, and Amazon-only writers. So I did another 5-on-5 test with 5 from each group, and learned that Amazon writers were an even better customer group!

So my problems, benefits and value props got even more focused.

Testing different customers pays off

The reason I started these tests was that I couldn't get any traction. Just last week, I finally got my first paying customer.

Woo!

I still have a lot to learn, but I hope this has been helpful for you.

How did you validate your 'best' customer?