How you treat your first few customers is often the difference between success and failure for new technology companies.
I show this video to every Marketing team I lead. Usually in the first week.
Going from the "first lone nut" using your product, to getting product adoption by a crowd of happy customers is an art and a science.
Books like "Crossing the Chasm", the "Tipping Point" and the "Diffusion of Innovations" are a must read for every marketer. They explain the theories and mechanics behind technology marketing to build a new category or a new customer following. "Raving Fans" is another great book.
This video, however, tells the other part of the story. In a few minutes.
It takes guts to be a category creator. It takes courage and perseverance to stick with a great idea and get better and stay excited until other people start to jump in.
See for yourself:
To recap, what's the "job to be done" for each of your customers?
- Customer #1: Be easy to follow. What they do has to be almost instructional. Help your first customer "show" others what they do.
- Customer #2: Show everyone else how to follow. The first following customer turns the first customer into a leader.
- Customer #3: From two lone nuts to a team of 3. Three is a crowd, and the crowd is news.
The next customers form the "tipping point". The customers that came before them have taken the biggest risk.
Lessons:
- Nurture your first followers as equals. Make everything about the movement, not about your product or service
- Be Public, be easy to follow
- First followers are just as important, if not more important, as the first leader.
- Again, make sure the public sees all three customers. They must see the "movement. These are your first public case studies, ideally in the form of video testimonials.
