Innovators and Early Adopters comprise about 16% of the overall population – that’s about one in every six companies. They typically purchase just enough of your new offering (and rapidly enough) to encourage your forecast to inflate!
“Wow, those first few sales are just the tip of the iceberg!” is what often goes through your sales teams’ minds. “We’ll be rolling in commissions shortly!” Sadly, this optimism won’t be justified if you don’t change your discovery and demo practices as you engage the Majority players.
The Early Majority are approximately 34% of the population. Making the necessary changes in your discovery conversations and demonstrations enables you to successfully engage this group. And this category is, very simply, the most important group to secure! The first few sales into the Early Majority open the gateway to the balance of the category.
These first Early Majority sales need to be carefully nurtured and supported by your customer success teams to ensure that their implementations achieve these customers’ Value Realization Events. Why? That’s how they become reference customers, and, as noted previously, compelling references are one of the key requirements of the Early Majority (and even more so for the Late Majority).
That may sound like cyclical reasoning, and it is, to a degree. How can you secure your first Early Majority customers, who require strong references, if you don’t already have an existing Early Majority customer?
And yes, I’m repeating this point because it really is one of the main paths out of the Chasm. There are two solutions to consider.
First, as was suggested earlier in this series, one or more of your Early Adopter customers may provide sufficient references for some of your less risk-averse Early Majority prospects. Accordingly, you may want to focus on small initial orders with your first wave of Early Majority prospects, since small orders are correspondingly less risky, and focus on ensuring that these rollouts accomplish their Value Realization Events. These customers can then become your first Majority reference accounts. As this takes place, you can explore expansion opportunities within these customers, as well.
Second, and this should help in determining which Early Majority prospects to pursue, the attributes of the Technology Adoption Curve categories are not fixed in concrete, but manifest as a spectrum. Some Early Majority prospects will have some of the attributes of the Early Adopters: They require less proof than their peers (e.g., excellent discovery followed by a well-constructed Technical Proof Demo); they are a bit less risk-averse and are willing to support a small initial implementation. Not surprisingly, discovery questions that explore prospect culture, tech stack buying habits, rollout practices, and related topics are the keys to identifying these Earlier Majority players.
The Late Majority makes up another 34% of the population and, combined with the Early Majority, represents the bulk of your market. Secure enough Early Majority accounts as references, gain experience with typical POC (and POV) success criteria, and this will enable you to begin to address the Late Majority effectively. (Or at least as effectively as possible – the Late Majority will still demand a long, tortured, multi-threaded buying journey – more of an arduous trek, frankly, than a journey!)
Bear in mind that, while order sizes will potentially increase as you move further into the Majority, sales and buyer resource investment will increase. Leverage what you learn!
Resources:
The Advantages of the Incumbent Vendor
https://greatdemo.com/the-advantages-of-the-incumbent-vendor/
Doing Discovery:
https://www.amazon.com/Doing-Discovery-Important-Enablement-Processes/dp/B0B8RJK4C2/
Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6:
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