As founders, it’s easy to feel the pressure to perfect every little detail before launching a new product or service. But sometimes, the best insights come from diving in and letting real demand shape what we build.
In this week's episode of Automate Your Agency, Alane Boyd and Micah Johnson share the power of “selling first.” They explore why putting an idea in front of customers early—before it’s even built—can reveal critical truths about product-market fit, saving you time, money, and probably a few headaches along the way.
Tune in as they discuss:
🔹 The upsides (and challenges!) of selling without a finished product
🔹 Avoiding the trap of “false positives” in client feedback
🔹 Recognizing when to pivot based on early sales
🔹 And much more!
If you’ve ever wrestled with when to bring an idea to market, this episode will give you practical insights and encouragement to “test the waters” with confidence.
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Entering the world of business doesn’t just require a robust product; it requires a smart approach to reaching your target market. In the dynamic landscape of agency operations, focusing on sales can often catapult your business ahead of its competitors. In this article, inspired by Elaine and Micah from the podcast "Automate Your Agency," we explore the transformative power of selling before building. This strategy encourages businesses to pivot their operations and place a greater emphasis on developing sales before investing heavily in product development.
The concept of selling before building revolutionizes how businesses approach product development. Elaine advocates for this approach, stating, “We have to know that customers want to buy something before we spend days, weeks, months building.” Focusing on sales allows businesses to glean insights into market needs without cumbersome upfront investments in product development. By engaging with potential customers early on, businesses can validate concepts and refine products based on real-world demands.
Micah reflects on past experiences where a heavy investment in product development preceded concrete sales validation, saying, "I now...would rather sell it, make some money...We're figuring it out." This approach underscores the importance of testing the waters to confirm product-market fit before dedicating extensive resources to building. Adopting this strategy can substantially decrease the risk of product failure post-launch, offering both a proof of concept and a clear path to refining the product based on customer interactions.
Elaine underscores the value of direct customer feedback, recounting how hearing customer pain points repeatedly helped her identify viable services that the market demanded. "I've heard it so many times that I'm like, I think this is a service or a product that we can sell right now," she emphasizes. Such feedback is essential in shaping your offerings and refining them to better meet customer needs.
Moreover, diving into these customer interactions allows a more nuanced understanding of their expectations and requirements. When Micah expresses his concern, saying, “What if somebody's interested? Then what are we going to say?” it highlights the importance of developing adaptable sales scripts based on customer interactions. By actively engaging customers at this early stage, businesses create a feedback loop that streamlines development processes and enhances customer satisfaction.
Embracing adaptability in business processes fosters a culture of innovation and resilience. Elaine notes that her sales-first mindset occasionally led to "scrambling" to fulfill unexpected demands, yet this adaptability also proved less costly than overinvesting in unvalidated products. Micah concurs, admitting that this approach is "not necessarily...the lesser of two evils," but rather a pragmatic method to ensure alignment with market needs.
Elaine's narrative further illustrates this point with the development of AI-powered lead gen tools, "We built them for ourselves, they were working, and some founders saw what we were doing and asked us to start creating them for theirs." This flexibility allowed them to pivot quickly, addressing market demands effectively while maintaining transparency with their team about the evolving strategy. The evolution from a manual service to an automated software solution showcases the potential benefits of maintaining transparent and adaptive business practices.
Strategically prioritizing sales can transform conventional business operations. Elaine and Micah’s experiences reveal that focusing on sales fosters innovation, cultivates effective feedback loops, and ensures business adaptability. By recognizing customer pain points and actively involving potential buyers early in the process, companies can develop products that are both market-ready and financially viable.
The conversations between Elaine and Micah illustrate that achieving a balance between sales and product development isn’t without challenges—particularly in maintaining clear communication and collaboration among diverse team members. However, by focusing on these strategies—embracing sales-first validation, leveraging customer feedback, and remaining flexible—businesses can significantly enhance their growth trajectory. This approach prioritizes actual market needs and supports the successful scaling of operations, thereby ensuring sustained business success in a competitive landscape.
Alane Boyd is a serial entrepreneur, passionate leader and a high growth founder (2x SaaS Exit and published author 3x). She is an Enneagram 3 with a Driver leadership style. She a visionary that believes in impact-driven, result-oriented leadership. Her skillsets focus on operations, sales, marketing, and technical skills. Alane has been featured and spoken at major events, including SXSW, Entrepreneur, Huffpost, and Goldman Sachs.
Micah Johnson is a serial entrepreneur, advisor, and support-driven leader (3x successful exits). He has successfully scaled businesses (and failed a couple of others along the way, for good measure). Micah is skilled at translating business requirements into requirements a technical team will understand while being able to provide clarity on design and the user experience. He is a visionary who can identify gaps in systems and markets and an implementor who can build and execute a plan to fill those gaps. His skills include operations, systems, automation, design, software development, and UI/UX design. Micah has worked with large billion-dollar brands and manufacturers, and has been featured in newspapers, business journals, and trade publications throughout the US.
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