Okay…we’ve got this great software product that builders are going to love…all we have to do is get it out to them.

So how do we do this?

The obvious idea was to pick up the phone and start making calls. Phone calls are cheap. With the VoIP connection at the office we can call anywhere in the US or Canada for free.

But who do we call?

That’s easy. Decision makers. I want to speak with someone that will tell me yes (and send me a check). So we compiled a list of builders in the Louisville market (based on proximity to Indy) and started making phone calls.

Marketing Lesson: Cold-calling builders in the Midwest about a revolutionary and yet ‘unproven’ Internet product is not as easy as advertised.

The builders that would actually take our calls (very few) had a difficult time understanding what we were trying to sell. Our marketing message was cluttered and we had yet to perfect our elevator pitch. We hadn’t given thought to their perception of our product. We understood it, so why shouldn’t they?

Throw in the fact that our culture has conditioned people to say no. And don’t forget about how slow the building industry is to adopt new technology.

We quickly realized the uphill climb we faced and decided that we needed to reconsider our approach. We have since developed a multi-prong marketing strategy that will be outlined in future posts.

As our focus has shifted from product development to market penetration we have also shifted our frame of reference and constantly put ourselves in our customers shoes.