Building a Better Mousetrap Isn’t Enough

The tech startups that succeed are usually the ones that have high aspirations and aren’t afraid to set aggressive goals for themselves. After all, you’ll never know what you’re capable of achieving if you don’t set a high bar. Of course, startups also need to have the right tools and strategy in place to accomplish those lofty goals.

It’s important for all startups to recognize that simply having a great product is never going to be enough. Merely building a better mouse trap isn’t going to work; it’s simply not enough. Like it or not, there has to be more to a successful company than a good product, no matter how much better that product might be than competing products.

It’s a little like the proverbial tree in a forest. If nobody is around to hear it fall, does it make a sound? Well, if a great product exists but nobody knows about it, does it matter? Having a great product does matter if people can’t find you and you don’t have a way to sell it.

It’s an illusion that the best product is always going to rise to the top. This is a mistake often made by startup leaders who have a technical or engineering background. They focus too much on making a great product while making the faulty assumption that if just one person likes it, word of mouth will soon spread to the masses.

Along with a great product, there needs to be a sales and marketing machine to help sell the product. The good news is that it’s possible to engineer a great sales and marketing machine. It’s not exactly the same as building a great product, but the two processes are similar enough so that a startup that has built a great product can do the same with its sales and marketing machine.

The trick is recognizing the key components that make up a great sales and marketing machine. It’s no different than being able to recognize the features that create a great product. Similarly, you have to invest resources into the sales and marketing machine the same you would while building a product. Just hiring a sales team isn’t enough. That team also needs to have the tools and resources to succeed.

For startups, it’s vital to never forget that there are two parts to a successful business. There is the product, and then there is everything that’s done to sell the product. Merely relying on building a better mouse trap isn’t going to be enough. The good news is that if your business can build a great product, it should also be capable of building an effective sales and marketing machine.