A CEO with five $100M+ exits described his method: deeply connect with a group of customers, find the problem nobody is solving, then build that product. He never thought about building a product until he knew he could sell it. By the time he built it, the sales pitch was already designed—not by him, but by the connection he had with customers.
This inverts the typical product development process. Instead of having an idea and then finding customers, you find customers and let the connection design the idea. The questions asked—what are your problems, what’s wrong, what would a good solution look like—are acts of connection that simultaneously create the product specification.
“It wasn’t designed by him—it was designed by the connection he had with the customer.”
Related Concepts
- Active listening means asking questions, not just receiving
- Being interested rather than interesting creates connection
- Sales is connecting, not convincing