Oversubscribed. Daniel Priestley

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PRINCIPLE 3 FIRST MAKE YOUR MARKET THEN MAKE YOUR SALES

      Taking a product to the market is very different to taking a product to your market. Your market can't wait to see what you are doing next; they want to engage with you more, and they're interested in your latest creation. The broader market couldn't care less.

      Oversubscribed businesses never take products to the market. They don't create something and try to sell it to just anyone. Successfully oversubscribed businesses launch products and services only to those who have expressed interest.

DON'T RUSH PEOPLE

      In 2014, the rumour mill began making noises that Apple was going to release a new category of devices and it was probably going to be a digital watch. This laid down the gauntlet to rival tech giant Samsung who set a goal to beat Apple into the market with their new version of the product.

Samsung rushed the production process and announced their Gear S smartwatch on August 28, 2014, two weeks before the scheduled Apple event on September 9. They built close to a million of the watches and got them onto the shelves by late November, in time for Christmas. They had dealt Apple a double blow by announcing first and being first to market, or so they thought.

      Tim Cook took to the stage in September and showed the world Apple's new watch. He described its benefits and demonstrated a video of the product. Naturally this got a standing ovation from the die‐hard fans of MacWorld but the team at Apple knew the rest of the world were seeing this product for the first time and would be more cautious.

      Tim Cook could see from Samsung's poor reviews that the market hadn't yet figured out if it wanted another digital device. He slowed the launch campaign right down and took things step by step. First he made information available online and then released videos of fashion icons describing their experience with the device. Apple took out ads in Vogue, carefully positioning the watch alongside luxury brands. Finally, Apple announced a partnership with high‐end leather goods maker, Hermés.

      It wasn't until April 2015 that Apple made it possible for people to pre‐register for an Apple Watch, but not to buy it. Even when the product launched a month later, you couldn't just walk into a store and purchase one. Customers had to book an appointment online to go into a store, try on the watch and then buy. It wasn't until late 2015 that the Apple Watches were available in stores and on the website.

Samsung shipped 800,000 watches around the world; however, it is rumoured they suffered a high number of returns and sold many watches at huge discounts. They oversupplied a market that wasn't yet demanding a product. Apple is said to have sold more than 4 million smart watches in 2015 and have gone on to sell more than 40 million units within five years of launch. They didn't discount and they didn't have high volumes of unsold stock.

      Apple had delicately balanced the forces of demand and supply; they spent a year carefully making a market for the product before increasing supply. They understood that it would take time for people to learn about this new device and see its value. They asked people for soft signals long before they asked for them to make a purchase. First they made a market and then they made their sales.

      Even the smallest business can learn from two of the biggest companies in the world. When selling to the market, address people who have been sufficiently warmed up to doing business with you. Take the time to educate or entertain people, ask them to signal their interest to you and hold off trying to sell until you're sure that there's sufficient interest in return.

      SIGNALS OUT, SIGNALS IN

      Entrepreneurs, marketers and business leaders secretly wish people weren't so complex. In our fantasies we create a product, clearly describe it's features, advantages and benefits and then people buy it. Unfortunately, humans don't work this way; we require some warming up.

Even when you are dealing with your market of people who know you, like you and trust you it's unwise to expect them to go from hearing about a product or service straight to buying it. Along the way there's lots of micro‐decisions that people want to make, and these micro‐decisions require more information or more trust.

      Warming people up is about educating and entertaining people so they can make these micro‐decisions. Long before you ask them to buy something you ask for much smaller commitments called signals. Paying careful attention to the signals people are giving, you will easily recognise when you are oversubscribed.

      Rather than rushing your market, slow down and signal what you intend to do. Let them softly signal back their response. Dance with your market, send them a “flirtatious” email that hints about your intentions and let them return a “flutter of the eyes” that lets you know they are not unwilling to entertain what you have in mind.

      Consider two approaches to selling tickets for a special workshop your organisation is running:

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