I’ve read dozens of marketing books over the years, but the one I continue to revisit is Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm. During my 25 years working in B2B technology marketing, I’ve seen his theories play out time and time again. I’ve also watched many companies fail to cross the chasm and turn into zombie companies, trapped in a slow death spiral and trying to avoid extinction. (If you’re watching HBO’s The Last of Us, you get it.)
The main lesson from the book is that different types of people buy at different stages of a product’s lifecycle.
Innovators: These are the tinkerers who love technology for technology’s sake. They’re happy to put up with software bugs just to be among the first users. They are often beta testers.
Early Adopters: These business-minded people are visionaries. They are willing to take the risk with a mostly unproven product to gain a major business advantage, such as wiping out a competitor or getting an exponential gain in efficiencies.
Early Majority: These are pragmatists, and they represent your mainstream market buyer. This audience is make-or-break for getting to big-time revenue. They want a 100% proven product, but they don’t trust the experience of your early adopters. They will not buy your product until they see other pragmatists like them buying first.
(The fourth group of people are much more conservative buyers. They are not relevant for earlier-stage products, so I’m going to skip over them).
The chasm exists between the early adopters and the early majority. For your product to be a success, the majority must become your customers.
Far too many companies get stuck in the chasm
I’ve come across dozens of high-tech companies that attracted innovators and early adopters, earned a few million in revenue, and then got stuck in the chasm. They mistake early market traction with being accepted by the mainstream. Even worse, they don’t understand that the innovators and early adopters are a completely different animal from the early majority buyers.
So they start hiring a big sales team and investing in expensive lead gen activities, only to learn a year or so later that they’re not growing. They’re surviving in the chasm.
Unfortunately, the chasm doesn’t offer a quick, painless death. Many companies continue for years, reliant on a handful of customers who provide just enough cash flow. They are the zombie companies.
If you want to cross the chasm and reach the early majority buyers, this is what you need to do:
1. Focus on a market niche
Identify a very specific market that you can completely dominate by providing a clear competitive advantage or exponential ROI. You need to align 100% of your product marketing execution — messaging, lead gen, partnerships, etc. — to the targeted audience.
I helped my client Tekvizion position their product for user experience testing in the enterprise communications industry. The company is a whale in a small but lucrative pond. At Tekvizion, we speak the customer’s language, partner with the leading publications in the niche, and offer specific product features that only their audience cares about.
2. Build a whole product
To win over the early majority, your product needs to work as promised. It doesn’t need every bell and whistle, but it must have a feature set that is easy to use.
If you have a SaaS product, no one will read the support manual. The early majority expect an intuitive interface that they can immediately start using. For better or worse, consumer software has set the expectation for B2B. Have you ever struggled to figure out how to use an app on your smartphone? Exactly.
3. Get people talking about you
Whether it’s references, testimonials, articles, or case studies, the early majority needs to see that other people like them are already using your product. If you’re dialed in on one market segment, find the influencers. You may have never heard of them, but they could have tens of thousands of followers on YouTube, LinkedIn, or a podcast.
4. Establish market leadership
At this point, it’s not about finding the next market. You need to execute, execute, execute. Focus, focus, focus. Do not become distracted. Once you dominate your niche, then you’ll be ready move to adjacent market segments.
Don’t risk becoming a zombie company. Follow the four points above, and you’ll be able to cross that chasm.
If you’re worried about making the leap from early market traction to mainstream acceptance, I can help you optimize your marketing. We’ll work together to target a specific niche and develop a plan for you to dominate that niche.