When you need one
- A new product in a market where you’re already present.
- A new market for a product you already have: a country, a channel, a customer type.
- A relaunch of a product that didn’t work or needs repositioning.
These are three different situations: in the first the risk is the product, in the second the market, in the third the memory the market has of you.
How to build it
1. The first segment
Not “everyone who might need it,” but the group to win first: the one with the strongest need, the easiest to reach, that can serve as a reference for the others.
2. The ideal customer
Within the segment, the profile worth going after first: who they are, what drives them, who decides, what holds them back. In B2B it’s a company with its own characteristics, and a buying committee.
3. Entry, demand, sales
How you enter the market (channels, partners, distribution), how you generate demand (content, advertising, word of mouth, events), how you sell (online, sales force, resellers). Every choice depends on price and customer: a product that costs a few euros can’t support a field sales team.
4. The phases, with go/no-go criteria
Preparation, pilot launch, scale. For each phase: objectives, activities, and the thresholds to hit to move forward. The pilot exists to learn cheaply: if the thresholds aren’t met, you fix things before spending the big budget.
5. Metrics and pivot signals
The success metrics and the signals that tell you to change course: a segment that doesn’t respond, an acquisition cost that’s too high, a channel that doesn’t convert.
The most common mistakes
- Launching to everyone. The budget gets spread thin and no segment is truly won.
- No pilot phase. You find out what doesn’t work after the budget is already spent.
- Go/no-go criteria decided afterward. Every result becomes a green light.
- A channel at odds with the price. The cost of selling eats the margin.
