Testimonials

[Vacman]

Hey hey!

I'm in the process of writing a test website to market my muse and to see if it is a viable product with an existing market.

Basically, testing to see if I can get sales before actually developing my product. As the book suggests.

One hurdle that I see is that testimonials are a huge selling point of a product's selling ability.

With a new product or "muse" there are no testimonials...

Does anyone have any ideas on how to overcome the need for testimonials initially?

Thanks!

[Feumet]

Get your product complete and then give it away to a few people that will actually use it. Heck shmeck, I am sure if you had a few people try it here and if is was good or bad they would give you feedback.

While I don't think, nor is it appropriate to sell things here, I do think that this forum offers a unique opportunity to help people let it all hang out and break out of the box and get positive feedback on things that will help you get rolling. The people here are the early adopters of the principals and I dare say they, we, get it. I was on a conference call today with Timothy that had thousands of people on it. He did the call from the Hamptons....LOL This is going to get huge and the early adopters always have the advantage of riding the wave and boy this wave is a very, very large one.

Send it to me and if it is good I will give you your fist testimonial. By the by, the best testimonials are video in nature. Picture and words are great, but if you can plug in a 15 to 30 second video, that is the bomb.

Continued good fortunes!

[Vacman]

Feumet,

Thanks for your thoughtful reply!

I really appreciate your help, and I think you've got some great ideas! And I agree, "testing" the product on this forum would be a very effective way to get feedback and possible testimonials for the product.

The situation I'm in right now is a little like a catch 22.

I have not developed the product yet, just a prototype.

I was going to outsource the development of the full product, but only if I could determine that there is a viable market for the product.

In order to test the market, I plan on building a website, and a PPC ad campaign to drive traffic to the site and watch the conversion rate of people who TRY to buy, but can't because the product is not available first.

If all goes well, then I will develop the product.

The problem is that I think in order to have an effective sales strategy, I'm probably going to need testimonials to "test" the product.

How do you do an effective test without testimonials?

You see where I'm going with this?

Thanks!

[Feumet]

So, do you have to have it manufactured?

[Vacman]

Feumet,

Nope, it's not a physical product, it's an information product.

It would require software development.

That’s the main investment barrier.

So I'd like to run a market test before investing further in the development.

[Drewkerr]

Is it something you could sell on EBAY?? Just right up a description and include pictures or graphs if possible. Then pull the auction at the last minute. That would be a good way to see if there is a demand. Also maybe post a ad on Craigslist, which is free, as the product was done. When they call tell them you already sold out. This will do two things, one you can see if there is a demand, and two you can see what type of questions the people will ask about the product, this might help you get some good feedback before the product is even done.

Drew

[MiniBlueDragon]

Testimonials are from people who like the product you are selling. If you have a prototype product you can easily set-up a focus group of friends/family/colleagues or contact a market research company and ask them to contact their list to find suitable candidates for the focus test (but you will have to pay the candidates if you go via a MR company!)

One prototype should be enough for people to have a play/read/try it out and give you feedback on it if you're worried about having to create many products prior to starting the main manufacturing.

[Vacman]

MiniBlueDragon and Drewkerr,

Great ideas!

Yea... I might be able to market it on E-bay...

And getting family & friends to write testimonials, or at least approve my written testimonials in their names may work pretty well!

My gears are starting to turn faster!