When I joined eBay back in 2011, the largest group on the Israeli R&D center was actually a content operations group. There were many dozens of operation people at all levels who were responsible for a gazillion of back-office processes and tools that built and maintained eBay’s product catalog. I can’t even begin to describe the complexity of such a catalog, and these talented operation people got it all covered. They were like a magical superpower that we could use whenever we wanted. In fact, we didn’t even have to want. They simply did magic behind the scenes whenever it was needed.

And that was the problem.

Because over time, the Structured Data group (that I was Head of Product at) developed smarter, AI-based systems, that were meant to replace the back-office work or make it more efficient and create a better product catalog at the same time using things only machines can do. Throughout the process, the operational teams converted from content operations to data operations, from automating processes to creating training data for the algorithms and monitoring relevant KPIs to ensure we are doing the right thing. So far so good. 

But since the roots of the team were still in content operations and back-office processes, this remained their default solution even at times where technology could have been a better one. It was much easier to implement manual processes and automate them using dedicated software (think Zapier on steroids) than to wait for the technology team to deliver a new algorithm. Many times, this was simply a lean approach in action and the right thing to do. But there were other times where this was done without even thinking about it, and this was the wrong approach altogether. The superpower became a weakness.

It is very natural to rely on what comes to you easily. We all do it all the time. But we need to do it consciously, or else we will surely overuse the tools, methods, and skills that we are used to using. In the CPO Bootcamp we talk about it a lot when it comes to our soft skills and how we can expand beyond our comfort zone, but today I want to talk about a specific tool that we tend to overuse in the sale cycle, and that’s the product itself.

This might sound counterintuitive, especially with product-led growth (which I’m a big fan of) practically saying the opposite, but bear with me and I’ll explain everything. Here we go.

Your Customers Don’t Want Your Product

Of course, eventually, they do. But that’s not how it begins. In the beginning, they have a problem. They seek a solution for their problem, and depending on the maturity of your category and how innovative your product is, they may or may not know what kinds of solutions exist. In some cases, they would need first to understand what type of solution they are looking for. For example, let’s say that you start a new job and need to commute every day, and for the sake of the example let’s assume that you don’t have a car. You first need to decide if you want to get there by car, bike, scooter, bus, or subway. Even if you decided that it makes the most sense to get there by car, you still have many options: buy, lease, use a taxi, or even use the one car you do have and have your spouse find another solution to get to their work. It’s only when you decide to buy (new or used?) that you actually get to consider the product – the specific make and model of the car you are looking for.

As part of my consulting services, I listen to many sales calls that my customers have with their potential customers. One of the most common mistakes is to jump right to the product without discussing the problem and the innovative approach that your solution brings. Many calls I listen to are in the form of ‘this is who we are, this is what we do, are you interested?’ And the customers are left confused. They often don’t know if this fits their needs because we didn’t get to discuss their needs. And if your product is so innovative that you are aiming to create a new category as many startups do, it’s even worse. They wouldn’t know they need it. They can’t understand what you are doing because they haven’t seen anything like this before. You must walk them through it, and it’s never easy.

It’s much easier to simply show the product, and you probably should, at some point. But this shouldn’t be what you start with, although it’s very straightforward. You need to deliberately do what doesn’t come to you naturally, talk about the problem, get super crisp on the value proposition of your product and communicate it clearly before you can let the product do the heavy lifting for you.

This is one of the foundations of product-led growth as well, by the way. To get to a point that the product does the work for you, you need to work hard in advance, and even then the product alone cannot do the work.

People React to What They See

The reason that a product demo (or free trial or freemium) is important is that a picture is worth a thousand words, and when people see your product they better understand what you are talking about. It is, however, another reason why it is risky to use it as the default tool.

When people see a demo, you have immediately framed the discussion around it. If your product is mature, and your potential customers know exactly what they are looking for – let’s say, we are currently working with Jira and considering moving to another tool – it makes sense to lead with the product. It will be about the features anyway since they have already used similar tools before and know what to look for. 

But when you are still before product-market fit, it means that the product still needs to change and evolve until it is the right thing for your customers. Note that it doesn’t mean adding more functionality. If the only thing preventing you from reaching product-market fit is additional features, you are lucky (or simply wrong 😉 ). In most cases, to support what the market really needs, the product needs to change as a whole – not its UX, not its capabilities, its essence. What it does and what value it brings. Once you got the value right, it is much easier to build the product that will deliver the value.

So if you are still in your journey towards product-market fit and lead with a demo, all you get as part of the discussion is feedback and concerns regarding the product itself. But the product will surely change! At this stage, you want to get the customers’ feedback and input regarding the problem you are solving, their needs, what they have tried (which indicates that this is an important enough problem for them) and that’s impossible to do if you put a specific product in front of them right away. You are giving up on important discovery opportunities this way – ones that might never come back.

By the way, modern sales practices don’t try to push a product to the customer but rather go in a consulting sales approach – you must first fully understand the needs of the customer in front of you and only offer your solution if it fits their needs.

So yes, you should have a great product demo to show, but you should use it smartly. Don’t lead with it, and don’t use it only because it is much easier. Roll up your sleeves and do the hard work around the value proposition. Focus on the problem you are solving and on explaining your approach for the solution, so that when they do see the demo, everything falls into place and they don’t only get it, but also want it.