In our consulting practice, we define a company’s market traction by its ability to get paying customers who love their product and recommend it to others.

Arriving at this place means a company has done a lot of things right:

• They’ve defined their target market clearly and identified their ideal customer, thus providing a focal point for all subsequent product development, marketing and sales activities.
• They’ve developed positioning that can be used to drive consistent messages to all stakeholders, whether they are potential customers, media, or investors.
• They’ve carefully analyzed the competitive landscape so that they know precisely where they are strongest and most vulnerable.
• They’ve priced their products according to a strategy that has been thought through and is designed to meet specific goals for the company and the customer.
• They know through which distribution channels they will sell the product, and have determined the best partners and what the terms of those relationships will be.
• They’ve spent time understanding how their customers will buy, and tailored their sales model and activities accordingly.
• They know exactly what characteristics they are looking for when hiring their sales team.
• They have a process in place that will allow them to track leads as they are generated and manage them through each stage of the sales cycle until they are paying customers who love their product and recommend it to others.

That’s what we call traction. It’s not always easy, but viewing the entire cycle as an interconnected process creates the mechanism to develop a strategy, make a plan, and execute. In today’s economy, who can afford to play it by ear?

Tags: clean technology, LinkedIn, marketing, marketing strategy, positioning, sales

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