Before chasing channels, check why customers should care
When a product is stuck with only a few customers, founders often assume they have a problem. The better first question is whether the product gives a specific group of people a strong enough reason to pay. One agency built a polished product and launched it, but almost no one bought.
It tried , hired branding help, reduced staff, and kept blaming . Calls with people who did not buy revealed the real issue: there were already many alternatives, and the product was not clearly better than them. No can fix a product that customers do not see as meaningfully different.
Before choosing a channel, define the ICP in one sentence. That sentence should name the buyer type, the company or situation, the urgent pain they feel this week, and what they have already tried; a good test is whether three real people fit that exact description.
Key points
- Do not assume low customer numbers are only a problem.
- A product must be clearly better or more useful than the alternatives customers already know.
- Non-buyers can reveal the real reason people are not paying.
- An ICP should describe the buyer, situation, current pain, and past attempts to solve it.
- If three real people do not fit the ICP, the is probably still too vague.