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| When Should You Take Your First Market Trip? |
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One of the most common questions that young companies ask: When is the right time to take the first market trip? Here are some critical milestones to guide companies in making this important decision.
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| See the View from the States archive for Mark Dollinger's view on aspects of doing business in the United States.
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Taking a cue from the children's story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears": you shouldn't take a trip too early and you shouldn't take a trip too late. You should find the time that is just right. So just when, exactly, is it the right time?
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| It's Too Early If...
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| |  | Your intellectual property is not properly protected. The last thing that you want to do is reveal your ideas to potential partners only to have them turn into potential competitors because you have not adequately protected your property with patents and copyrights.
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| | | You are too far from (realistic) commercialization. This potentially places you at risk to be reverse engineered or allow a competitor time to develop a parallel path to commercialization. Risk is part of doing business and "too early" is very difficult to determine; it varies by industry. In general, you want to speak with industry contacts as early as possible — you need the feedback.
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| | | You have not completed an (initial) industry map. Until you understand how the particular industry works, it is very difficult to properly assess the best point to enter and therefore to properly identify the best potential partners. And, as you have those conversations, your understanding of the industry map may change.
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| | | You have not completed a working prototype or model. You have one chance to make a good first impression. Your idea could be terrific, but potential partners might be more interested in seeing something tangible. Again, this is industry specific — you want to go in as soon as is appropriate for your industry.
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| | | Your documentation and presentation materials are not first rate. While a PowerPoint presentation might be helpful, think about who you are meeting with. If you have to present a business plan or overview or executive summary, make sure these are written, reviewed, and printed well before your take your trip. (If you are making the presentation, make sure to practice — and practice again.)
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| | | You don't have a visa. Visa issues have become problematic since 9/11. Plan ahead. (See Lee Cohen's article "Vis-?-vis visas.")
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| | | You trip is not properly organized. I will take a closer look at this issue next month when I describe how travel and travel-related issues affect your market trip two years after 9/11.
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| | It's Probably Too Late If...
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| | | You don't leave yourself enough time to commercialize. This is particularly true of incubator-based projects. If you spend the first 18 months refining your science and allow only six months to commercialize, you probably never will. It's time to look for a job.
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You don't assess the market. Does your invention provide a solution to a problem that the marketplace perceives, or is it a solution without a problem? Is the solution consistent with the demands of the market vis-?-vis regulatory, pricing, and technology issues?
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You commit to production before you assess the market. If you do not allow the market to tell you what it wants, you are flying blind and placing yourself at a great risk of rejection.
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| | | The market moved in and you weren't watching. The first-mover advantage is important — though not always definitive. You must know what competition is doing and your invention's competitive advantages.
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So just like Goldilocks found the "right" chair, bed, and porridge, you have to find just the right time in the life cycle of your invention or technology to plan and take that all-important U.S. (or European) market trip.
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If you have any marketing questions that you would like me to address in a future column, or have a comment about this column, drop me a line.
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Mark Dollinger
President
Trendlines America
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