How do sales skills help with market validation? And what is market validation in the first place.

This is the idea that the market (your target customers) gives their approval to your product or service.

These are the signals that you get from the customers that your product or service fulfils a need and meets their desires.

People in the tech space call this “product – market fit”.

Whatever the name you choose to call it, you have to quickly get to the place where the customers give you the thumbs up and you know for sure if you’re working on a problem worth solving.

If you have market validation, then it’s a good idea to keep hustling to promote and improve on your business idea.

If you don’t have market validation, perhaps it’s time to throw in the carpet or “pivot” to another idea.

Sometimes you not so much as “pivot”, but try a more suitable application of your original business idea, product, or service.

Your business idea might be good, but the market is pointing you towards different use case scenarios for your product or service.

How do you know if you have achieved market validation or product – market fit?

If you are a tech bruh or tech sis, then this is judged by the scale you have achieved, number of users, your growth metrics, and other “techy” kinds of metrics.

For the average non tech business owner, market validation is achieved relative to the amount of sales you’re able to generate.

Simply put, if no one is buying your stuff, then you’re either speaking to the wrong people, or the market is giving you a sign that your idea might not work today.

So now that we know what market validation is, how do sales skills help give us the signals that our business idea is where it needs to be?

We’ll talk about that in another post where we look at sales techniques for looking for our ideal customers, initiating conversations with them, understanding what their needs are, and getting them to give us a try.