Ask HN: We're still developing - A competitor has launched - what to do?

10 points by iamyoohoo 16 years ago | 26 comments

We are still working on our product while a competitor product has launched and is getting traction from some top retailers already (we are in the retail ecommerce space). They do not have all the pieces we have so our platform is far better and we're mid way in development so we can't really cut scope now.<p>What do we do? Start selling with "product coming" promises? The product is in the large company space so the selling process takes a few months, so getting a headstart may not be a bad idea.<p>Thoughts?

sganesh 16 years ago |

Things learned from building a best of class enterprise product and trying to beat out the competitors. We were the last entrant in the market.

(i) List all completed features. - Guarantee these will work now & compare & contrast with your current competitors. Preferably give them a testing environment after the demo.

(ii) List all features currently being developed. - Estimate when they will become available. Make sure you fudge enough, so that you don't shoot yourself in the foot.Share this road map during the sales cycle.

(iii) Request your clients for any features that are important to their business, that you have overlooked.

(iv) Make a list all future features including the ones from the above list - Request your clients to prioritize these and give them a date by which you'll have the estimates done and have built a product roadmap. Share the roadmap.

(v) Be in constant communication with the clients. Keep them aware of any changes that is happening to the roadmap.

With all this we got beaten up on pricing as the clients were comparing apples to oranges.

So we hired sales people with expensive hobbies, and watched them work the magic.

danudey 16 years ago | |

> So we hired sales people with expensive hobbies, and watched them work the magic.

In case anyone misses the reference, there was a post on HN a while back about why you want salespeople to have expensive hobbies. It basically boiled down to this:

Sales staff get paid more if they make more sales; people with expensive hobbies need to get paid more; sales staff with expensive hobbies need to make more sales to fund their lifestyles, and will thus be more driven to do so.

iamyoohoo 16 years ago | |

Thanks, very helpful.

However, the challenge is we haven't started a full blown cycle yet. So we really have only 1 "client" so far. This is in a space where customers are not very innovative which is where we come in.

Seems like we do have to start the customer development process.

danudey 16 years ago |

It's rarely about being first to market. Apple didn't make the first MP3 player, Microsoft didn't make the first GUI, Google didn't make the first search engine. Stick with what you're doing; you can't be first, but you can be the best.

Personally, I would also keep in mind the 'competitor card'. 'Well, your competitor bought our competitor's version, and it's good, but if you go with us, you'll get these extra awesome features that'll help you get ahead of them' or whatever. Then again, that's a job for sales, not for development, and good sales people will know when to play it.

iamyoohoo 16 years ago | |

Good point. Thanks.

bgnm2000 16 years ago |

Go sell your product now. Get some evangelists. The worst thing to do is wait, because unless your product is going to save someone time/money - there won't be a real value in switching for some nicer features if they've already put the effort into registering with your competition.

iamyoohoo 16 years ago | |

I think you are right. Seems like we have to do that. Thank you.

jellisjapan 16 years ago |

How is their current marketing and recognition? It might be worth it to start up an early marketing strategy and at least out-market them before you actually can launch. I don't know about the retailers, but some of them may be willing to wait on purchasing a product if they knew something better was coming along later.

iamyoohoo 16 years ago | |

I think you are right - and we're leaning towards that. Just get the conversation going so we can get some traction since the sales cycle will most likely be 3 months at least. Our product will be production ready by then.

My only worry is talking about products and someone really wants to go and we won't be able to right away.

scorpioxy 16 years ago | | |

I am not sure that your worry is warranted. If your sales cycle takes 3 months, it will be at least one month before anyone even decides that they want to "go". That should buy you some time.

I don't know about your product, but enterprises take a VERY long time to decide these things. And you can always stretch out the deal to buy some time.

shafqat 16 years ago | | |

If you think your sales cycle is 3 months, you should double that estimate. Sales cycles tend to be much longer than us optimistic entrepreneurs think. Just wanted to share our experience because knowing how long cycles really are would have helped us plan a lot better.

joeld42 16 years ago |

Learn from their mistakes. Look at the reactions from their customers, and make sure that you ship with their #1 wishlist feature and make sure that feature is emphasized.

Also ... "They do not have all the pieces we have so our platform is far better" This is dangerous thinking. People generally prefer the most minimal product that actually solves their problem -- only established users want more features.

If you can't cut (or postpone) features, can you ship an early closed beta to some "early adopters"? If people anywhere are using your software it will give the impression that it's right around the corner and people may delay purchasing. If you just say "coming soon" people will not believe that unless you have a track record.

danudey 16 years ago | |

Learn from their mistakes. Look at the reactions from their customers, and make sure that you ship with their #1 wishlist feature and make sure that feature is emphasized.

This is a good point to emphasize. Let someone else be first to market and make all the mistakes. Learn from their mistakes and respond faster than they can and you can capitalize on their first-to-market advantage.

People generally prefer the most minimal product that actually solves their problem -- only established users want more features.

I'm not entirely convinced of this. People will tend to buy things with more features because it has more features that they might someday want. The key is complexity. If it's simple to use despite those extra features (or because of them), then they're a benefit. If they make the product harder to use or slower, it's a drawback.

In Japan, the cell phone industry is the logical extreme of this. People cycle phones at ridiculous intervals to get more and better features, most of which don't work well or at all, and all of which make the phone more complicated to use. Yet still, it's a status symbol that you paid for a non-functional accelerometer that your friend doesn't have.

Roridge 16 years ago |

Keep at it. If your product is better, you will win.

Try not to give those "coming soon" promises, you don't want to be under even more pressure.

Good luck

iamyoohoo 16 years ago | |

The product is "much" better. However, once they get a few key customers - it's all about traction and they can sell others based on the first few. That's the worry here.

rdj 16 years ago | | |

Just speculating:

I don't think customers buy "better", they buy "solution". They don't care about elegance or how many features you have. Just, "does it solve my problem?". If two things solve the same problem, it may then come down to "how easy" and "how much money".

On a different note: if you have a plan, stick with it (if you think it is the right plan). Your competitors may have just validated the market for you.

scorpioxy 16 years ago | | |

Like someone else said here, out market them. Out maneuver them. Engage those key customers first. Don't over-promise, but tell them how "good" your product is.

It's definitely risky, but what other choices do you have?

dskhatri 16 years ago |

What about your trusted customers? Do you have any customers you are working with to develop your product? If they still believe in your product, keep working hard on it. Release a version - with fewer features than you planned on - sooner. What do people think about this suggestion? It sounds reasonable to me but I'm basing it on others' advice (Steve Blank on customer development) and not on experience.

iamyoohoo 16 years ago | |

We have 1. But a base version wouldn't work for them.

bobbywilson0 16 years ago |

"we can't really cut scope now"

Why not?

iamyoohoo 16 years ago | |

Because a) we're mid-way through all of the modules we're building. b) Those are the pieces that would differentiate our offering. If we didn't have those, it would be the same as the competition which means we're late in the game with almost the same product and no customers yet c) if we cut, we would have to start over again for the ones we left hanging - or at least have to do quite a bit of rework

Note: we have a team of 6 developers working on this, so it's not a 1 person thing.

bobbywilson0 16 years ago | | |

I don't think you will get customers to ditch the competitors product they are already using for yours unless these extra features are a game changer for the customer. If you cut features and just work on what you need to be on par with the competitor you will just be a little later to market, and you can continue working on the remaining features. If you wait to finish your extra features, the competition will already be picking up those customers you could of had if you released early. Ultimately it depends on if those features are something you consider to be at the core of your business, if they are then maybe you are right.

dskhatri 16 years ago | | |

What's so wrong in releasing a base product that is comparable to your competitor's first? Then add the differentiating features as you complete them. Releasing these new features will be good for PR/marketing too.

iworkforthem 16 years ago |

Just ignore them, and focus on your todo list. Assuming that your product solve a problem for your customers, most important is that you focus on just that now.

pinksoda 16 years ago |

What's your competitors site?