🔀 Don't sell to users who can't buy
This week in The Pivot: you're not after feedback. You're after commitments.
Hey friends 👋
Every Monday in The Pivot, we share one anti-pattern we’re seeing from founders in the Traction Lab ecosystem, and the quick redirect that makes all the difference—in just 250 words.
Here’s this week’s:
The anti-pattern: optimizing for end-user love
It’s common for founders to chase glowing feedback from adoring users—completely missing that those users aren’t the economic buyers.
You’ve got coaches who love your tool, sleep consultants giving great feedback, department heads introducing you around—but none of them can actually sign a contract or approve budget.
Pretty soon, you’ve racked up a ton of unpaid pilots and glowing testimonials from people who will never, ever pay them.
The Fix: map the buying process.
For your customer—not your user.
Find out:
Who controls budget?
Who can sign contracts?
What’s the approval process?
Then either:
get introduced to the actual buyer and validate they have the problem and budget; or
pivot your customer segment to someone who IS the economic buyer—which often means going direct to the end user and cutting out the middleman entirely.
Either way: stop collecting feedback from people who can’t cut checks.
The Tool: the Economic Buyer Map
For each pilot or prospect, literally draw out on your board of choice a map of the purchasing ecosystem:
Who uses it? → Who benefits? → Who pays? → Who approves? → Who signs?
And if your primary contact isn’t at least three of these five, you’re probably talking to the wrong person.
Until next week,
—jdm
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