The Traditional Approach & Why It Doesn't Work

The traditional approach is to focus first on the Innovators, grow that market, then move on to the Early Majority, and so on. When you move from one group to the next, you use the previous group as a reference point for the group you are currently pursuing.

As an example, you'd use testimonials from Innovators to target the Early Adopters, and then testimonials from the Early Adopters to target the Early Majority, and so on.

However, there are two problems with this approach.

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The Crack Between Innovators and Early Adopters

Innovators usually don't need the benefits of your product spelled out to them, so they will adopt it on the basis of what it does.

Early Adopters on the other hand usually need the benefits of the technology clearly spelled out to them so they can connect it to a strategic opportunity they've been pursuing.

Or to put it more plainly, you can sell to Innovators by just showing them what the technology does. To sell to Early Adopters, you need to tell them why they should care that it does what it does.

So if you sell to the Early Adopters in the same way you sell to the Innovators, you risk having them not understand the benefits, and losing the sale.

The Chasm Between Early Adopters and The Early Majority

The crack between the Innovators and Early Adopters is nothing compared to the chasm between Early Adopters and the Early Majority.

As Moore points out, the chasm is hard to see in most cases because it's hard to tell the difference between an Early Adopter and Early Majority buyer - the prospect list and how much they'll buy look remarkably similar.

Here are some characteristics that you can look for to determine who you are dealing with.

Early Adopters tend to:

- lack respect for the value of their colleague's experiences, and see themselves as smarter than their counterparts at competitive companies;

- would rather build a technology system from the ground up than build on existing infrastructure;

- take greater interest in technology than in their industry.

Those in the Early Majority tend to:

- spend time in industry specific forums discussing industry specific issues;

- see the Early Adopters as people who claim all the budget for their pet projects.

Most companies get stuck when they don't understand who they are selling to, and get in the most trouble when they try to sell to the Early Majority by treating them like the Early Adopters.

Now that we've covered the distinctions between the market segments and why the traditional way won't work, let's move to the solution proposed by the author.