There is really only ONE to get useable feedback on your product or service:  Allow the market to “vote” – that is, do they buy?  Or not buy?  If they buy, do they like it?  Or do they return it or complain about it?

And, by the time you’ve conceived, developed, iterated, produced, distributed and marketed your product you’ll have invested a LOT of timer, energy and money that you will NOT recover if the market “votes no” – if sales are flat; if feedback from purchasing customers is in returns or dissatisfaction.

It’s not nearly as good of feedback on the actual market value of a product as actual sales, but helpful feedback on both your product and how to market it can come from focus groups:  a group of people you’ve assembled to look over your idea or product and provide feedback.

Focus groups are such odd creatures, LOL.  “HOW, do you get useful information out of them!?” ends up being the operative question.  If you come to them wanting feedback about improving the product, they’ll focus on price.  If you come wanting pricing insights, they’ll give feedback on use or prospective audience. 

Me!?  I came wanting marketing feedback:  How can I effectively market this product.  What did I get?  Advice on how to improve the product.

“Mark,” I can hear you say, “just take the advice!  Advice on improving a product is PRICELESS!”  Erm… agreeeeed.  Aaaaand… sorry, but for NOW the product is the product.  Just like any aspect of business you can improve the product FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. 

But there both comes a time when there is a diminishing return of improvement (when the improvements stop dramatically improving the quality or usability of the product, thus take more effort than they provide value) AND at SOME point… you just have to get the product in front of prospects and TRY TO SELL IT.  Right!?  Without sales… you get no income….  And without income… you can’t keep a business functioning.

Look, I AM up for any suggestions people have for improving a product.  BUT… if they wouldn’t BUY it… in fact, if they ACTUALLY DIDN’T buy it… it’s “advice” for *theoretical* improvement.  But we all know that theory is less valuable than reality.  And as one of my founding principles of StepConfidently.com states… I’m MUCH more interested in action than theory.  Frankly, I dismiss much theory coming from people not actually taking action based on it – I’ve simply found too great a chasm between theory and what actually prompts ACTION (and thus results; and thus *success*) to put any faith in inactionable (un-actionable? Non-actionable…!?) IN THEORY THAT DOESN’T PROMPT OR COME FROM DIRECT ACTION.

I am well into marketing my book “Goal Setting Success.” This is the second time around – last selling it on another Website some time ago. So I know the book sells; and I know the book is good: it’s received steller reviews.

And, once I get prospects to the landing page… they’ll buy. BUT the question was, “How best to get prospects to the landing page?”

Google AdSense made the most sense for this new site without the large following of the old. And, the ads are producing results telling me which headlines pull.

But apparently my sales copy sucks because nobody’s bought… and I have no results on pricing BECAUSE NOBODY HAS EVEN GOTTEN (clicked through to) to the landing page where I price test.  I will continue to focus first on that product – little sense, really on moving on to the next product fully, until I’m successfully marketing ONE product. 

But… in the meantime, my first product – GoalSheets –came seeping back into my mind…. “Maybe…”, I thought, “that product would sell better?”  Doubts immediately surfaced, primarily because GoalSheets(tm) have a lower price point (and I am anxious at this point to begin bringing in revenue), but also because when I sold them in the past, I had a challenging time really conveying the unique value of the GoalSheets(tm)…

Never the less, I approached a professional networking group of marketers, I frequent, for feedback on marketing GoalSheets(tm).

The first 20 minutes were filled with ideas for how to improve the product.  The problem!?  Every person in the marketing group self-excluded themselves from the market:  each and every one of them said they wouldn’t buy the product. 

Why does this matter!?  For me, it meant I immediately excluded any suggestions they had for “improving” the product:  THEY WOULDN’T USE IT ANYWAYS, so what they heck would they know about how to make it more useful!? 

Listening to the suggestions for improvement it quickly became apparent to me that 1) it was clear that, in fact, none of the participants WOULD use the GoalSheets:  they didn’t understand them, the product made no sense to them, they didn’t understand why they were formulated why they were, nor how they were supposed to work.  One member said outright:  “Stuff like this makes me uncomfortable.  I hate the idea of setting goals.”  Seriously… why would I take advice on how to improve a goal-setting product from a person feeling uncomfortable ABOUT the very thing the product was designed to do!?  Ask a person who doesn’t like a book’s subeject how to improve the book, and they’ll just tell you “write another book.” LOL.

Further, I didn’t WANT ideas how to improve the product.  The product WAS DONE.  I wasn’t changing the product.  It was (IS) time to SELL the product.  I wanted help in marketing the product.  The group persisted with ideas in how to improve the product.  (To be clear, I recorded the session, so that I COULD incorporate all the useful ideas they had – I am always up for improvements, particularly improvements coming from a perspective completely unlike mine….)  But this wasn’t the time or the place.  I needed to sell.

I finally corralled the group.  They were professionals.  MARKETING professionals.  “Assume,” I offered, “that I am your client. And,” I continued, “I say to you, ‘the product is DONE.  I’m NOT changing the product.  Thank you for your feedback, BUT I AM NOT CHANGING IT.  I want to sell it AS IS.  Now…’”, I continued with the scenario, “how would you market it AS IS, if the client insisted?”  Finally I began to get useable feedback.

So… what are some suggestions For running a useful focus group?

1. Decide what specific category of advice you are seeking.
2. Make allowances – particularly in the beginning of the group – for feedback outside of the specific category you’re seeking feedback about.  Such non-relevant feedback helps the group form a collective bond, lubricates open sharing, and gets people thinking.  Who knows, MAYBE you’ll even get some not-on-point but EXTREMELY USEFUL feedback that DOES have huge value aside from the feedback you’re seeking.
3. As the focus group’s feedback progresses, gradually focus the discussion to the specific category of feedback you’re seeking.
4. Facilitate the discussion:
   1. Ask open ended questions, but follow up on people’s useful ideas.  Ask “What did you mean by that?”  “Tell me more what you mean when you say “X”….?”  Ask another member how they feel about what the first member said.
   1. Notice who’s dominating the group and seek to include the less-vocal by directly asking them specific questions
   1. Draw connections and/or divisions by pointing out aloud people whom seem to agree with each other and people whom seem to disagree with each other.  Ask people and sub-groups to compare and contrast ideas, suggestions, view points…
5. Record (either audio or video) the session, assuming you’ve asked permission and people feel comfortable with it; AND take notes (although, don’t let the note taking interfere with your ability to effectively facilitate the group – it’s for this reason that sometimes focus groups are run with two people, one solely taking notes, the other facilitating the group).
6. Establish an agenda, at least in your mind, for how long you’ll allow the introduction, the introductory non-focused, off-target sharing/group formation, and pertinent discussion.
7. Thank members both with direct words and tangibly, either giving them the product or some other take-away.  Perhaps even consider following up with an Emailed “Thank You”, asking if you can include them in future Emailings (who know… maybe you WILL make a future client/customer out of them)
8. Identify the most focused and helpful members and invite them to join your R&D Team

Hope this all helps. Post below YOUR experience in focus groups, product development or just trying to obtain advice you can use from friends (or the market)!