Market reports tell you how much is sold in a sector, but not whether anyone will buy your product. Validating demand means checking it with the people who should buy it, before you invest in structure, staff or marketing.
1. Write down your hypotheses
Before talking to anyone, put in writing what you believe: what problem they have, what kind of company has it, who decides, how they solve it today and what would make them change. Validating means testing these statements one by one.
2. Talk to the people who should buy
The key step is conversations with buyers, engineers, operations managers and distributors in the market. These are not sales meetings: they are interviews to understand. Prepare open questions:
- How do you solve this problem today?
- What does it cost you, or what holds you back?
- Who takes part in a decision like this?
- What would you ask of a new supplier?
A few well-chosen conversations, with different profiles, are usually enough to see whether the hypotheses hold up.
3. Tell strong signals from politeness
A “that’s interesting” is not demand. Strong signals are when they ask for more information or a proposal, introduce you to someone else in their company, agree to a trial or a pilot, or when a distributor wants to represent you.
4. Decide with what you have learned
Once the conversations are done, it is time to decide: move forward in that market, adjust the proposal (segment, product, message) or rule it out and try another. Ruling a market out in time is also a good result.
Common mistakes
- Confusing the size of the market with demand for your product.
- Talking only to friendly contacts or people you know.
- Turning interviews into sales presentations.
- Investing before you have strong signals.
How we help
With IBD Markets we validate demand by talking to buyers and partners in the market, and we open the first conversations with the decision-makers. If you have not chosen the country yet, start with how to choose your first export market.
