

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

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.&#60;p&#62;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.&#60;p&#62;Thoughts?
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sganesh
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
> 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.

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danudey
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
Good point. Thanks.

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bgnm2000
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
I think you are right. Seems like we have to do that. Thank you.

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jellisjapan
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
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
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.

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joeld42
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
_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.

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Roridge
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
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
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.

~~~
iamyoohoo
Yes, they definitely have. They are getting traction - and fast.

I agree with they buy "solution" and even if better, they will stick with that
old one for a while - which is why it's more important to get selling early I
think.

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

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bobbywilson0
"we can't really cut scope now"

Why not?

~~~
iamyoohoo
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
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.

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iworkforthem
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.

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pinksoda
What's your competitors site?

