How To Build An Award Winning Company

About this video

Martell argues for working backwards from the customer, illustrated by his brother Pierre’s home-building business. Pierre initially competed on lowest price, did much of the work himself, and built homes with no curb appeal that would not sell, leaving him deep in construction financing. Martell says they reversed the process: six people from the target market of first-time women buyers aged 28 to 32 toured open houses as secret shoppers, photographed and noted what they liked, then reviewed it with a designer, whose design was rendered and marketed. By Martell’s account, Pierre pre-sold 16 houses in the following 12 months and Martell Home Builders became a major Eastern Canada builder. Martell generalises this into three practices: always ask which customer said something before acting on an idea, co-create solutions with customers using clickable prototypes before spending on development, and pre-sell to validate demand — citing Tesla deposits and, by his claim, Pela’s Lomi composting product selling 22,000 units via crowdfunding. He closes with Peter Drucker’s idea that value lies in what the customer gets and will pay for, not the effort put in.

Key takeaways

• Value is what the customer gets and will pay for, not the effort or cost you put into building it
• Before acting on a product idea, ask who said it — which specific customer, and what evidence supports it
• Co-create with customers using low-cost clickable prototypes to test solutions before committing development resources
• Pre-sell or crowdfund to validate demand and test your riskiest assumption: that anyone wants to buy it
• Design from observed target-customer preferences, as in the open-house secret-shopper exercise, not from your own assumptions

Episode details: published February 28, 2022 · 12:17 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dan Martell’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

← Previous: How To Build A Successful SaaS: 5 Business Functions To Master · Next: How To Succeed In A Competitive Market →

All Dan Martell videos · Dan Martell profile · Dan Martell (official site)