It's a Balancing Problem. Or is it?

I listened to a presentation yesterday from a company promoting some new technology they have been working on. It's a way to automatically balance the airflow of a forced air system in a home.

I believe they have a very promising technology. The group they were presenting to, however, was not easy on them, including myself. We were not rude in any way, we're just at the top of our fields in construction so we were asking challenging questions and giving valuable feedback.

As an outsider looking in, I realized they were solving the wrong problem. They were presenting a homeowner problem to a room full of builders and renovators. If there's anybody who knows homeowner problems, it's builders and renovators.

In business, the only way you'll get off the ground is if you know how to market and sell your product. Without sales, you have no business. The trick is knowing who to market to and how to market to them.

In the presentation yesterday, they had a solution to a problem, balancing the airflow of a forced air system in a home.

The thing is, that's not the real problem. That's one potential solution.

The real problem for homeowners (and builders) is having rooms throughout the house that are different temperatures.

Additionally, they also pitched it in a way that did not attract the big builders. To the presenters, a $2,000 increase in the cost of building a home was not a big deal. To a builder who builds dozens or hundreds of homes a year, that is a very big deal.

Now it's time to do some work on my own business...

Am I clear on the problem I'm solving?

Am I clear on who my target audience is?

Am I presenting it in a way that my target audience needs to see/hear it?