21. Have we previous relationships directly or through a friend/partner?
22. Does their buying process, match how we will be selling initially (EG do you have to be on an approved vendor list)?
23.
24. Industry Vertical As a general rule the buyers will value a focus and knowledge of their business, processes and markets and place more value of products or services designed for them specifically. Sizing, targeting and positioning can be specifically refined to draw out your product or service differentiation.
25. Buyer/Customer profiles The characteristics of likely early adopters of a new supplier/product or service can be defined and there can be a focus. For example Tier 2 organisations in chosen sector(s), e.g. Financial Services or Telco’s as examples may be smaller more flexible, more entrepreneurial challengers in their business sector and therefore seeking more innovative products and services to capture market share in their business.
31. Identify a small number, you are willing to invest in as Beta clients on the basis they will become a reference site and case study (Generally don’t give anything for free, and have a clear upgrade plan so that these clients are commercially viable in the long term)Beyond the Beach-Head<br />Firstly there is usually a lot of learning when executing a beach-head strategy, do not be afraid to adapt as you learn in order that the beach-head can achieve its objectives. It’s also important that everyone understands it could fail, if it shows signs of failing , carry out an objective review , because perhaps it’s not failing but actually confirming a result, e.g. there is not a market for the product or service, or there may be a market but not at a viable price..etc. <br />Finally and most importantly, you must have a plan to scale as you secure success in the beach head, tactics may differ such as launch another beach-head, form a pincher movement, flood the market, think military how will we conquer our chosen market. (Perhaps the subject of a follow on opinion piece)<br />International & Virtual Beach-Heads<br />Though I have largely covered the area I intended, I want to acknowledge here that some products and services may have their potential either on line or Internationally. The key is still to create a focused Beach Head in order that initial goals can be secured. For example in a cloud based market, the service such as a SaaS service can be independent of customer location or vertical etc. However in order to secure initial objectives and focus the organisation, a beach-head strategy is still of very high value. Perhaps for example the on line integrated e-marketing plan will require SEO, partner web sites, social media forums, trade portals etc. , so having a clear plan and focus will enable higher chances of success.<br />
![Getting into business (Have you a Beach Head Strategy?)<br />Recently I have either met with or reviewed start up plans for over 40 new enterprises, I was surprised that many, when presenting their plans to enter or develop their initial customer base had very broad criteria for targeting sales. Initial review suggest most of the organisations had a valid proposition, however we know that despite this many still fail (for many different reasons). The primary reason is a lack of focus and precision. Start-up & early stage organisations are generally resource constrained, so every decision to invest time is an opportunity cost decision, i.e. when they make a decision to invest in one thing; it is at the expense of some alternative. This is particularly true when it comes to securing initial customer sales. The key to success is to have a beach-head plan.<br />In this piece we consider the following:-<br />,[object Object]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/beach-headstrategies1-2-110701041307-phpapp01/85/Beach-head-strategies-1-2-1-320.jpg)
