Building Something Nobody Understands?
You’ve done the impossible. You’ve built something genuinely new—a piece of technology, a service, a whole new way of doing things that doesn’t just improve a category, but creates one. The product works brilliantly. The vision is clear. There’s just one, enormous problem: nobody knows they need you yet.
This is the exhausting, often lonely, gap between innovation and adoption. It’s a challenge I know intimately from the early days of RedBalloon, and it's the exact challenge my latest guest on the Handpicked podcast, Kate Abrahams, is navigating with her groundbreaking company, TrafficAI.
Kate has built a platform that uses AI to predict reputational risk for large companies—an entirely new category of corporate risk management. In our conversation, we broke down the battle-tested playbook for building a customer base when you have to educate the market before you can even begin to sell.
If you're an innovator struggling with customer acquisition, this is the conversation for you. Here are a few of the core strategies we discussed.
Strategy 1: Look Bigger Than You Are
When you are creating a new category, nobody wants to be your first customer. People are risk-averse; they want to see that others have trusted you first. Your job is to create the perception of stability and authority, even when you’re a team of two working from a spare room.
I learned this lesson at Apple, and I applied it at RedBalloon. With only $2,000 a month in revenue, I took the biggest stand at a trade show, spending $10,000 on the booth. It was a terrifying bet, but it worked. We looked like a serious, established player. It gave potential clients the confidence to take a chance on us. This is a critical market development strategy: invest in one or two high-impact moments that build credibility and make you look like the leader you plan to become.
Strategy 2: Turn Your First Customers Into Your Sales Force
Your first few customers are more than just revenue; they are your most powerful marketing asset. Your job isn’t to be the salesperson—it’s to be the amplifier of your customers' success stories.
One of our first breakthroughs at RedBalloon was with Fuji Xerox. After they used us, I asked a simple question: "Would you be a case study?" Their answer was perfect: "Only if you're any good." We were, and they became our champions. These customer case studies became our entire sales strategy, showing other businesses how to use experiences for everything from sales incentives to employee recognition. I wasn't selling anymore; my customers were.
Strategy 3: Embrace Your Role as the Chief Evangelist
When you're building a new market, you are not a salesperson; you are an evangelist. Your primary role is customer education. You must be relentless in teaching the market about the problem you solve and the new possibility you offer.
This means embracing thought leadership. Write articles, create helpful content, and get on every stage you can. A powerful tactic I use in my own keynotes is to bring a customer on stage with me. Let them tell the story. Their voice is a thousand times more credible than your own. This consistent, educational approach is how you build genuine business authority and a loyal customer following.
These are the kinds of practical, hard-won lessons on business growth and leadership I am passionate about sharing, whether it’s on the podcast or in a keynote for a leadership team looking to find their own path to scale.
The full conversation with Kate goes so much deeper, covering how to keep your team motivated during the long journey of market education and, crucially, what investors really need to hear to fund a category-creating idea.
Thank you to Deel.com for supporting Australian business owners through it's sponsorship of Handpicked Season 6 for more information about Anytime Pay click here
Listen to the full “Building Customer Reach” episode here.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Building Customer Reach
What is "market development" for a new business?
Market development is the strategic process of educating a potential market about a new product category and the problem it solves. Unlike traditional marketing, which sells a known solution, market development focuses on creating the demand and understanding for something entirely new.
How can a small startup "look bigger than it is"?
A startup can achieve this through strategic, high-impact actions. This includes investing in a professional brand identity, securing a prominent position at a key industry event (even if it's a stretch), and publishing high-quality thought leadership content that establishes your authority in the space.
Why are customer case studies so important for sales?
Customer case studies are crucial because they provide social proof and translate your product's features into a real-world success story. A case study allows a potential buyer to see themselves in the story of a happy customer, making it one of the most credible and persuasive sales tools you can have.
How do you sell a product in a completely new category?
You must shift your focus from selling to educating. Your first job is to make your potential customers "problem-aware"—helping them understand the pain point you solve in a new way. Only after they understand the problem can they appreciate your solution.
What is the difference between selling and market education?
Selling is persuading a customer to choose your solution from a known set of options. Market education is teaching a customer to want something they didn't know they needed by framing a problem and a new possibility. For category creators, market education always comes first.
