You can only make a first impression as often as you want

“You can only make a first impression once.”

Can you?

“First impressions are everything.”

Are they?

“If you don’t impress someone in the first 5 seconds you’ve lost them.”

Really?

I heard some form of those truisms when I suggested we present our not-yet-fully-finished product to some potential clients. There is a pervasive fear that what we currently have won’t impress anyone. That it would be disastrous to present it in it’s current state. That everyone who saw it would never want to talk with us again.

But is that ever really true?

I know you can’t present a product when we’re still working on it, but you can present the idea and show how we’re building that. The goal is not to sell, but to validate. We need to know if what we’re building is hitting the right notes. Are customers fascinated? Do they want it as soon as possible? Or are they merely pretending to be interested and won’t give it much thought after you’ve finished talking?

Both are valuable pieces of feedback.

Agile methodologies like SCRUM use an iterative cycle that requires feedback from actual customers at every turn. Without that feedback we don’t know if we’re building the right things, and risk wasting time on features that nobody is interested in. Idea validation is key in successful projects.

“Hey, look at what we’re doing” is a great way to spark conversation with customers. They might even tell you what they actually need to get closer to their goals. And that’s something you can sell.

With the right product you can impress them as often as you want and they’ll give you much more than 5 seconds if it strikes the right chord.