We are still working on our product while a competitor product has launched and is getting traction from some top retailers already (we are in the retail ecommerce space). They do not have all the pieces we have so our platform is far better and we're mid way in development so we can't really cut scope now.<p>What do we do? Start selling with "product coming" promises? The product is in the large company space so the selling process takes a few months, so getting a headstart may not be a bad idea.<p>Thoughts?
Things learned from building a best of class enterprise product and trying to beat out the competitors. We were the last entrant in the market.<p>(i) List all completed features. - Guarantee these will work now & compare & contrast with your current competitors. Preferably give them a testing environment after the demo.<p>(ii) List all features currently being developed. - Estimate when they will become available. Make sure you fudge enough, so that you don't shoot yourself in the foot.Share this road map during the sales cycle.<p>(iii) Request your clients for any features that are important to their business, that you have overlooked.<p>(iv) Make a list all future features including the ones from the above list - Request your clients to prioritize these and give them a date by which you'll have the estimates done and have built a product roadmap. Share the roadmap.<p>(v) Be in constant communication with the clients. Keep them aware of any changes that is happening to the roadmap.<p>With all this we got beaten up on pricing as the clients were comparing apples to oranges.<p>So we hired sales people with expensive hobbies, and watched them work the magic.
It's rarely about being first to market. Apple didn't make the first MP3 player, Microsoft didn't make the first GUI, Google didn't make the first search engine. Stick with what you're doing; you can't be first, but you can be the best.<p>Personally, I would also keep in mind the 'competitor card'. 'Well, your competitor bought our competitor's version, and it's good, but if you go with us, you'll get these extra awesome features that'll help you get ahead of them' or whatever. Then again, that's a job for sales, not for development, and good sales people will know when to play it.
Go sell your product now. Get some evangelists. The worst thing to do is wait, because unless your product is going to save someone time/money - there won't be a real value in switching for some nicer features if they've already put the effort into registering with your competition.
How is their current marketing and recognition? It might be worth it to start up an early marketing strategy and at least out-market them before you actually can launch. I don't know about the retailers, but some of them may be willing to wait on purchasing a product if they knew something better was coming along later.
Learn from their mistakes. Look at the reactions from their customers, and make sure that you ship with their #1 wishlist feature and make sure that feature is emphasized.<p>Also ... "They do not have all the pieces we have so our platform is far better" This is dangerous thinking. People generally prefer the most minimal product that actually solves their problem -- only established users want more features.<p>If you can't cut (or postpone) features, can you ship an early closed beta to some "early adopters"? If people anywhere are using your software it will give the impression that it's right around the corner and people may delay purchasing. If you just say "coming soon" people will not believe that unless you have a track record.
Keep at it. If your product is better, you will win.<p>Try not to give those "coming soon" promises, you don't want to be under even more pressure.<p>Good luck
What about your trusted customers? Do you have any customers you are working with to develop your product? If they still believe in your product, keep working hard on it. Release a version - with fewer features than you planned on - sooner. What do people think about this suggestion? It sounds reasonable to me but I'm basing it on others' advice (Steve Blank on customer development) and not on experience.
Just ignore them, and focus on your todo list. Assuming that your product solve a problem for your customers, most important is that you focus on just that now.