How to get sales in the first place? Assuming I'm understanding you correctly, that's the whole business problem, isn't it? It's (1). meeting a need (product fo

How to get sales in the first place? Assuming I'm understanding you correctly, that's the whole business problem, isn't it? It's (1). meeting a need (product for a market); (2). people knowing about it (publicity). I won't theorize or exposit further, just give my own experience. Mine was a product for programmers: I focused on creating a product that solved a problem that was frustrating and easy to solve. I began with the absolute minimum step towards that, set up a webpage, and released it on freshmeat. I used a dual license, meaning it was open source, but in some cases I could charge for it. I was prepared for there to be no interest, but there was some interest (500 people looked at it, and 1 emailed me). Thus encouraged, I continued, adding features, and releasing each one as a new version. A strange thing happened as I continued on this path - I saw a really cool way to do something that I had not even imagined before. I knew the components, but just didn't see the connection - maybe no else did... certainly, no one else acted on it. Seeing new things is not a matter of genius; it's a matter of being there - at the vantage point where it is visible. The other part is, having seen it, to actually do it. This is really what made it worth paying for, for my very first sale. Simultaneous with all this, I was fascinated by the idea of a "pitch", trying to succinctly capture: the essence of the idea; the benefit to customers; and the advantages over alternatives. I constantly rewrote this - typically, weekly. Summary: solved a frustrating problem with a neat solution that was constantly publicised via releases. Had a cool pitch, that was exciting and easy to grasp, and short enough to pass on to others by word of mouth. Kept working on the product regularly for a year before the first sale (it's reassuring for customers to see ongoing activity; and inspiring for technical users to see constant improvement). So, How to connect to users and make the initial sale? Users knew about it, wanted to buy it, so they found a way to buy it. My initial customer had management that understood and appreciated the technology (and taught me a lot about it, in fact). They sometimes needed permission, but only one level up (their immediate management). Sometimes permission would take 3 months. That was awful. Oh, and dealing with lawyers was awful (even though I respect lawyering, I didn't enjoy the experience). I also experimented with prices as I went along, and they ended up being 10 times what I started with (from $500 to $6,000 USD for top end)... thus moving higher up the management chain for "permission".