In new businesses, one of the most uncomfortable moments arrives when you already know what you want to build but don’t have it yet. And even so, you already need to talk to customers, secure resources, and prove the idea is worth something.
The temptation is to wait until you have something finished. The problem is that by the time you show up with that, you’ve already lost months of learning you could have gathered earlier.
Sell the Problem Before the Solution
In early stages, what you’re selling isn’t the product — it’s the diagnosis. If a prospective customer nods along as you describe their problem, if they say “that’s exactly what happens to me,” you’ve already gotten something valuable: not a customer yet, but confirmation that the problem is real.
Tools like the value proposition canvas exist for exactly this: they separate the customer’s frustrations and tasks from the solution, so you can confirm you understood the problem correctly before promising an answer. If you’re still defining who that customer is, pair this with how to build your ideal customer profile.
How to Communicate Something Still in Progress
Honesty works better than most people think. Saying “we’re building this, and we want to make sure it solves your real problem before we finish it” builds more trust than showing something polished that doesn’t quite fit.
Early customers don’t sign on despite the imperfection — they sign on because they feel part of the process. That closeness is hard to recreate once the product is already locked in.
The Balance Between Promise and Delivery
What you do need to watch is not overpromising. Your value proposition in early stages has to be honest about what exists today and what comes next, because a customer who feels misled doesn’t just leave — they talk about it, and word gets around fast in a networked local business community like Atlanta’s.
Before your next conversation with a prospective customer, write one sentence describing their problem in their own words, without mentioning your product. If that sentence earns a “yes, exactly” before you show them anything, you already have the starting point of your value proposition.
