urMarketing 101 for startup entrepreneurs - yes...sell, sell, sell...find lead customers who you can listen and learn from. Be careful, lead customers don't have to be your top tier targets - they need to be representative of different target segments who might buy your product in large volumes in future if you focused on them. You shouldn't be wedded to one segment when you start out - you should be an explorer. You may be surprised - Go Wide before you Go Deep!
A small 4 person company I know recently took the "sell, sell, sell" approach. They spent roughly $2K per month on Google ad words and purchased a whack of keywords. Now they have about 175 unique customers, including, major airports, hospitals, and even some potential OEM prospects. More importantly, they have customer relationships and data to now begin analyzing the best potential market segments to make money long term.
Lesson Learned - focus at the outset can be limiting. Too much focus too soon can box you in to a market that may not be the most attractive - explore your options. Nothing can replace real data coming from live customers!
