Why market research is BS - (do this instead)

We’ve both been there before…

You take on a new client, and you begin doing market research.

You spend days inside of reddit forums, reading blogs, and conducting interviews.

At this point you feel a sense of clarity overwhelming you, almost as if a crystal ball is showing you how much money you’re going to make on this offer, because you understand your market so well.

You craft your breakthrough sales letter, the copy seems amazing - your resonating so much with your prospects you almost end up purchasing your own offer.

And then the moment of truth…

You launch this offer, and as you await the sales coming through the door you kick your feet up and watch your favorite episode of anime (maybe Attack on Titans).

But then, the sales aren’t coming in as you expected and you begin panicking.

First you start with the sales team, they tell you the leads aren’t qualified or a “good fit” for the offer but you assume their just terrible reps.

So…

You fire them.

Then you scramble to onboard new reps onto the offer immediately - as time is fighting against you.

And finally you secure the reps, apparently this guy’s a killer and all your problems should go away.

But then, instead of him collecting cash like a bank robber - he’s not hitting KPI either.

You didn’t have to fire this guy though - he’s a killer so he decides to leave on his own accord.

Now you’re stuck, confused, and stressed about the trip you just paid for to Dubai as you start to realize the trip isn’t going to pay for itself anymore.

Sounds familiar?

We’ve all been there, but in today’s newsletter I’m going to tell you why this happens - and how you can solve this once and for all so you collect cash from day 1 without wasting a bunch of time, money, and energy.

And it all starts with the research process.

Now I want to preface by saying understanding your market is the highest lever you can pull for crafting breakthrough marketing promotions.

However there’s one problem…

Research is only one part of the equation, and your thesis (idea) is unvalidated until you finish doing this one thing.

What is this one thing?

Getting someone to pay you.

I’m a big believer of selling before developing.

Meaning before you spend time and money developing your product, your sales process, and all of your marketing assets you should just try to sell something.

And as you’re actively selling your product, pay close attention to the specific problems, and desires that lead to the sale.

You see the problem with only conducting market research is people aren’t paying you!

Most people don’t think about this - but someone pulling out their credit card and paying you is the only true conclusion of validation.

Think about it like this…

Someone has to pull out their credit card, enter in their details, and press purchase (knowing their bank account is going to shoot down a bit)

This process in itself is painful.

Very painful.

And if you’ve spent time, energy, and money developing everything before this critical step, how do you know that your offer is strong enough to eliminate this pain?

You don’t.

And it’s arrogant to assume that you do.

Now some “gurus” will tell you to “Launch a few ad angles, and view the CTR, and the opt-in rate, and that’ll tell you if the market is interested”.

But after spending over $100,000 on a single test I can tell you confidently CTR, and opt in rates have zero correlation to the cash you collect.

For example - you can have an ad with a high CTR, and a high opt in rate targeting the wrong audience. This particular audience could be dead broke, with zero intent of paying for your $5,000 package.

Instead start selling from day one.

And the market will tell you everything.

You’ll understand the price point, the offer, and the true psychographics of your audience.

Here’s my formula for launching new offers:

1. Analyze the marketplace (market research and competitor research)

2. Come up with a thesis (product positioning, and the offer)

3. Start selling (cold outbound, warm inbound, and cold traffic)

4. Take sales calls (collect cash, and pay attention to the buyers)

5. Craft marketing promotions to attract more buyers to the offer

The Problem Most People Hit at Step 4

Here's where most people get stuck: they're taking sales calls, but they're not systematically capturing the intelligence that makes or breaks their marketing.

You might close a few deals and think "great, it's working," but you're missing the gold mine of data sitting in those conversations.

The questions that determine your success:

Which prospects actually convert vs. waste your time?

What specific language triggers buying decisions?

What objections kill deals before they start?

Which customer avatars are worth 3x more than others?

Most people "wing it" with manual notes and gut feelings. The successful ones obsess over this data.

Why I Started Building Software

After running performance marketing for a $1B startup, I realized something that changed everything:

Your sales calls contain better marketing intelligence than any focus group, or research.

In fact - some of the greatest founders in history will attest to this.

Including Steve Jobs.

Every sales conversation reveals the exact messaging that converts, the customer avatars worth pursuing, and the triggers that make people buy. But manually analyzing hundreds of calls? Impossible.

So I built an AI that automatically:

Identifies which customer types convert at 40%+ vs 12%

Extracts the exact language patterns that close deals

Creates winning ad scripts based on your best conversations

Maps objections to specific buyer personas

It's like having a marketing strategist listen to every call and tell you exactly how to optimize your campaigns.

The result? You skip the guesswork phase and go straight to profitable marketing that attracts ready-to-buy customers.

Bottom line: Stop doing research in isolation. Start doing research while you're collecting cash.

Your sales calls are your best market research tool – if you know how to use them.

Talk tomorrow,

Malcolm

P.S. -  Last call for beta members. If you’re running an offer doing over $100,000 per month, or you’re spending over $30,000 per month on paid ads. Reply to this email if you want to increase your ROAs, and cash collected (without burning through your ad budget, manually reviewing hundreds of sales calls, or spending hours in sales feedback meetings)