At 6:47 pm on Friday, halfway through September, Paul sits alone in his office upstairs. His firm’s vans are parked in the car park for the weekend.
On Paul’s screen is his weekly e-mail from Steve (his business development manager), and the e-mail shows
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0 clients signed this week,
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9 clients signed since April,
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and “We’re still in the early days”, a line Steve’s ended his e-mails with every Friday since June.
On his office wall, a whiteboard with big writing says “80 clients by Christmas”, written in the first week of January. Christmas is 14 weeks away.
Paul types, “We’re not going to hit 80 clients by the end of this year.” He reads the line back and deletes it.
Then he types, “Thanks, Steve. We’ll get ’em next week” and hits send.
Paul’s the Business Owner of a facilities management firm of 47 people, built over 21 years in Swindon.
His firm services and repairs fire alarms, emergency lighting and electrical installations in offices, schools and shops.
Most of his 47 people are engineers on the road.
Paul started as a self-employed electrician with 1 van, and his firm grew through word of mouth and repeat work from local schools and landlords.
In April, Paul launched a new product, a fixed fee per building, per month. The fixed fee covers a building’s fire alarm, emergency lighting and electrical safety testing.
Paul’s firm books every visit and uploads every certificate and report to an online portal, where clients download:
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the fire alarm inspection and servicing certificate (BS 5839-1:2025) every 6 months,
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the emergency lighting periodic inspection and test certificate (BS 5266-1:2025) every year,
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and the Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) (BS 7671:2018+A4:2026), at least every 5 years.
Paul sells the fixed fee to small commercial clients with 1–10 buildings, each building shared by several tenants.
Paul’s engineers already manage 120 buildings for small clients, so Paul assumed the same clients would move their safety testing to the fixed fee.
To Paul, 80 of their 120 clients looked like an easy number to shoot for.
In facilities management, work arrives by word of mouth and repeat contracts, so in 21 years Paul never had to find out why anyone chose his firm (or why they still use his firm).
So when only 9 of Paul’s 120 clients signed up for the fixed fee, Paul had no way of knowing why, and Steve’s Friday e-mails gave Paul a reason not to ask.
Steve’s line, “We’re still in the early days”, has ended every Friday e-mail since June. In June, 2 months after the launch, the line sounded true.
And Paul’s reply, “We’ll get ’em next week”, offers Steve the same early days story back.
Both phrases describe a product that works and only needs more time. “Early” has no end date, so the moment Paul has to ask whether the fixed fee works never comes.
Everyone in business says a product launch takes time, but no one questions how much time is too much time.
Paul already knows how much time is too much time. He typed the answer himself, “We’re not going to hit 80 clients by the end of this year”.
Paul doesn’t need anyone to persuade him of the fact that the fixed fee isn’t working.
What Paul’s waiting for is permission to say the sentence out loud.
Since June, Paul has sent Steve the same reply, “We’ll get ’em next week”, 16 Fridays in a row.
If Paul spoke his mind out loud, it would mean admitting the fixed fee hasn’t worked since April.
And next Friday won’t look any different for Paul’s firm. In 21 years, since Paul started out, he’s never had to call anyone in for help.
When a fire alarm or emergency light fails in a client’s school, office or shop, the client calls Paul’s firm, and Paul’s engineers find the fault and fix it.
Asking for help with the fixed fee would put Paul on the other end of the phone for the first time.
Paul can find a fault in a fire alarm, but Paul is struggling to find out on his own why 111 of his 120 clients haven’t moved to the fixed fee.
Your Competitive Edge Blueprint™ starts with the question most product launches skip: who will buy your product, and why?
Your research identifies
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who buys your product, from data analysed in your business sector,
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what your prospects have already tried, and rejected,
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the exact words your prospects use to describe a problem to a colleague over a beer at the pub,
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and what you can say that no other firm in your sector is saying.
Once you know who buys your product and why, every marketing approach you take focuses precisely on the prospects most likely to buy, using the words your prospect uses.
Paul’s Fridays look different now. Steve’s e-mail still arrives at the end of every week, but now it ends on what clients said, in their own words.
Paul knows why clients chose his firm, and why they still use his firm.
Before Steve calls any of their 111 clients, Paul and Steve both know what that client has already tried, and what a small commercial client needs to hear before moving their safety testing to the fixed fee offer.
If you already know your product launch isn’t working, don’t wait for anyone’s permission to say so. Build your Competitive Edge Blueprint™ and prevent your product from failing.
