Exploratory Markets vs. Buying Markets

There’s a very important distinction with regards to how we research markets between an exploratory market and a buying one.

An exploratory market = most of the interest among potential customers is focused on researching the subject matter while they’re still in the early stages of understanding how deep the pain actually is within their organization. More often than not, it’s also not just about understanding the pain depth but also what an actual solution architecture might look like and which one would best fit their organization and existing workflows.

A buying market = a more mature landscape where the pain/solution equation is much clearer. Customers are coming to conversations with vendors with ready-made budgets, priorities and at least a rough idea on how their ideal solution may look like.

Obviously, there are many shades of grey between the two - the dynamic here isn't binary.

Founders may struggle, in the beginning, to differentiate between these possible states of the market, since many on the customer side don’t identify themselves clearly as explorers vs. buyers. It’s critical to understand at which phase of the maturity of the buy-side we are currently, as this might indicate whether we’re too early or too late to the ‘party’.