Last month, I committed what most business “experts” would call entrepreneurial suicide.

I stood on stage at a startup conference in Limassol and announced I was launching a new marketing program.

I showed beautiful slides. I outlined the curriculum. I detailed the transformations clients would experience.

Then came the Q&A.

“When does the program start?” someone asked.

“That depends on you,” I replied. “I haven’t built it yet.”

The room went silent. I could see the confusion on their faces.

Then I dropped the bomb:

“I’m not building anything until it sells out completely.

If it doesn’t sell out, everyone gets their money back, and the program dies.”

Three marketing “gurus” in the audience visibly cringed.

One actually laughed.

Two weeks later, I had sold $127,000 worth of a program that didn’t exist.

100% sold out. Zero risk. Full validation.

Welcome to the Customer-Less Launch strategy.

The Product Development Delusion

The traditional product launch model is insanity:

1. Spend months (or years) building a product
2. Drain your resources perfecting it
3. Launch to crickets
4. Realize nobody wanted it
5. Go broke

This broken approach is why 95% of products fail. And why so many entrepreneurs end up burned out, broke, and bitter.

The fundamental flaw? Building before selling.

It’s like constructing an entire restaurant based on your assumption that people want underwater-themed sushi fusion…without ever asking if they’d actually eat there.

The Customer-Less Launch Flips The Script

Instead of the build → sell sequence, the Customer-Less Launch uses sell → build.

The core philosophy is simple: If you can’t sell the idea, you definitely can’t sell the finished product.

By selling first, you accomplish three critical things:

1. Validate demand with actual money (not worthless survey responses)
2. Generate capital to fund development (other people’s money, not yours)
3. Create a waiting customer base (eliminating marketing costs)

When I shared this approach with a client last year, they thought I was crazy. They had already invested €80,000 developing their coaching program.

After six months, they’d signed exactly zero clients.

I convinced them to shelve their existing program and try the Customer-Less Launch. Three weeks later, they had eight paying clients and €32,000 in the bank.

The program they ultimately delivered was completely different from their original vision—because it was shaped by paying customers, not their assumptions.

The 5-Step Customer-Less Launch Blueprint

Here’s the exact process I’ve used to launch six-figure products with zero upfront investment:

Step 1: The Minimum Viable Promise

Most entrepreneurs focus on their “minimum viable product.” Wrong approach.

Instead, develop your “minimum viable promise” – the transformation you’ll deliver, not the mechanism that delivers it.

For example: - Bad MVP: “A 6-module course on content marketing” - Good MVP: “Double your inbound leads in 90 days”

The mechanism can change; the promise is what matters.

To build your MVP, answer three questions:

1. What specific outcome will customers achieve?
2. By when will they achieve it?
3. What makes this outcome uniquely valuable?

The best promises are specific, timebound, and unique.

Step 2: The Reverse Roadmap

Most launch plans start with what exists and build forward.

The Customer-Less Launch starts with the promise and works backward:

1. What’s the final transformation?
2. What are the major milestones to reach it?
3. What are the key obstacles customers will face?
4. What resources/support would overcome those obstacles?

This reverse-engineering does two things: it creates a compelling sales narrative AND provides the blueprint for what you’ll actually build (if it sells).

One client used this approach and discovered that what customers actually wanted wasn’t his 12-module masterclass, but rather three tight frameworks and weekly accountability. This saved him hundreds of development hours.

Step 3: The Deliberately Incomplete Offer

This is where most entrepreneurs freak out.

In a Customer-Less Launch, you openly acknowledge that the product isn’t built yet—and position that as a strength, not a weakness.

The key phrase: “This isn’t built yet because I want your input to shape it.”

Position your buyers as co-creators, not just customers. This accomplishes two things:

1. It removes the pressure to have everything figured out
2. It creates psychological ownership among early buyers

The most powerful example of this came from a consulting client who was terrified to admit her program wasn’t complete. When she finally did, enrollment actually increased—because customers loved the idea of influencing the final product.

Step 4: The Risk-Reversal Guarantee

To eliminate hesitation about buying something that doesn’t exist yet, create an unconditional guarantee:

“If I don’t get enough buyers to launch this program, everyone gets 100% of their money back.”

This creates a win-win scenario: - If it sells, you’ve validated demand AND secured funding - If it doesn’t sell, you’ve saved yourself from building something unwanted

For my recent launch, I went further: “If I don’t get enough buyers, not only do you get your money back, but I’ll personally give you a 30-minute strategy call to find you an alternative solution.”

This removed all risk for the buyer while demonstrating my commitment to their success regardless of the outcome.

Step 5: The Development Partnership

Once you’ve sold your minimum threshold of customers (I recommend at least 80% of your goal), bring your buyers into the development process.

Create a structured feedback loop: 1. Share the initial roadmap 2. Conduct small group calls to gather input 3. Adapt based on feedback 4. Preview developments before finalizing

This accomplishes something remarkable: by the time you deliver, your customers have shaped a product that perfectly matches their needs. And they feel ownership over its success.

The completion rate and satisfaction scores for Customer-Less launches consistently outperform traditional launches by 30-40%. Why? Because customers helped build exactly what they wanted.

Implementation Timeline

The beauty of the Customer-Less Launch is its speed:

Week 1: Develop your Minimum Viable Promise and Reverse Roadmap Week 2: Create a simple sales page and enrollment process Week 3: Open limited pre-enrollment with risk-reversal guarantee Week 4: Close enrollment and either refund (if unsuccessful) or begin development partnership (if successful) Weeks 5-8: Build with customer input

Traditional product development often takes 6+ months. The Customer-Less Launch compresses this to 8 weeks or less while eliminating risk.

Real-World Results

This isn’t just theory. The results speak for themselves:

• A coaching client launched a productivity program that sold out at €2,500 per seat before writing a single word of content
• A consultancy pre-sold a €15,000 implementation package with 100% of the fee paid upfront before the methodology was finalized
• My own marketing accelerator program sold out in 72 hours with zero advertising cost

But the most telling statistic? The success rate.

Of the 17 Customer-Less Launches I’ve guided, 14 reached their sales threshold and moved forward (82% success rate).

Of the three that didn’t sell, the entrepreneurs saved an estimated €30,000-€50,000 each in development costs they would have wasted on unwanted products.

Even the “failures” were victories.

Why Most Entrepreneurs Won’t Do This

If this approach is so effective, why isn’t everyone doing it?

Three reasons:

1. Ego Most founders are in love with their ideas and terrified of rejection. Selling first means facing possible rejection before you’ve invested years of effort. It requires humility and courage.

2. False Security Building in isolation feels safer. You can tell yourself the product is perfect, and if it fails, blame the market or your marketing. Selling first removes these comfortable excuses.

3. Perfectionism The Customer-Less Launch means putting something imperfect into the world. It means saying, “I don’t have all the answers yet.” This terrifies control freaks.

The Paradigm Shift

The Customer-Less Launch isn’t just a tactic. It’s a fundamental rethinking of what entrepreneurship means.

Traditional product development asks: “How can I build something perfect?”

The Customer-Less Launch asks: “How can I create value with the least possible risk?”

One approach treats customers as passive recipients of your genius. The other treats them as active partners in creating something valuable.

One is based on ego. The other is based on service.

And in 2025’s chaotic market, only one consistently works.

Are you brave enough to sell before you build?

Jan

PS: What is happening next week? Should I reveal how to build a 7-figure business out of a mailing list with just 287 Subscribers?

Hit reply and tell me what you want to read about. Where are you struggling?