Pre-Sale Validation: Testing Demand Before Building

Building first, validating later wastes months on products nobody wants. Flip the sequence. Create a landing page with pricing and a real payment button. If people pay, build the product. If nobody buys, pivot before investing development time.

The Validation Problem

Ideas feel compelling until reality intervenes. Enthusiasm about a concept doesn’t translate to purchase behavior. The only reliable validation is actual money changing hands.

Interest surveys, email signups, and verbal commitments all correlate weakly with purchasing. “I would definitely buy that” differs fundamentally from completing a checkout flow.

The Pre-Sale Approach

Build a landing page describing your product as if it existed. Include features, benefits, and a clear price. Add a real payment button connected to Stripe or equivalent.

Label it as a pre-sale or early access offer. Transparency about timing is appropriate. The goal isn’t deception; it’s testing genuine purchasing intent before committing resources.

Executing the Test

Write compelling copy explaining the problem and your solution. AI tools can generate attractive landing pages quickly. The page needs to look credible without requiring extensive development.

Drive traffic through paid ads or community sharing. A few hundred visitors provide enough data to gauge interest. Watch for actual purchases, not just page views.

Interpreting Results

Purchases validate demand definitively. Real money from strangers means the concept has legs. Build the product knowing customers already exist.

Zero purchases after meaningful traffic indicates weak demand. Treat this as valuable information. Pivot the concept or abandon it entirely before wasting development cycles.

Case Study: Pieter Levels

Before writing his book MAKE, Pieter Levels created a simple landing page with a pre-order button. No book existed yet. The page described what he planned to write and offered early purchase pricing.

Pre-sales generated substantial revenue before a word was written. He validated demand, funded development, and built an audience simultaneously. The book eventually launched to proven, paying customers.

The technique applies to software, courses, services, and any product requiring upfront investment. Test willingness to pay before paying for development.