Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore

I promised no business-y stuff on this site, but rules are meant to be broken.

It dawned on me…how could I possibly NOT post about the place my work may have all started?

I read Crossing the Chasm in 1993 when I was working for my first software startup.

I had come from a high-end, super niche import business that had a retail storefront and a booming mail-order business. I knew how to sell by educating through storytelling and hands-on demonstrations. I didn’t know squat about the software industry or B2B marketing.  

I think Crossing The Chasm is probably the first time I started to think about the psychology of marketing and the critical importance of knowing what phase of the technology adoption lifecyle you are in.

Looking back now, this book, combined with a solution selling training program I took around the same time were the seeds for my thinking around customer focused marketing and eventually Ideal Customer Discovery.

A hell of a lot has changed since Geoffrey Moore introduced us to the technology adoption curve, but the notion that you have to know who you’re selling to and why they care remains constant.  

P.S. I wonder if I can put my hands on my original copy. Most likely it was lost in the great book purge of 2005 when I was making room for baby number two. (That purge is still one of my greatest regrets in life.)

First published April 17, 2021

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