How To Easily Test Your Offer Before You Launch (And Stop Wasting Time Creating Products Nobody Wants)

How many times have you spent weeks (or months) creating a course, coaching program, or service offering... only to launch it and nobody buys?

You talked to a few friends who said "yeah, that sounds great!" Maybe you even posted about it in a Facebook group and got some thumbs up.

Then you launched and... nothing.

The problem is that you're guessing about demand instead of testing it.

But traditional market research is expensive, slow, and honestly? Kind of a pain. You have to recruit people, set up surveys, wait for responses.

But what if I told you there's a way to test purchase intent for your offer BEFORE you build it in about 30 minutes, for basically free?

And no, this isn't some "ask ChatGPT if your idea is good" nonsense.

This is based on actual research conducted by a major corporation that tested this method against 9,300+ real human responses across 57 different product surveys. The AI method achieved 90% accuracy compared to human test-retest reliability.

In other words: This actually works.

The Process

You're going to create synthetic customers - AI personas that match your target audience - and test your offer on them before you waste time building it.

Think of it like a focus group, except you control everything, it costs nothing, and you get results in minutes instead of weeks.

Step 1: Create Your Synthetic Customers

You need 5-10 "people" who match your actual target audience. And you must be specific.

Here's the exact prompt framework to use. Replace everything in brackets.

AI EXPERT TIP: Use Claude or Manus.im for your research instead of ChatGPT.

PROMPT:

You are participating in a product research survey.

DEMOGRAPHICS:

- Age: [42]

- Gender: [Female]

- Location: [Suburban Ohio]

- Income Level: Middle income, manages budget carefully

- [Add other relevant details like: has 2 kids, works full-time, struggles with time management, has bought online courses before but didn't finish them]

PRODUCT CONCEPT:

[Paste your complete product description, positioning, features, benefits, and PRICE]

QUESTION:

Based on everything you've seen about this product, how likely would you be to purchase it? Please explain your reasoning in 2-3 sentences.

IMPORTANT: Respond naturally and honestly, as if talking to a friend about whether you'd actually buy this. Consider price, whether you need it, if it's better than what you currently use, and any concerns you have.

Run this 5-10 times with different demographics that match your actual target market. Change the age, location, income level, specific pain points, etc.

Pro tip: Be brutally specific with the demographics. Don't just say "middle income" - say "makes $75K, has $15K in credit card debt, careful about spending." The more real you make them, the better feedback you'll get.

Step 2: Analyze the Responses (This Is Where It Gets Good)

You're going to get detailed, qualitative responses. Things like:

"I'm somewhat interested. The price seems reasonable if it actually delivers on the time-saving promise, but I've been burned by courses before that promised too much. I'd need to see some testimonials or a money-back guarantee before I'd commit."

This is GOLD. This is the stuff you'd pay thousands of dollars to get from a real focus group.

Now look for patterns.

• If 7 out of 10 mention price concerns, you have a pricing problem (or a value communication problem)

• If multiple people say "I don't see how this is different from X," you have a positioning problem

• If they're excited but hesitant about one specific thing, that's your objection you need to handle upfront

Step 3: Convert to Numbers (Optional But Useful)

The researchers used a fancy embedding similarity method, but you can do something simpler that works almost as well.

Take each response and run it through this second prompt:

RATING PROMPT:

You are a purchase intent rating expert. Read this response and rate it on a 1-5 scale:

1 = Definitely would NOT buy

2 = Probably would not buy

3 = Might or might not buy (neutral)

4 = Probably would buy

5 = Definitely would buy

RESPONSE TO RATE:

"[paste the AI's previous response here]"

Based on the language, enthusiasm level, and concerns expressed, what rating (1-5) does this response correspond to? Reply with ONLY the number.

Now you can see: "Okay, I got three 5s, four 4s, two 3s, and one 2. That's pretty good intent, but I need to address the concerns from the 2 and 3 ratings."

Why This Is A Great Approach

Here's what makes this different from just "asking AI if your idea is good":

1. You're testing with realistic personas, not generic AI responses

2. You get qualitative feedback that tells you WHY people would or wouldn't buy

3. You can iterate FAST - change your positioning, re-test, see if it improves

4. You find objections BEFORE launch, not after you've already built everything

The company that ran the original research was testing this on personal care products. But the method works for anything: courses, coaching programs, software, services, you name it.

The Real Use Case

Use this BEFORE you build your next offer.

• Got an idea for a course? Test it.

• Thinking about a new coaching package? Test it.

• Want to see if your current offer positioning could be better? Test it.

You'll know within an hour whether you're sitting on a winner or need to go back to the drawing board.

And even if the synthetic customers love it, you still need to validate with real humans eventually. But this gets you 80% of the way there for basically zero cost and zero time.

Stop launching into the void and hoping people buy. Test first. Iterate. Then launch with confidence.

The prompts are above. Go use them.