Steve blank Four Steps to the epiphany and other like books

[mendodistilling]

I'm working through a series of books and wondered what people have done to address the true form of their customers needs when preparing for investment and execution, as well as, maybe timing of repeated follow up to see where you are with the information. 

Have distributors been willing to help you produce this information using their sales analysis for your product categories?  I'm about to call a few after the weekend to chat about this theory because all the old school score guys I talk to are doing exactly what this book suggests to avoid like the black plague and I have always agreed and found the proforma of the standardized business plan to be just about worth as much as simply not having to repeat the basics of the company over and over again and source people who get the main idea but want to dive further.  What I would like to do now because of the size of the investment I'm aiming for is to get as much market analysis info as I can find and work with that for the reverse engineering of the company, from ideal sale exit strategy to finding a good team of people pull off a successful startup and everything in between.  Focused primarily on where I can get the most from and for customers.

I know once I get started some of this gets easier but I'm curious if discus and others have some really good resources for this industry.  I'm half tempted to see what the abc and ttb may be holding on to as well. 

Look forward to your input guys and gals.  Enjoy your weekend.