Any feedbacks from the exchanges that you already contacted? Much better if you can also provide something that make them satisfied inorder for this token be listed officially. I hope, you can succeed in listing so that it can generates more interested people to invest and join in the token sales.
I'm not sure if the feedback from the exchanges are not quietly needed as they are a new project. They need to improve their project first rather than listing.
I think they can do both, project developments are really important but it can also increase the trust rating of a project once they are listed in some good exchanges, so doing both is really important too.