Instead of developing, I'm trying to pre-sell; currently stuck.
Hi hackers,
I'm working on a new B2B side project. Finally, I'm trying pre-sell instead of coding. I am usually able to do some developing at night after work for about ~2 hours or so. I'm having a hard time finding things to do now, as I can't really send emails to potential customers this late at night. Any suggestions on sales-related things to do?
Thanks!
Here are a couple things you could do:
Good luck!
Jonathan
Thanks for the help, and great idea about Boomerang!
Ryan, I’m on the same stage as you are right now regarding cold emailing. Let me know if you want to exchange ideas.
Don’t know what industries are you in, but I’ve posted a kind of similar question here -> https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/ideas-to-get-more-clients-for-my-service-3475e7f293
You can automate your cold emails throughout the day and get high quality lists from exporting LinkedIn connects and using companies like TrafficMNGR.
Great idea!
Hi Ryan,
The solution of not emailing potential customers late at night is easy to solve. Use something like MailChimp to schedule email campaigns, or any other tool to schedule emails. Worst case your response rate is 24 hrs, that's not too bad.
It's smart to validate before building.
To understand your situation better:
Why do you think learning about sales is your bottleneck?
Do you currently have a clear idea of a cool B2B software that are trying to sell to folks? or, the idea itself is being generated as you contact people?
I'm trying to use Hubspot to track the data and their plan doesn't include advanced emailing. But that's a great idea though, setup Mailchimp for a scheduled email campaign(s)!
You're really close! I have a great idea, though I'm trying to refine exactly what I'm looking for in interviews so I can get the greatest consensus before I start building. I'm letting the interviewees shape the idea with a service they're looking to pay for that solves their problems.
Look at Hubspot Sales for those features.
Drift, SalesLoft, ToutApp, Outreach, plus a bunch of others have this functionality to automate sequences of emails and scheduling them.
Got it.
If I were receiving your emails, I'd love to the see at the bottom of your email a link to something that helps me imagine what you are selling.
That something could be:
Are you enclosing this "something" in your emails?
BTW, are they cold or "warm" emails?
The colder, the more things you gotta show.
Landing page is setup. So no more dev than that. Gotcha, I'll work in more of the contact's detail to help with the colder side of emails.
Thanks!!
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Agreed! 100 highly targeted personalized emails will get a much better response than a random blast.
In fact, my advice would be to look for only 10 or so highly targeted prospects. Do what you have to do to get them on the phone talking about the problem. Then, once you're done ask them if they know anyone who they might recommend you speak to.
After the call, send a follow up email to thank them for the time and ask for a recommendation again.
For the most part people are happy to help once you're chatting away on the phone and they realize you aren't a sales person.
Great info, thanks guys!
Great tip Mike. You could also use boomerang for gmail to schedule emails at your own convenience.
Mike, what times and days of the week do you think it’s better to cold email someone for a B2B proposal?
I'm reading Steven Kings 'On Writing' at the moment and in it he says something along the lines of... No one ever asks about the language, they always want to know what type of pencil I write with. It's a joke but I think the point he's trying to make is that we shouldn't get bogged down in the details. I don't think the time matters as much as people think it does.
In my experience the time doesn't matter as much as the follow up. Send it whenever, follow up at least 3 or 4 times if they don't respond and eventually, if you are nice and friendly, you'll get some engaging with you.