I’ll help you find and talk to customers for you
Hello Indie Hacker fam, 👋
When talking with many of you, I kept hearing how we’re great at the making part but have a hard time with the finding and talking to customers part.
Let me help you out of the code cave and into the marketplace. Would love to share some feedback on your product or where to find potential customers.
If you’ve got a B2B product/app, reply below with your url and what kind of help you’d like:
-
Not sure what to say in your emails - I’ll draft a first email
-
Don’t know where to find people - I’ll show you where to look
-
No one’s replying to my email - Share an example email and I’ll edit it
-
Wonder what you should ask for - I’ll give feedback on your call to action
-
Don’t want to send cold emails - Here’s what else you can do
Want to see what kind of feedback you can get?
Check this out 👉 https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/should-i-open-source-my-project-fd6e8cabbf?commentId=-LNlDo3fAR0pPzer9CEe
Let’s do this!
UPDATE: I will be closing this thread soon. I'll take requests until Friday (10/5) at noon eastern.
This is great Vanessa. What you are doing is wonderful and can help many.
I am running UnderstandBetter (https://understandbetter.co), a personalized employee feedback system that gives managers insights they can take action on.
Before UnderstandBetter, I was working in a tech company where I learnt a lot from management to tech. But sales was never my strong point. To highlight few struggles I face in terms of sales,
2.Even if I curate a list , finding their contact and reaching out to them is the next struggle with the addition of getting a reply.
I have read a lot of articles on how-to-write-emails and how-to-sell, listened to a lot of ted talks. But, I need help from a personal perspective. If you can help with these I will be really grateful!.
Hi @UnderstandBetter I’ll have your video ready tomorrow!
Hi Vanessa,
The site is https://fakejson.com
We provide a mock api that allows developer to test with all kinds of mock scenarios and aids in rapid prototyping.
Right now, I'm really having trouble finding the right people to close a sale. My assumption is that our users (developers) are not the credit card holders at a company. Note: Users easily find our site, organic traffic is close to 60-70%.
Help?
Hi @JonathanL -- Just wanted to let you know I'll have your video tomorrow morning! Just so you know I've been using postman for years for api development and look forward to your api.
Talk soon.
Vanessa
Hi @JonathanL,
Was really glad to do this video for you and walk through the options for moving out of the free/developer tier and into the paid/managers tiers.
Here's the video:
https://www.useloom.com/share/4efffefe66fc428d8bcee71f02b5fbf7
and here's the outbound guide on google docs:
Vanessa
This is crazy stuff! And in the absolute best of ways :D
Thank you @ness for the lowdown and even the competitor analysis, was not expecting that at all. I'm gonna follow your guide and see where that takes us :)
I've also subscribed to Outbound Olga. Curious to see what it's like.
Hello Vanessa @ness,
I'd be so happy if you could help me with some directions on hellonext.co
Directions on finding the right marketplace is little tedious to me. Could you help me with that, please?
Hi @navdevl -- Just wanted to let you know I'll be doing your video tomorrow. We'll be looking to meet product managers. :)
Talk soon.
Vanessa
Thank you so much @ness
Hi @navdevl,
Got your video ready: https://www.useloom.com/share/e6cdccd04e414c468b191498d514523a
Here's your outreach guide to meeting and talking to product managers.
Hope it helps you start building your network of future customers.
Vanessa
Thank you @ness. I'll look into it and work on them. I'll surely let you know the progress too.
That’d be great Naveen. Would love to hear your progress.
Wow, this is so great! Love all the value you are providing to the community here on IH :) Would love to hear your thoughts on our remote user testing service UserLook - www.userlook.co
Right now we're experimenting with a bunch of things including paid acquisition and reaching out to pms/founders who are recruiting users on craigslist.
Hi @junetic,
I'm glad to help out fellow IH'ers. It can be a lonely road when we're doing so much solo.
Just finished your video walkthrough:
https://www.useloom.com/share/dd5477d56b1d4d0b9853bbcba51188f7
Was glad to learn about you and UserLook. Here's the outreach guide google doc. Let me know what you think.
Vanessa
Hey Vanessa,
I just watched the full video that you provided for us. Thank you so much for generously sharing your expertise!! I learned so much not only tactically, but also was really inspired by your general approach and attitude. It's so kind and generous of you to open yourself up to help out strangers and fellow hackers here on IH :)
I feel like I need to redo the favor for you or pay you for the care and time you put in for us! Would love to help you with what you're working on with Olga Outreach. Maybe design, ux/ui, brand..? Or you can use me to get feedback as a potential customer. Please feel free to reach out to me anytime: userlookco at gmail.com .
Will also try some of the tips you mentioned and keep you posted on how it goes. Thanks again!!
Hi Vanessa,
First, thank you for doing this. A lot of us here are good at developing apps, but not that good at being able to get customers.
I've launched https://ivynames.com , a domain name marketplace, after trying to sell some domain names using existing solutions.
Troubles:
I don’t know where to find owners to list their domains, for free
I don’t know how to raise awareness about this alternative
Contacted sellers on ebay (via message option), zero results. The message did get to them (I had a "thanks" reply), but nobody added their domain. Can't even tell why.
Tried to contact other sellers from existing marketplaces, but there's no option for that and domain contacts are private.
Any ideas on how to proceed with these would be greatly appreciated. Again, thanks!
Hi @mariusih,
Looks like you're trying to change the domain game!
Just finished your video to help you get some more visibility: https://www.useloom.com/share/e6bbca44769a4781a39099d78a0025df
Here's a link to the google doc Outbound guide for your marketplace.
Thank you so much, Vanessa! It sure is useful!
Really appreciate your time & expertise.
Hi, @ness
Here is my website URL: https://www.wpsmallfix.com/
Looking for feedback
Suggestion to improve UI
Suggestion related to call to action
Very excited about your report for my website.
Thanks in advance
Hi @wpsmallfix,
Just finished your video walkthrough:
https://www.useloom.com/share/000f35c6a54e4d5586066d14b53d54d3
and here's the Outreach guide
Let me know if it helps.
Vanessa
Hi, @ness
It's an amazing video session, I have changed the content of my home page also now working to set up proper content for the other pages as well, I am hoping to complete these all changes probably by next week, also trying to short out logo related stuff too.
Thanks a heap for your big effort on my website review.
let me know if I can do anything for you. :-)
Thanks
Hey @ness
Thanks a lot for your help, Let me check it out the details.
Hi @ness! That's really nice of you :)
I'd love some help on PDFShift, mostly focused on "Don’t know where to find people - I’ll show you where to look".
That's one thing I want to improve : Finding my buyer persona and improving my pool of customers.
Thank you for your help!
Hi Cyril,
Just finished recording your outreach video:
https://www.useloom.com/share/a20310416788452eb24d4659414ce841
I'd look into the integrations channel to get in front of your users. Meet them where they are already looking for an answer.
Here's the Outreach guide google doc with links to everything.
Wow! That was impressive! Thank you so much!
I've subscribed to your OutboundOlga early access program on ProductHunt and will surely upvote it when it will be live (just hoping I'll be there that day).
Reading on other comments, it looks like you did an impressive job for everyone! I'm not the founder, but I think you might be interested in becoming a mentor on growthmentor.io, I can put up a word to the founder if you want.
Anyway, nice job! I'm very impressed!
Good luck with Outbount Olga! I'll sure check it out!
Cyril, thanks for signing up for the pre-launch.
Would like to learn more about the mentoring.
@ness
Name : GrumpyText
URL : https://www.grumpytext.com
Elevator Pitch – > "Unlimited Content at $259 per month" and "Keyword Research and Optimization for your Blog Articles"
GrumpyText is an online Content Service for your Business, Marketing, Academic, Affiliate, Website and all other Niche Blogs.
All the content you need, composed by master authors (UK & US native speakers) for a flat monthly fee! Services we offer: "Content Writing" and "Keyword Research and Optimization for your Blog Articles"
writing samples : http://grumpytext.xyz/blog/
Hi @biku7, Got your video walkthrough up: https://www.useloom.com/share/67a38f0c943946f788e5be15ce235c49
And here's the google doc of the outreach guide.
Hope it helps you get some clarity in your content service.
Vanessa
Hello @ness how are you?
This is great from you. Having a second oppinion on your marketing and sales efforts is always great. So, thank you in advance for this.
Vanessa, if you were to find your first 10 paid customers for a B2B Productized Service, where you help Hotels with their PPC & Retargeting Campaigns to get more direct reservations.
Where would you go to find those first paying customers. What marketing channel would you use?
This is my marketing website www.StayBoost.com
Thank you again.
Osiris Arriola
P.S. I noticed you are working on an outreach service named Outbound Olga. Is this service ready?
Hi Osiris,
Got the video ready for you: https://www.useloom.com/share/146cdeab5e754df6afdb6b9fb8623963
and here's the Google doc of the Outbound Guide.
I'm working to get Outbound Olga ready. I'll send you an email with where I'm at -- would love your feedback.
Thanks,
Vanessa
Hi @ness
Excellent ideas. I can see you know your craft.
Just sent you an email to talk about Olga.
Looking forward to hear back from you.
Osiris
Hi Vanessa,
A friend (big O) and I (small o) built https://hivis.io - it's an API engine to turn data (HTML) into images.
The most obvious use-case is this demo page here: https://hivis.io/thumbnails/medium
I'm trying to find Alpha/Beta testers or some makers who might want to delegate some functionalities to our API.
I've tried a few approaches mostly reaching out manually to makers, people seem receptive but never stick.
What would you do if you were in my shoes?
Hello Oo's
Took a look at what you've got going. I like it!
The real question I'd want to answer is not can you get developers to use the API but can you get business to pay for it -- which means they have a problem with customizing images in their day to day work and they have the authority to buy your API. Usually a developer has to go to their CTO/Application Manager/PM to approve the expense. You need to speak to both the engineer and their manager.
Here's the overview video: (updated)
https://www.useloom.com/share/3372880929664c50a34c62def41e763e
and the outreach guide google doc.
Hey Vanessa, the audio seems missing from the video but reading through the document I can sorta understand where you're trying to go! Thank you so much for taking the time! I'll discuss with O and see how we can act upon these actionable items!
I re-recorded the video for you. I'm sure it didn't make sense without audio. Link has been updated.
Amazing video and write-up, just finished watching it! You completely understand our audience demographic and all I gave you is 1 page of our website. Wow, I'm impressed - honestly, thank you so much for your time and help.
P.S. I signed up to get more links and the b2b guide :)
Hi Vanessa,
Here is our website: www.aeroleads.com/ and I am seeking a for better clarity to increase the sales and marketing outreach.
@sheejogeorge Glad to do this video for you! Loved Pushkar's IH interview and used it to give some refined ideas to help with outreach.
Here's the video: https://www.useloom.com/share/2a8f1d253dfd4c75b592e93e453eb9e3
and the google doc Outreach Guide
Let me know what you think!
Hi Vanessa, thank you so much for your valuable time and sharing your views.
In the past, we have followed a few of these ways and got a fabulous result but your video has delivered some more great clarity, which I definitely share with my sales team and other marketing members.
As per your reference, I will also make sure to implement these tips, especially on LinkedIn and other mentioned site.
Thanks Again and I am really grateful for your valuable views that you shared with us.
Sounds good!
dapptective.com
I'm trying to find people running ICOs, token pre-sales, and crypto related news
Had a good time with this @armen
Here's the video walkthrough: https://www.useloom.com/share/3f16e0acf2ca4068ac4681e8a408e8d4
and the google doc for the outreach guide with all the places you can search to find your people. Also included some initial outreach messaging. 🙌
This is really cool Vanessa! Thanks a lot! Super in depth, and actionable. Damn! This served as the perfect kick in the pants for me. Holler whenever Outbound Olga needs testimonials
Appreciate it Armen. I'll definitely take you up on the testimonial offer! I'm trying to figure out the right offer that makes sense for indie founders. I think it's this kind of strategy guide + video and a subscription service to do it for you.
What do you think?
Well, you can look at companies like User Testing, who charge out the ass to have videos like the one you made me (but generally for usability stuff) and I believe they charge piecemeal rates.
How do you see the subscription side working?
Hi @armen,
Doing this thread I can see the one time strategy video offer works for indie founders. Not sure about pricing yet. What do you think? It takes me at least an hour to do the strategy and record the video walkthrough. It would be longer if I had to do a more polished guide or edit the video.
The subscription offer would be when you don’t want to do it all that manual outreach yourself. So I’d find your people, do the outreach campaign and drive it to your first meeting or next step in your funnel. It wouldn’t be a fit for everyone. It’s have to make sense based on their ARPA.
Thanks Vanessa, this is great.
Here's my URL: https://www.idiopage.com
I'd love to hear about alternatives to cold emailing which is my main approach at the moment but I'd like to try a second channel.
Glad to check out your site @Jefro118!
I'd like to see more deep personalization examples case studies. Like "John's was able to increase newsletter sign ups for his Shopify store with Idiopage."
Having demos specific to the integration where it works will also help move the conversation forward. Just because you can do any kind of website personalization doesn't mean your customer thinks you'll do it for them. They are special, unless they can see someone else like them using it.
Here's a link to the video: https://www.useloom.com/share/44493170b2304ff395a24e8191de725a
And here's the outreach guide google doc
Wow Vanessa, this is incredibly useful. I hadn't expected this much effort.
The LinkedIn stuff is exactly what I needed - I just signed up for Sales Navigator a week ago but I've been unsure how to go about it vs. email, especially because I don't really use LinkedIn to begin with.
This content is gold for Indie Hackers.
Thanks for the feedback Emile! 🙌
Doing this thread is helping me figure out the right level of offer for the community. I'm in pre-launch for Outbound Olga and would love to know what you think would be helpful.
It's an interesting idea, definitely useful for a lot of Indie Hackers.
I'm currently spending all of my time doing outbound sales and writing code in a feedback loop. If I reach the point where I have a very clear definition of who my best customer is and I still need to spend a lot of time on product then I can definitely see myself using a service like this.
While I've come to enjoy sales as almost being like a game where I'm leveling up each week, I've definitely found it to be a pain at times and I imagine I'm not alone. I think most bootstrapped founders/hackers, even if they've learned how to do sales, would still like to have more time freed up to work on product.
I think you are definitely on to something given the feedback in this thread anyway - looking forward to the Outbound Guide.
This comment was deleted 3 days ago.