Hey, First time poster who is looking for some advice from seasoned IndieHackers, please be gentle with me!
Hey,
First time poster who is looking for some advice from seasoned IndieHackers, please be gentle with me!
I'm looking to build a SaaS app in a market with a dominant player (https://aircall.io) I have a background in building contact centres so the technical work doesn't phase me (my area of expertise is development) and I think I've spotted some key features we can build in our app which Aircall doesn't have, my questions are how can I compete with such a mature product from a sales point of view?
If I was to speak to a potential client and say 'Yes, we're still building the MVP but it should be ready in 3 months' then I'm pretty sure they'd walk away.
But saying that I don't want to build an MVP for 3 months when there are no customers who want to use it.
How do you close and sign up potential clients with just a landing page?
Is it a bad idea to try and bootstrap a business where the MVP will take many months to build and there is already a mature product?
Love to hear some thoughts and thank you in advance
#product-feedback-request
There are plenty of companies that exist as small fish under the big fish; and there are plenty of customers who prefer a smaller, boutique experience. Also, there are plenty of customers who have never heard of AirCall. They're big to you, because your head is in that space. But I ain't never heard of 'em, and neither have bunches of potential customers.
If you say, "We're still building the MVP, but it should be ready in three months," everybody will walk away.
Take a look at Stadia:
https://store.google.com/magazine/stadia
They are still building the MVP, but it should be ready in six months; and that's a hard maybe. But that's not what they're telling customers. They're telling customers, "You won't believe yer flippin' eyes when you see this thing! Give us your email address, and we'll let you know when your mind will be blown."
You are very unlikely to close a deal (get paid) before you have a product, but you can generate and gauge interest with a simple sign up form. Then, once your MVP is ready for prime time, you have a list of hot leads to which to sell.
Competition validates the market. From a sales view I would go after a niche of people that need the product and focus on them. You said you have some key features that aircall don't -> go and validate if people actually need those said features and if they do, brand yourself as the solution. A lot of people sell without having a product (biggest example politicians). Make a landing page with prices that looks like you have the product and see if people hit buy. If enough people want it, you should have the necessary motivation to build the product.