How do you get your first customer?

For my first company, I focused on SME's and Little businesses. So I did it the old way and went to each store in my city, equipped them for free, and came back 2 weeks later with results and proposing to keep the software.

Almost got 50% conversion rate.

The software was a way to get Google Ratings and deeper feedbacks easier.

I would summarize it as attracting quality traffic to your landing.

First, you need to know who your customer are, or at least, for whom you are building the solution. In your case ecommerce and stores with digital presence are good candidates. Nice!

Then I would search on internet places where the decision makers of this business are. I would look at twitter, reddit and facebook groups.

And I would interact with this sites, and the people there. A post like this one, informing about what you have created, adapted to the specific space, would work well. So people will read it, and if the problem or history resonates with them they will visit your landing.

You can also try to ask for honest feedback and create relationships with potencial customers. If you trully want to solve their problems they will open to you, and thats good to improve the product.

I would say TFU : Traffic, Feedback and Updating new versions for the product

I hope it is usefull !

Hi Sherleen,

My answer would be a bit general but I hope it will help:
First, you have to define who is your ICP- Ideal Customer Profile.
Try to carefully craft it.
It is important to clearly understand her/his problems and pain points, and then establish the connection between their problems and your product.
The emphasis should be put on how your product solves their problems.
This is where the value proposition comes into play.

Afterwards, I would map what are the (online) places your ICP hang out, that is what are your potential channels to the market.
For example, what are the social media platforms your potential customers like, how they nurture their knoweldge, how they keep up with industry trends, etc.
I would split the 'how' into two parts: the content (what makes them hooked) and the channels (where).

Then, you have to develop your product's presence on those channels.

I really like Michael Seibel's (President of Y Combinator) advice for finding your first 10 customers:

1. Know them personally. Ideally you're solving a problem that you have or someone you know has.

2. Do things that don't scale (Paul Graham essay). Hand-recruit your first 10 customers.

3. Avoid hard customers. You should be looking for customers who (1) intensely experience the problem you're looking to solve; (2) are willing to work with an early-stage startup; and (3) are willing to pay to solve this problem.

4. Charge your customers. It's one of the best ways to figure out if they actually have the problem you're looking to solve.

5. Qualify your customers. You don't have to close the first 10 prospects you talk to. When you reach out to someone, you should generally have 4-5 questions that you can use to judge how intensely they have the problem you're trying to solve and how willing they are to move quickly. Then don't be afraid to move on quickly from prospects who won't actually close.

I need advice like this too, I don't know how to get my first client at the moment, I learn a lot in the comment section, thanks for your post

I got my first customer by building an audience first on Youtube. I worked on building my audience for about a year while I built my product in the background. I did some validation by setting up a landing page earlier and capturing emails.

My first user was my friend, the product I was building that I introduced to people around me

For my first biz, i launched newsletter (now it's closed) and share it via twitter. but i think it isnt the best way. too many resource needed.

I participated a lot in community forums - specifically subreddits related to my product. I participated a few times every day and I ended up getting most of my customers there! For Reddit, just be wary of overselling. It's a community very strict on anti-promotion. A good rule of thumb is to give more than you take. Good luck!

I wrote it here 👉 https://bloduct.com/pomotastic-real-case

Strangers can give you more advice.

For me, it was initially through Twitter, and reddit.

I’m just getting started too with a new product launch and I don’t have a social media audience. I’m starting on Twitter and on Instagram, but I know this is not an overnight process. I’m finding where my customer spends their time and joining those Facebook groups and forums. I’m looking for advice as well and trying paid ads too, but that adds up quick.

In the meantime, submitting to product hunt and the other startup sites should help with SEO over time.

Well, when you are just getting started, people will simply don't know you exist yet, and considering you have no significant budget for marketing, the only thing you can do is to think of someone that actually NEEDS your product and cold outreach to them, this way if you get that client, you can now put it as a case study in your website, and increase your authority in the market.

One of the best things to do when you are just getting started is to offer free-trials, this way customers will be able to test your product and get more and more testimonials.

And just start growing your audience and network. Offer some valuable information related to what you are offering (Content marketing), you could do that on social media.

Two steps:

1. You think of some who could benefit greatly from your product/service

2. You tell that them what your thing does

If that doesn't work, you gotta iterate a little on either:

• who it's for;
• what it does; or
• how you explain it

That's all. Make a thing, tell the right people what it does, hear their feedback and iterate.

hth!

I think your product is pretty cool - it looks simple and has a clear application.

My immediate thought when going to your page is that this line talks about tech - but who cares? Yawn.

"With PySnap, quality is more than just a priority - it's the very foundation of our generative technology"

Consider changing it to something like 'From boring product stills - Generate gorgeous Photos in Seconds and sell more products!

In your case you could go for direct sales. For example - there are hundreds of market place sellers who desperately need better images to sell from. You could literally write to them today and via the marketplace chat function. Etsy, ebay, not on the high street etc.

As an out of the box idea:
On sites like Etsy there is a market for people making 'product blanks' i.e. images of generic cups, frames t-shirts but in interesting places. People buy them and apply their designs.

As people are looking for this type of service - you could list your app for sale on Esty for 1 month (might need to check if you can list a service). After that they have to subscribe to you direct.

I think your product has a potential. It is also amenable to automated marketing which is great its not always the case.There are three stages in selling generating leads, qualification and conversion.
Here is how i think it can be marketed

1. Get a database of ecom companies using woocommerce. Its a plugin for wordpress that enables ecom on wordpress. You can either get it from db selling companies or you can get it by detecting if site is using it by crawling.(Lead generation)
2. Create a list of 100 companies where your product can improve their existing photos and generate few samples for them.You should only select companies that you can contact and have some sales(qualification)
3. Contact them and ask them to use your samples and see if this can increase their sale. Check with them if this is the case and sell them(conversion)

If your photos are appealing compared to their previous designs they would most likely agree to the test. If test results are successful in increasing the sale they are most likely end up buying your product.

Disclaimer: This is a marketing hypothesis and may not work. I am new as well and trying different strategies for my porduct, right now concentrating on twitter.

I've built 9 newcos since 1989, all cashflow positive in 90 days or less, never written a biz plan (read hundreds tho) never raised money (been offered tho). Biggest was 40 FTE and $7.22m annual rev at the highest. Each of the 9 newcos were very different industries, from printed newsletters to marketing agency, video company to coworking, live events to coffee subscription. Helped one retail/online startup grow from under $99k year to over $100m year in just over 36 months.

Launching sales efforts different for each newco and ranged from phone calls to events, emails to personal introductions, direct mail to yellow pages (back in the early 90s), and often...building the magnet (having possible clients & partners approach me directly)

In all 9 cases I started selling the thing, before the thing was really ready.

My first main questions when starting to build the thing: Who is this for? How will they benefit using in? How will I reach them? What will their decision process look like? What are they using now instead? What are their likely top 5-10 objections to buying? How can I make the decision process minutes, hours or days instead of weeks or months?

Hope there's something of help in here for you and best of luck

It depends on the business of course. What you're doing here, community outreach, is I hear a great way to get the word out. Word of mouth is great, so reach out to your LinkedIn network, friends, family, anyone who could refer you. Create a company page on LinkedIn and then invite your network.

There're many other ways of course, like webinars, email newsletters, ads, but for that you need to build a brand presence first.

I guess this probably varies a little, but for my product, which is actually a productized service, my first two clients came from an existing network.

I emailed people I had worked with in the past something like:

Hi X,
If you could pay a fixed cost to make one tech related problem go away what would the problem be?

From this a number of people replied detailing their problem, and then two subscribed to my product, in order to fix it.

How I have gotten my first customer in all of my businesses, or with new products in an existing one, usually goes like this.

Typically they are "near" my network but not in it. Someone I can relate to, or we both have a mutual friend. Having a cold start for something new is honestly great - no expectations, a fresh approach, and full transparency. Be transparent about your position, "Hey, I am new to this, but know it can be really great. I want to know if you could benefit. Are you be interested in finding out"

Once they agree, I treat it like how I foresee the future client process will go to test it out. Do an overview, needs assessment, pair their needs to your solutions - show the value - then talk about budget and expectations.

Do what you need to do to make the deal happen. The first one is almost always skewed to their favour because I know there are going to be lots of edits and solving needed along the way. I also don't want the price to be a big hurdle. Tip with that - give a small discount (15-30%) or make it free, never in the middle or bottom price. They won't trust it if it is too cheap, but if it's a bit below average, it feels like a small win but still enough money for them to take it seriously.

Your first customer(s) are beta. It is once you learn why they bought you know how to market your company properly. They will also teach you what is great about your product, what is ok, and what sucks. It is only after your first few I believe you can really start to market and sell at scale. Keep the first few grassroots.

It might sound vague and boring, but always just pounding the pavement to get a few in the bag gives you the confidence, insight, testimonial, and feedback you need to scale. It is then you start to deploy growth tactics that fit best for your company.

I haven't got any customers yet but what I am doing right now is being active on my twitter and engaging with #buildinpublic audience and learn from them. This even helped me grow my followers and network in short time. I am building 2 SaaS projects ATM and learning from the platform alot! I think It'll help you as well! What are you building BTW??

I think I was lucky in that I had built a network of people that knew me for the main service my business delivered (brand strategy) so I focused on reaching out to folks I already knew and saying I wanted to work with people I knew and trusted first. Public speaking also helped here as a lot of my network would be in the audience.

First, have a mindset of coaching people instead of thinking about getting your first customer. Once you start teaching what you are solving and how you are solving that. People might get interested and relate with you.

Once you get their attention, then make them aware of your product. Then push them to use the product for free and get their feedback.

I worked with startups, and mostly first few customers would come from your inner circle (Friends, mentors, colleagues).

Even though the product not build for them, it's a good starting point.

If you want to discuss it more, feel free to reach me.

No yet, I cant upload my product here sad

Not a Saas person but started as a freelance video editor about two years ago and if I remember correctly I got my first paying client via a facebook group with an already interested audience.

I'd suggest joining communities that are linked to the saas that you are building and posting helpful and informative content, this would lead to you becoming an authority figure and people would like to see what you do.

By doing this:

I wrote about this earlier as well in Zero To Founder. This is not the only way but some pointers especially if you have don't have any audience.

• Start with a landing page
• Submit to Betalist
• Build the waitlist by talking about your product in various forums like IH, Reddit, Facebook groups.
• You can share with audience about how your brainstormed your idea, finalized domain, show how you plan to build product and drive traction by building in public
• Allocate more more more time for marketing your landing page
• If possible, talk 1:1 with your waitlist users and see what they were looking for. (Read The Moms Test book) - This should give you more idea.
• If still no luck, try with some ads and stick to less than $100 budget and improve your waitlist.
• Launch on PH when ready

Hi, I am in the same situation and after a month still waiting for my first users etc.

I have been hitting the usual areas recommended - PH, this site etc etc but I don't think I am hitting the right audience for my product as I am not even getting haters replying (even bad responses are better than silence).

Don't really know what the problem is at the moment but am encouraged that some founders have taken some time for their product to get their first users then suddenly take off so time will tell.

I have been posting on twitter/linkedin etc and will carry on for now but might be more specific and target a vertical.

Hope you have good fortune with yours.