Talk to customers where to find them and how
Hello,
I constantly hear that you need to talk to potential customers in order to validate your idea. I am still stuck as where do you find your first customer. A lot of times we hear on podcasts and read on blogposts that we should be talking to our customers.
Well where are they? How to get in touch with them? Where would you find your first customer and where your second? Would also love to hear / read some stories about talking to customer but more importantly where to find them and how to get in contact with them. How would you start your conversation with someone when you try to find out what to build next. What if I don't know anyone in that world?
Would love to hear /read real stories on this topic.
Ideally, you find someone and make them your customer by finding out what you can provide them that is of value to them. A lot of startups build something and then look for people who want it, but I think that is backwards.
With Burstware, it initially started as an internal project I have used on several projects with my clients. I've been interviewing developers to see what their biggest challenges are, in order to get insight on the features they need. I am also working with clients who are already paying a lot for the same type of service I am providing, but I provide it at much lower cost and faster speed, so theoretically they are potential customers.
I can tell you how I validated my first startup idea. Target market were law firms so I spent about a week collecting contact information from law firm websites. Luckily lawyers at law firms post all of their contact info so it was relatively easy but time consuming. I had about 3k e-mails after a week. Then setup an e-mail campaign using GMass for Gmail where I asked them for 12min of their time with the first 25 people to book a meeting getting a $15 Amazon gift card. I was able to speak to 30 people through this method and determined that the idea wasn't great and I needed to move on.
I don't now if this is the best way of doing it but that's how I did it.
Finding your first customers and understanding their problem is the first step in the long journey of building a successful business.
If you have never met your customers, be mentally prepared to have your initial idea crushed! But it's normal, you will learn from them.
cashcoach.io is a b2c product targeted at millennials, so it's easy to talk to hundreds of people starting with your friends, friends of friends, then quickly switch to your target users.
B2B is harder. Depending on your market, you may need to attend industry conferences, know people in that market, use Linkedin.
If your target market is really inaccessible to you, then change your idea.
This comment was deleted 3 years ago