What's the hardest part of starting a new product?
Starting a new product/service is challenging. But there's always that one thing that we all dread doing that we know we have to do.
For me it's finding potential customers to talk to. For example, let's say I'm building a product for local coffeeshops. I've got to call them up and face the potential of getting rejected a few times before someone's willing to talk to me.
Just curious what you all find most challenging.
Growth past those first few customers. Finding your first 5-10 customers is a little easier than most people think. Building the product is the EASIEST PART OF ALL OF THIS.
As mentioned below, try out linkedin if you haven't already. Send some people who you think could be your customers messages and see if they're willing to talk.
For me, building the idea is (relatively) easy. The tough part is getting people to notice it and become customers. I still haven't figured that part out, but I think it's just that I have relatively less experience selling than building...
Working on it though!
Yeah I'm the same way. Not sure what your product is specifically but I've found Linkedin to be a useful platform for finding early customers/people willing to talk to me.
Interesting!
What is it about the rejection that you dread?
Hmm it's hard to say since I think this is an emotional thing but I'll take a stab at explaining why.
For my first company I think it was the fear of not being able to answer a question due to lack of knowledge of the industry I was selling t (manufacturing).
Another factor may have been my fear of realizing my product is a dud.
Other times I've realized cold calling to be an effective channel for reaching my customers -- then dreaded actually cold calling due to getting rejected, not knowing what to say, feeling stupid -- that I wasted someone's time.
In all these things, I've found that it was easer after getting started. Feeling like I truly believe the product I'm selling helps as well.
I think in the early days it's so important to experience that first win of your first deal. After that hopefully things start to feel easier.
Thanks - this was really useful for me.
This comment was deleted 7 years ago
It's interesting because searching for 3rd party tools is something I actually don't mind/look forward to. But yes -- I definitely remember it always taking lots of time.