

Ask HN: Have you tried cold calling prospects before building a product? - rokhayakebe

I would like to know if anyone has actually tried cold calling potential customers before building a product?<p>If you have what is a good number of prospects to call before making a decision?<p>I just came out of a 100-calls session selling an existing product (that is not tech related by the way). Zero sales later, it was quite a challenge.
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nedwin
I'm doing this right now. We do have a product to display but it's not the
minimum viable product yet - we hope to release that in about a month.

My approach has been to explain what we've got at the moment, what we're
building and what we're capable of. The conversation is less about making a
sale and more about getting an expression of interest. When we release this
will you buy it? Why or why not?

Feedback has been invaluable so far and looking forward to following up with
all of these warm prospects at the end of October. :)

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danl
When my business partner and I were looking for idea of what to build we came
up with the idea of building an online candidate tracking app for recruitment
firms. It was going to be aimed at small 1 - 5 person agencies and would have
a cut down feature set compared to the big, and expensive, desktop packages
available.

I cold called around ten small recruitment agencies who I would expect to be
our target audience and explained how the system would work to them. Of the
ten, only one thought it was an excellent idea, whilst most of the others told
me that the features we were planning to leave out of our app would be needed
if the app were to be of any use.

With this advice ringing in our ears we dropped the idea and continued on to
other projects. The good thing about the cold calls was that we got valuable
feedback on the app without writing a single line of code. This saved us a few
months of coding to get to the same conclusion.

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andyjdavis
I haven't done cold calling before building a product but it sounds like a
good idea. It's never too early to get some feedback and to make prospects
aware that you exist. Having them involved from day one could help you end up
with a better product and an initial group of customers who feel a real sense
of ownership of the product they helped create.

That said, cold calling is really tough work so I don't hold it against anyone
for not wanting to do it. I've done it. It's difficult unpleasant work.

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javery
I tried cold calling when I was 17 and starting a web design business, I swore
never to do it again.

I think there are probably much better ways to find your potential customers.
Find our where they go (in real life or online) and go be a sponge. Listen to
their problems, add value where you can, and then when the time is right talk
about what you are thinking about building and get feedback. (like during the
networking portion of a meeting)

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pedalpete
I've never sold anything without a product at all, but find that once you have
a product to show, you can get a lot more info on how customers or potential
customers would use the product and what they would like to see.

Occasionally, you get something a request which is completely off base for
what your business is. Don't ignore these, as they can possibly be a more
important direction for your business.

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rokhayakebe
I was thinking in lines of the customer development model (Steve Blank) that
promotes talking to your potential market before building a product. If
customers are not open to even look into something that exist, it maybe very
challenging to get them to look into a concept.

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cwan
Not sure there's a right number but you do have to make sure that you contact
the right people (ie those who have the power and interest in buying). If the
need is sufficiently great, you may only need a sample size of one to start -
especially if they're willing to bankroll the development. I've had a few
fortunate friends who have built a business that way.

