

Ask HN: Screencasts, emails or cold calls. How would you make first contact? - KingMax

I've a web prototype. The time is ripe to reach out to (small) businesses (such as restaurants) to pilot or test out my product. Question is, what is the best first step in order to do so? Should I send "pitch" emails to the CEOs of these companies? Should I, instead, send them a link to a screencast of my product and how it'll make their lives easier? Should I call them and ask for a face-to-face meeting? Or should I just barge in one fine day and "ambush" them?&#60;p&#62;I'd love to hear your stories of how exactly you went about getting the first customer to say "Ok, sounds interesting, let me just &#60;i&#62;try&#60;/i&#62; it out."&#60;p&#62;Thanks.
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seven
We offer a web solution for a niche to do some ERP and CRM.

We got our first customer by checking the websites of potential customers to
find one that could have our mindset.

Although the setup is meant to be done by the customer himself, we did all the
required setup-work to match the customers design and populated some first
data from open sources. (about 30 minutes of work..)

Then we did the cold call and approached him more or less like this: 'Hi! We
have this new thing and are searching for someone who would like to test it
out with us. You wont have to pay us until you see the benefit for yourself
and your customers, but we require a strong involvement and somebody who gets
stuff done as our test customer. And then we thought of you. :)'

One thing to mention about the cold call. We have to get past a front desk. It
is not that easy, but I would say it helps to provide information about how
long you would like to talk to the owner/ceo. We asked for 5-10 minutes and an
available internet connection.

First we explain what we do. When the customer gets the idea, we say: 'We
hoped you would be interested, so we already setup a version for you. Go check
it out at $sitename. Btw: there is an email in your inbox right now, that
contains the link.'

This is how we do it.

Disclaimer: We are just starting and have only a few test customers by now.
But once we were able to talk to the owners, all of them opened up, when they
saw their own logo and design on our product.

~~~
AlexMuir
+1 for "there is an email in your inbox right now, that contains the link."
That's a great idea - I've been approaching it as EITHER an email OR a call.

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philiphodgen
I run a small business. I don't have the patience for interruptions known as
sales attempts. Yet I am keenly interested in, y'know, making some money. So I
have to keep open to new stuff.

So. Put yourself in your customer's shoes. He/she wants to make a profit. Your
new widget is not an obvious assist to that endeavor. A vendor is a necessary
evil, an entity created by evolutionary forces to steal food from his
children's mouths. That's what you're facing.

Start slow. Educate. Everything you say has to tell your customer where the
value is. Throw a bunch of information chum in the water. Your customer #1
will throw himself/herself into the boat with eagerness.

My suggestion is blogging. Let Mr. Google do the hard lifting. If you know
actual humans who might be your customers go talk to them. After you have your
blog up. After. They have to be able to go there after you talk to them.

Me personally - I hate webcasts. It is such a slow method of conveying
information to my brain.

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silvia77
If you are targeting restaurants (if not pick a good segment, small business
is huge) then I would suggest going at off hours (very early or late), going
in person, and talking to the owner face to face.

Most likely if its a small business restaurant the owner will be there. Even
better is buy breakfast or dinner at the restaurant.

Then when you get a chance explain the problem you are trying to solve and a
brief explanation on what you are doing, with the goal of getting feedback and
their opinion. Only then if the owner is interested in hearing more should you
follow up with an official pitch/presentation on what you can do.

It's a hard and slow process but no one said #startuplife is easy

------
michael_dorfman
Let's back up a minute.

You've built a web prototype of a product, which means you had some idea of
what the product should do, and what business problem it should solve, and who
it should be useful to.

Presumably, in doing that, you relied on the input of some target customers to
help you understand their business. Right? (If not, well, then we need to have
a different conversation.)

My point is: you should already have personal contacts who are also prospects.
And those folks should each have a rolodex full of further prospects.

So, if it were me, I'd call someone I knew (i.e, _not_ cold-call) and ask for
a face-to-face. I'd offer them a free trial, in exchange for feedback after
they've used the product for a while. If the feedback is positive, ask for
leads.

Rinse, lather, repeat, and you should have a decent test for your MVP.

~~~
KingMax
> You've built a web prototype of a product, which means you had some idea of
> what the product should do, and what business problem it should solve, and
> who it should be useful to.

Right. Only that it's a bare-minimum prototype, built just to gauge customers'
reactions and incorporate their input.

> Presumably, in doing that, you relied on the input of some target customers
> to help you understand their business. Right?

Of course. But the input given until now has been purely based on
conversations I had before the prototype (for lack of a better word?) was
built.

I'd like to see the reaction of someone that I have zero connections with, so
that I don't get a biased (towards me) review. There's still much work to be
done, but I'm wondering what the best way is to go out there, and tease them
into eventually using the product, once it's set for release.

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fezzl
Find out who your competitors' customers are (it's easy -- just look up the
"Clients" page) and poach them via email first to gauge their interest, and
then try to set up a phone call or face-to-face to get them to try your
product. Your competitors' customers are as qualified as leads come.

~~~
KingMax
Ok, at the risk of sounding naive, my product is pretty much disruptive. There
isn't a similar product yet in the market (I'm not in the US) - hence, I feel
I almost have to go out there to create the need/demand before I can sell them
on the deal.

That's why I'd like to plan my first move accordingly. I think it's the most
crucial move I'll make!

~~~
exline
I was figuring you wrote a schedule app. But that's doesn't sound disruptive.
I run an online scheduling app. I let google do all work for me. Its mostly
hands off at this point, a new feature here or there, but basically on cruise
control.

I've been tempted to do some cold calling, but not interested in the work
involved. I'm letting google slowing grow the number of customers. It is a
side effort, so I'm happy with the passive income.

------
gojomo
Try all three (and any others you can think of). Keep doing the approaches
that work best given your product, market, and personal style.

