Starting something is easy, the first 10 paying customers are tough

for enterprise solutions that need engagement to close

by Hans Baumhardt | 18 May 2017

OK finding a valuable need and creating fantastic product isn’t easy, but having validated with friends, family and free offers, starting the commercial journey can be the hardest step.

Can you actually sell it to 10 strangers ?

It’s never too early to think about the pitch & sales engagement process. This is the real test if you solve an actual problem of value to a stone cold stranger.

I am not a salesperson

If you are founder CEO, it’s your job to find the first 10 customers, or partner with a commercial cofounder who can make it happen. Trying to slough commercial validation off onto a hired salesperson is not great.

Having been both sides of that table, it just doesn’t work well without the vision and empowerment to test offers on the fly. Someone with proper equity needs to prove it is sellable, but they don’t have to be a sales professional.

Good product will sell arse upwards

Simon Marks, founder Marks & Spencer (the first UK retailer to £1 billion profit)

If your product won’t sell arse upwards then change something in the go to market mix: product, proposition, market, pricing. Just wrapping crap product in outbound volume and smooth talking suits is unlikely to scale past a lifestyle business. Poor product + sharp sales sounds just like a boiler room recipe.

New or existing market ?

If you are creating a new market or segment you should have the benefit of no competition, but the challenge of building an audience to educate on the problem you solve before you can pitch your solution. Don’t waste time on inbound material as no one knows to actually look for it, you will need to get out and make the market to secure the first sales and references.

If you are entering an existing market with a { better | faster | cheaper } optimisation you have then benefit of a well defined audience to engage, with the challenge of competitive differentiation.

Publishing SEO optimised inbound content and running ads in an existing market will take too long to build awareness and pipeline. It needs to be done, but is unlikely to source your first enterprise deals fast. You will need to get out and engage with prospects to secure the first sales and references.

How do I find the first 10 prospects ?

Regardless of the market, finding and convincing the first 10 people to part with cash for a new product will need early adopters, or the trust which comes from a relationship recommendation.

Hustle

Of course you have already tapped out your network of relationships with family, social friends, advisors, investors and business acquaintances during product validation.

Once you have target businesses and buying personas, get back to your network and ask for specific introductions. Have you tried your doctor, dog walker and plumber ? They may not be buyer, but may have a client who is, and an introduction fee of 10% booked revenue can help.

If that source is truly dry, you are going outbound to find early adopters, profiled in Selling new products to early adopters. They recognise the problem you solve, accept they need a solution and will take risks on a vision without hard references or quantitative benefits case.

There are stacks of sales intelligence tools and homebrew sales lead prospecting methods under {startup sales prospect leads hacks}. It’s a volume game, without an introduction you just need to get lucky on the combination of need and early adopter appetite. The harder you work the luckier you get.

I tend to use LinkedIn + hunter.io + crystalknows.com + email tracking to generate a brief warmup email and time the initial call.

For an entertaining take on the initial sales hustle, check out the first 15 minutes of this Youtube Steli Efti: You Gotta Be A Hustler

So what ?

If you have 10 people that have parted with cash for your solution, hire some demand gen and sales closers to turn those engagements into a repeatable sales playbook. If not, get dialing.