How to find users for your product.

GreenflyAI

Executing these three steps will help you sell to your early users.

So you’re new to sales and business development? The journey begins while developing your product.

What you learn from executing these steps will influence the way you develop your product. So it’s most effective to build and sell at the same time.

You’ll want to focus your attention on the users with the highest probability of making a purchase.

You’re building a product, but really it is a solution to a problem. Who has that problem? Identify who is most affected by the problem. Who has the biggest pain point? These are your potential users.

Normally you’ll have one core user group. Occasionally, there are more than one. Airbnb have two core user types; landlords and guests.

Which potential users have the lowest barrier to using your product? There are often technical or financial barriers. Identify users that can most easily start using your product. Remember, not everyone has a company credit card.

Now that you know who your potential first users are, define their personas. What are traits identify your potential first users? What is it that they have in common? Are they likely of some age group? Do they work in the same industry? How are they currently solving their problem?

Your website will be the ultimate destination that your marketing drives traffic to. If you haven’t already created a website, make one now. You can make one quite simply using Wix or Squarespace.

Your website needs to explain what problem you’re solving, and your approach to solving it. Even if you haven’t launched yet, you can start building a mailing list to reach interested leads.

You’ve calculated a target persona of your potential core user group. Where do the congregate? What social media do they use? How can you drive them to use your product?

The most effective way to generate inbound enquiries is through content marketing. Create content that will encourage engagement with your users.

Try to post content wherever your users will most likely interact with it. Some examples for professionals are LinkedIn, Medium and Quora. You can post on social media for non-professionals. Another great way of reaching your users is to start threads and answer questions in forums.

Make sure that any content you create features a way to contact you, and a link to your website. People who like or share your content are great leads to pursue.

Your objective should be to talk as little as possible. Selling is about listening.

Ask questions that help your customer articulate their problem. Ask them how they’re currently addressing the problem. Ask them how much time or money they waste, or what opportunities they miss out on as a result of their problem.

As you gain a better understanding of your users problem, you’ll be able to tailor your pitch to their specific situation. Discus their problem, and talk about your solution. Don’t talk specifically about features of your product.

“You told me that you spend valuable time addressing your problem. Would it be valuable to you to save 30 minutes per day?”

Don’t forget to close. The objective is to get them to use your product. How you close will be different depending on the terms you require to continue.

If you require payment in advance, a great tip for negotiating is “how close”. A negotiation usually begins with a high price set by the seller. This number usually negotiated lower by the buyer.

If you negotiate with closed questions, your customer will reply “yes” or “no”. If your customer answers “no”, there is no guarantee of what will happen next, it could be the end of the negotiation.

If you ask an open question related to price, they have to reply with a number. This gives some certainty over their response. It also works in general for guiding a discussion.

Closed Questions

“Can you pay $100?”
“Would you like to buy it?”
“Do you have any questions about my product?”

Open Question

“How close to $105 could you get?”
“How soon would you like to be up and running?”
“What thoughts do you have about my proposal?’

There’s plenty to learn about starting a company. And we learned a lot at YouStartIt#5. It’s an equity free accelerator run by the Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA).

We received €30k equity funding, access to quality mentorship and great networking opportunities, as well as free legal advice and help setting up a company.



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