How to Get Your First 10 Customers
KEY PRINCIPLES | The Alchemist Institute
HOW TO GET YOUR FIRST 10 CUSTOMERS 1 HOW TO GET YOUR FIRST 10 CUSTOMERS —Key Principles & Examples THIS PACKAGE INCLUDES: KEY PRINCIPLES HOMEWORK EXERCISES TEMPLATES REAL-LIFE EXAMPLES the alchemist institute
HOW TO GET YOUR FIRST 10 CUSTOMERS 2 KEY PRINCIPLES You – the CEO – should be selling your first need an expert (your customer) to help you 10 customers (do not delegate this task). This determine its use and what it’s worth. You don’t is where you will figure out how to sell your know whether it’s useful or what it’s worth (the product. And once you lock in the recipe for price) – they do. And you are looking to them sales, then you can hire and mentor others to to help you determine if it fits their needs, what take the task on full time. they would pay for it, and how they would use it. The posture in selling your first ten customers This approach – solution selling – puts the focus should be like a curious investigator approaching of attention on the customer first. Their interest wise experts. Those experts will distill the key and need for the product drives its value, and pain point you solve or benefit you provide, your aim is to expose the product to them and how much you can demand for your product/ drive them to unearth its value. Your job is to service, and the profile of your ideal customer provide the minimal amount of information to demographic going forward. Think of yourself get to the next steps of who needs to confirm as a newbie who’s fallen upon a new piece of the value of the product to close the sale. “alien technology” (your product) and you . VED S RESER C. ALL RIGHT TES, LL RIGHT © 2011 BELANI ASSOCIA Y OP C the alchemist institute
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HOW TO GET YOUR FIRST 10 CUSTOMERS 3 KEY PRINCIPLES What’s your message? Define a pain you are solving, a solution you are providing and a benefit to the customer. 1 Identify & list out 2 Convert cold prospects to customer prospects meetings by crafting the right hook · Define the criteria of who would make a · Email subject line should include the first name of target customer. your target to grab their attention, with a one liner distilling the key value you will drive for them. · Use Jigsaw or other contact databases to build . out a long list of contacts. · Body should be succinct (10 lines or less) to allow w they prospect to qualify if it is a fit. It should intrigue and · Mentally commit to a gameplan of speak directly to the pain point/gain statement you contacting a certain number on a provide. Ask for a minimally committal next step – regular schedule (for example, 5 like a 20 minute phone call. our message new emails/day). omers and hoe y · Email signature should contain your contact t a information (phone number, website), more detailed er tial custt it information about the company and endorsements. en our pot Focus the first meeting on . Based on tha t unearthing customer’s oduc 3 interests, qualifying if they 4 After the meeting are fit, and creating mutual our pr commitment towards closing n about the needs of y· Prioritize time on having customer speak about · Send a follow up email articulating what they agreed ear ould use y their interests and intent. to in the meeting. L w · Show a minimal pitch that covers only the salient · Put forth a next step to continue the dialogue. points to determine if their interests are addressed by the solution. · Adjust your positioning based on the learnings receiving. · Match any requests they put on you with requests back on them to build/qualify if the interest is real. Delay the pricing discussion as much as possible – the pricing can only increase as the customer is further convinced that you will meet their needs. Focus on needs. Get your first 10 customers. the alchemist institute
HOW TO GET YOUR FIRST 10 CUSTOMERS 4 HOMEWORK EXERCISES 1. Define your pain, solution and benefit each in: a) 3 words or less; b) 1 sentence. 2. Define 3-5 of the most critical characteristics of your ideal customers. 3. Determine 3 ways to reach your ideal customers. 4. Draft your: a) initial email to your ideal customers; b) initial call dialogue to your ideal customer. 5. Compose a 6-9 slide presentation of your product focusing on your message. Practice, practice, practice to make sure you can deliver your pitch in 10 minutes. 6. Determine 5 key questions you want to ask at the meeting / call that will help you articulate and define your pain, solution and benefit and deepen understanding of target market. the alchemist institute
HOW TO GET YOUR FIRST 10 CUSTOMERS 5 TEMPLATES First Email to Potential Customer Subject: Roy, about [pain point or gain statement] Body: Roy, I have a few ideas on how to do drive __________ [1-word gain statement] for __________ [target company name] – all around __________ [solution]. This is similar to what __________[competitor] recently did, but can be done much more deeply. I was wondering if we could do a 20 minute phone call to discuss, or if there is a more appropriate contact for us to connect with at __________ [target company name]. Best, [Your Name] Phone: Website: [Your company’s description] 3 articles relevant to this subject: · Link 1 · Link 2 · Link 3 the alchemist institute
HOW TO GET YOUR FIRST 10 CUSTOMERS 6 REAL-LIFE EXAMPLES First Meeting Keep the meeting under 30 minutes. Practice before the meeting. Be focused on your message and disciplined to ask hard questions. 2-3 min. Introductions. Talk about your company and product; get an understanding of the person’s role in the company. 5-7 min. Question asking. Today, I am going to show you some stuff that we have been working on. I recognize that you are an industry expert in this area. We have been working on some things that we think are highly relevant to your type of function at company XYZ. Before we jump into that, do you mind if I ask you about 5 minutes of questions to get a better context for what you are doing? In the context of [pain point], how are you doing that today? What is that process like? Have you been thinking about issue XYZ? Help me understand some context so that when I talk about my product, I can understand how to make that relevant to you. We have been thinking about [solution]. Is this something relevant to what you are thinking about? 10 min. Your Pitch. Your presentation with 6-9 slides that focuses on the problem, solution and benefit. Close your laptop. That’s the overview I wanted to share with you today about our company. the alchemist institute
HOW TO GET YOUR FIRST 10 CUSTOMERS 7 REAL-LIFE EXAMPLES 10 min. Reactions. · What do you think about what we have created? Is it awesome? Or, is it not really relevant to you? · On a scale of 1 to 10, how valuable is what we have created? · On a scale of 1 to 10, what would be your willingness to purchase something like this if it was available today? Is it a function of how much it costs? Is there a particular price point you would purchase it at? Or, are there some key things you need to see in order to purchase this product? What would be those key things? · How much money would you pay for that? A lot or a little? What is a lot? · How much priority would that take inside your organization? · Right now, we are looking for companies that are early adopters to partner with us. Is your company an early adopter? Tips on How to Deal with Questions Related to Pricing Avoid providing pricing during the first meeting. · We are still trying to figure out pricing. That’s why we are talking to experts like you. Speaking of pricing though, how much should somebody like you (or companies like yours) pay for this technology? $100K, or $1M, or $100M? Why? · We are looking for good feedback and partners here. This will be a collaborative process and if we decide to be able to work together we’ll make sure that it’s affordable. the alchemist institute
HOW TO GET YOUR FIRST 10 CUSTOMERS 8 REAL-LIFE EXAMPLES Follow-Up Email Immediately after the meeting or call, send an email to document what you discussed. Also, state clearly the next steps that were discussed at the meeting. Dear [Name], It was great speaking with you today. I hope you found the conversation really productive. We covered __________, __________, and __________. Our solution allows you to do __________. It solves __________ [pain], delivers __________ [solution] and has __________ [benefits]. You agreed and stated that if you had this today, you could be using it. We also discussed that the next steps are __________. You indicated that this would happen during the next __________ weeks. Please let me know when we will be able to schedule this next __________. If I do not hear from you by Monday, I will follow up. Best, [Your Name] the alchemist institute
HOW TO GET YOUR FIRST 10 CUSTOMERS 9 REAL-LIFE EXAMPLES Before Kris launched his most recent Kris ended up signing 10 contracts. company, Badgeville, he emailed 500 Those contracts heavily influenced the customers and managed to schedule direction of the product. meetings with 100 of them. Email One Subject: Roy, about engagement Body: Roy, I have a few ideas on how to do drive engagement for XYZ – all around user loyalty and leveraging Facebook. This is similar to what Company A recently did, but can be done much more deeply. Was wondering if we could do a 20 minute phone call to discuss, or if there is a more appropriate contact for us to connect with at XYZ. Best, Kris Phone: Website: [Your company’s description] 3 articles relevant to this subject: · Link 1 · Link 2 · Link 3 the alchemist institute
HOW TO GET YOUR FIRST 10 CUSTOMERS 10 REAL-LIFE EXAMPLES No response to Email 1. Email 2 (1 week later) Roy, just wanted to follow up on the below. Please advise either way. Thank you! Best, Kris Response to Email 2 Kris – I am probably not your contact. In the next few weeks we will be hiring someone full time to focus on social media and they would be your contact. Watch for the hire! Email 3 (2 weeks later) Roy, did you hire that person yet? Can I talk to her? Best, Kris Mathilde, the new Social Media hire emailed Kris Hi Kris, My name is Mathilde. I’m the social media manager for XYZ. Roy passed this along and I thought I would drop you a line. Do you have a one-sheet for how your service integrates? Email 4 Mathilde, I’d love to talk to you and answer your questions. Do you have time on Tuesday at 3pm ET. Best, Kris the alchemist institute