How did you land your first customers?
Dmitry Kalinchenko
105 replies
What has worked for you in landing your first few customers? We've just launched a public beta with a couple of initial customers and looking to onboard more. I'm curious what worked for others, especially in b2b saas space.
P.S. Apologies if this topic has already been explored but I haven't found anything relevant.
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whats app@whats_app
I don't have personal experiences or a history of landing customers, as I am a computer program created by OpenAI called GPT-3.5. However, I can provide you with some general advice on how businesses typically land their first customers.
1. **Identify Your Target Audience:**
- Understand who your potential customers are and what problems your product or service solves for them.
2. **Build a Strong Value Proposition:**
- Clearly communicate the value your product or service brings to customers. Explain how it addresses their needs or solves their problems better than existing solutions.
3. **Network and Outreach:**
- Attend industry events, join online communities, and network with potential customers. Establishing a presence in relevant circles can help you connect with people who might be interested in your offering.
4. **Leverage Social Media:**
- Utilize platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, or industry-specific forums to showcase your expertise and share information about your product or service. Engage with potential customers and build relationships.
5. **Offer Free Trials or Samples:**
- If applicable, provide free trials or samples to showcase the value of your product. This allows potential customers to experience what you offer without a significant commitment.
6. **Collect and Showcase Testimonials:**
- Positive reviews and testimonials can build trust with potential customers. If you have satisfied customers, ask them for testimonials that you can use in your marketing materials.
7. **Create a Professional Website:**
- A well-designed website is crucial for establishing credibility. Ensure that your website clearly communicates what you offer, why it's valuable, and how potential customers can get in touch.
8. **Word of Mouth:**
- Encourage satisfied customers to refer your business to others. Word of mouth is a powerful and organic way to attract new customers.
9. **Partnerships and Collaborations:**
- Explore partnerships with other businesses or influencers in your industry. Collaborations can help you tap into existing networks and reach a broader audience.
10. **Invest in Marketing:**
- Allocate resources to marketing efforts, such as online advertising, content marketing, or email campaigns, to raise awareness about your product or service.
Remember that landing your first customers often involves a combination of strategies, and it's essential to adapt your approach based on the nature of your business and target market.
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hey @dmitry_kalinchenko! it's a really great question. we're actually in a similar position right now. one of the strongest channels we've had has been live demos (virtually through zoom). it's been a great way to get in front of warm potential customers, friendlies, etc and try to get that early validation. let me know if you find good sources! we're actually launching on PH today 🤞😬 and would love any feedback you might have! :) https://www.producthunt.com/post...
@dmitry_kalinchenko @justintbuchanan Also in the same boat working to lock in our first few customers for our B2B software. Are these demo events you participated in or one-on-one chats you arranged with customers?
@dmitry_kalinchenko @justintbuchanan love the idea of demos! Do you have an email list where you market the demos? Curious how do you get leads for those sessions?
We got the first client through Social Media. Continuous updates on all our social media platforms. got us more traction and our first client.
@kanan_tandi personal social media accounts or did you start a business account and targeted your segmented audiences? Curious what was the timeline from when you first started the channel -> 1st customer?
Hi! We already had a strong product LiveChat (https://www.producthunt.com/post... ) when we started working on our product suite. Our second product was @chatbotcom . The first paying customers came from LiveChat's customers database (the tools work smoothly together). Also, we bought a strong domain (chatbot.com) that gave us organic, well-converting traffic. A similar story happened with our third product - HelpDesk. First customers came from LiveChat's database (with HelpDesk we covered some customer cases that LiveChat doesn't cover). Also, we bought a strong domain (HelpDesk.com) and got organic traffic. As far as I remember, the first paying customer came from Product Hunt, actually. :) (https://www.producthunt.com/post...)
Before official launch, I tried to chime in into conversation on social media when people search for that.
I run https://hanami.run and example I google "Cloudflare email forwarding" and join the dicussion like this https://community.cloudflare.com...
Eventually I land the first customer that way.
hey @kureikain! I checked out your product - I love the clean design and rich documentation. one extra thought for you to consider, I love your pricing (very affordable!), but the colorful design almost looks like it could be "100, 600, 1500" at first glance if you don't see the periods. Maybe consider just staying "$1, $6, $15"? I actually think that'll look and feel cheaper to the users. Just a thought! :)
@justintbuchanan thanks so much for such a valueable feedback. That's totally right now that you said it. Thanks so much again. Gonna make a quick change :-)
We went through our personal network to reach prospects for interview during beta. On boarded them on free plan as they could give us way to build better product.
We recently pivoted and invited them for 15 min meeting and gave lifetime access to most features otherwise they had to pay for.
@pooran_prasad_rajanna I often hear about the networking funnel, but is it easy to switch to other paid methods of acquiring clients after?
Hey @dmitry_kalinchenko,
We got around 1600 first time customers for free on the day of the launch.
Method
1. Engaged in online communities that needed our product well before launch
2. Collected emails without spamming
3. Updated potential users consistently
4. Converted them on launch.
In my opinion, the biggest issue is always "retention", not acquisition.
Hope that helps.
@dmitry_kalinchenko @david_t_kim WOW! 1600 customers on day 1 sounds amazing. What communities did you engage in and how many email were u able to collect pre-launch. I am assuming it'd be atleast upwards of 5k
@dmitry_kalinchenko @david_t_kim "In my opinion, the biggest issue is always retention, not acquitioin." Very important insight.
@dmitry_kalinchenko @rajansoni Yes, it was at least 5k emails. We got customers from mostly social communities like Indie Hackers, Reddit, Facebook Groups and some discord.
@david_t_kim That sounds fantastic. How long before the launch did you start engaging in the communities. Also, post launch did you continue nurturing the communities?
@dmitry_kalinchenko @david_t_kim In my opinion, the biggest issue is always retention, not acquitioin." Very important insight.How To Open FAB Bank Account?
Networking. It’s important to have a good connection with people who connections with other and so on..
It helps get the word around for sure!
First customer was our first business 😅 needed paperless.io for our document workflow at mankido.
To answer my own question, here's how we landed the first 2 users:
1. Before I was very serious about the idea, I listed our website on Wikipedia within a relevant article. We use a Decision Matrix to enable collaborative decision-making, so I posted the link on that page on Wikipedia. Eventually, got contacted for someone who was looking for a more mature version of what I had built.
2. A networking event for startups - randomly met a person with the exact need we were trying to serve.
https://www.producthunt.com/post...
At https://growcify.com, we received several requests from customers before even launching the product. And at https://localites.co, it was all about community spread.
We are building in public, every new status update we have, such as the figma prototype being completed. We consultant with the founders who helped us validate our idea initially to walk them through the user journey. It increases buy in, relationship building and more.
@ethan_halfhide I like the idea about buy in. How did u get customers to follow you initially though? Did you already have the right following or email list?
First, I'd find customers (LinkedIn, Reddit, forums, ...) and speak with them 1-2-1 to understand their real priorities.
@randomdraw637484 I am pretty much planning to do just that. Find potential customers on linkedin and message them asking for 10 minutes to take their inputs
@randomdraw637484 When you found and tried engaging your prospective customers, did you mention your product at all? Or just the general topic of the conversation?
We answered related quora questions and engaged in reddit communities
I asked a couple of my friends running their own startups for feedback of our product ( https://roiculture.com ). Eventually, they liked it and subscribed!
@shyam_prasad_reddy We answered related quora questions and engaged in reddit communities
romantic link
We were our first customer! Aside from that, we reached out to our target audience directly - individual + personalised cold emails worked for us! Now we grow organically (and we're gearing up for a marketing campaign).
Don't be afraid to speak to your target audience directly!
We're a tutoring platform, Think Tutor, so we came in with some existing clients and began to transition them over. It's difficult to develop your first new customers through your platform though!
I got my first client through a Social Media launch. Posted https://nichewebsitebuilder.com/ on PH today and got two additional users.
@dmitry_kalinchenko We have created community in Facebook and created some heads-up about the product we going to launch which helped us to get users when we launch the product. https://creptel.com/musicians
You raised a good question, we started testing our service with our friends and acquaintances, then moved on to social networks and today we opened the hunt https://www.producthunt.com/post... In six months, we have increased our community to 1,500 users. Social networks give us more growth than just advertising. I hope you will also succeed