Ask HN: Step by step guide to landing a SME client?
3 comments
Not to trivialize the process, but here's some step-by-step suggestions:
1) First and foremost, verify that you're solving a problem that's truly a pain point for some significant number of people. Don't ask your friends, they'll almost always say yes. If you don't have direct access to someone who would potentially use your service, use an online survey (SurveyMonkey, for example) to sample your audience. The most important question you should be asking yourself right now is "Why would someone want this?" You're not your own customer.
2) Use your network and get intros. The chances of someone responding to you are much higher when you're connected by a mutual (and trusted) 3rd party.
3) You should have two pitch decks. The 1-2 minute pitch, and the 5-10 minute pitch. The 1-2 minute pitch deck gets attention. The 5-10 minute pitch deck tells what, why and how in more detail. You should also highlight yourself, and why you're the expert in this area.
4) If you don't have something built, at the very least have very detailed and polished wireframes. Ideally something that's interactive.
This is basically a mashup of how to raise money and how to pitch and sell your product (since you seem to be focusing on acquiring a client who will pay you to build this solution vs pitching to a VC in order to build a company).
If you (or you and some friends) can build an MVP, do that and give it to someone you know to use (most startups are more willing to try out these types of products, especially if you know the founders). If it's a good idea, and it works, you now have 'proof' that's actionable (mainly, numbers/metrics and user feedback).
Also, you should be able to explain how this is going to help company X. Are you going to increase productivity by 50%? Are you going to lower costs by 25%? You should be able to explain, with fluency, what you're optimizing and the analysis behind that (that may be in the form of P&L analysis, for example).
Most engineers going into this get hung up on the how. Companies rarely care how (although again, this should be in your pitch deck) you're going to build this because they have little or no technical background. They just want to know why your thing is better than the thing they have, or the things they thought about using/buying.
BTW, don't say you _think_ you can help employees save the company time/money. Say that you can definitively save the company time/money by making process X for their employees Y times easier/cheaper. Use real numbers that show real gain. Make a very simple to understand chart/graph.
1) First and foremost, verify that you're solving a problem that's truly a pain point for some significant number of people. Don't ask your friends, they'll almost always say yes. If you don't have direct access to someone who would potentially use your service, use an online survey (SurveyMonkey, for example) to sample your audience. The most important question you should be asking yourself right now is "Why would someone want this?" You're not your own customer.
2) Use your network and get intros. The chances of someone responding to you are much higher when you're connected by a mutual (and trusted) 3rd party.
3) You should have two pitch decks. The 1-2 minute pitch, and the 5-10 minute pitch. The 1-2 minute pitch deck gets attention. The 5-10 minute pitch deck tells what, why and how in more detail. You should also highlight yourself, and why you're the expert in this area.
4) If you don't have something built, at the very least have very detailed and polished wireframes. Ideally something that's interactive.
This is basically a mashup of how to raise money and how to pitch and sell your product (since you seem to be focusing on acquiring a client who will pay you to build this solution vs pitching to a VC in order to build a company).
If you (or you and some friends) can build an MVP, do that and give it to someone you know to use (most startups are more willing to try out these types of products, especially if you know the founders). If it's a good idea, and it works, you now have 'proof' that's actionable (mainly, numbers/metrics and user feedback).
Also, you should be able to explain how this is going to help company X. Are you going to increase productivity by 50%? Are you going to lower costs by 25%? You should be able to explain, with fluency, what you're optimizing and the analysis behind that (that may be in the form of P&L analysis, for example).
Most engineers going into this get hung up on the how. Companies rarely care how (although again, this should be in your pitch deck) you're going to build this because they have little or no technical background. They just want to know why your thing is better than the thing they have, or the things they thought about using/buying.
BTW, don't say you _think_ you can help employees save the company time/money. Say that you can definitively save the company time/money by making process X for their employees Y times easier/cheaper. Use real numbers that show real gain. Make a very simple to understand chart/graph.
The reason you are not getting too many responses is that there is no right answer.
A lot of this is dependent on the industry, the type of business, your location and a bunch of other things that don't lend themselves to in depth answers.
I think you would be well served by looking at Steve Blank's materials (steveblank.com) and even maybe buying his book.
Aside from that, the simplest answer is:
1) Based on your own experiences what are the potential problems that businesses may be facing that you were exposed to. 2) Make a list of all the relevant companies in your area that potentially may be targets for investigation. 3) Find ways of connecting to these companies. Try hard to make sure its to the right people. 4) Contact these people and setup lunches/coffee meets etc. Your introduction should be about how you think you can solve their problems and the ideas you have of how you can do that. Please don't just email them and ask them what problems they have.
A lot of this is dependent on the industry, the type of business, your location and a bunch of other things that don't lend themselves to in depth answers.
I think you would be well served by looking at Steve Blank's materials (steveblank.com) and even maybe buying his book.
Aside from that, the simplest answer is:
1) Based on your own experiences what are the potential problems that businesses may be facing that you were exposed to. 2) Make a list of all the relevant companies in your area that potentially may be targets for investigation. 3) Find ways of connecting to these companies. Try hard to make sure its to the right people. 4) Contact these people and setup lunches/coffee meets etc. Your introduction should be about how you think you can solve their problems and the ideas you have of how you can do that. Please don't just email them and ask them what problems they have.
I understand that this is a very broad question but I wanted it to be more of a way to share your own experiences that we can perhaps learn from.
I think the steps you listed are extremely helpful. For example, what if I want to sell them a SaaS that helps employees manage their vacation times, and other paperwork, I envision these steps based on your suggestion:
1) Provide an easy way for employees to book off their time at work. Think of pain points. Think of solutions to those pain points. Translate into software features. Don't write any code yet, wait for validation.
2) Google or linkedin the companies. Any other ways?
3) Get contact information. Who makes purchasing decisions like this? HR? CEO? CTO?
4) Contact people over email or phone. Which is better for first contact? What should you write or say?
How did I do? What do you think about this approach? Is it rude to ask for money for something you haven't built yet? How do you assure them you are not a flip flop and that you will actually follow through with the development and deliver it? Isn't market validation asking for the sales first for the idea you have and getting money paid to build the thing your customer needs?
I think the steps you listed are extremely helpful. For example, what if I want to sell them a SaaS that helps employees manage their vacation times, and other paperwork, I envision these steps based on your suggestion:
1) Provide an easy way for employees to book off their time at work. Think of pain points. Think of solutions to those pain points. Translate into software features. Don't write any code yet, wait for validation.
2) Google or linkedin the companies. Any other ways?
3) Get contact information. Who makes purchasing decisions like this? HR? CEO? CTO?
4) Contact people over email or phone. Which is better for first contact? What should you write or say?
Hi Mr. CEO
I'm a local software engineer developing a tool that I
think can help employees book off their times easily.
Would you be interested in scheduling a call to hear
more about how your company can save a lot of paperwork?
Thanks,
Signed.
"So my SaaS solution costs $1000 a month, it would do
features A, B, C, D, E and X that I think would help
your employees book off their time easily and save you
time and paperwork. If you'd like to see any other
features I'd be happy to add them. Now if you are happy
with this proposition, I will be starting development
and communicate with you along the way until the product
is ready to deliver. For now, I can send you a contract
for you to sign and an invoice for one month ($1000) to
get things started and a commitment to subscribe monthly on the
day of launch."
How did I do? What do you think about this approach? Is it rude to ask for money for something you haven't built yet? How do you assure them you are not a flip flop and that you will actually follow through with the development and deliver it? Isn't market validation asking for the sales first for the idea you have and getting money paid to build the thing your customer needs?
If you sent me the email you drafted in #4, I'd ignore it. If you sent it again, I'd mark it as spam. Don't do this, it's a bad approach.
If you managed to get me to meet for lunch, didn't have anything built, but asked me for $1000, I'd ask you to pay for lunch and get back to me when you've built something that I could use for free for a month. Caveat - if you're the former founder/co-founder of Dropbox, Square, Twitter, etc... this rule doesn't apply. You want to be in the position where someone offers you money (without you asking) because the product is so great.
If you managed to get me to meet for lunch, didn't have anything built, but asked me for $1000, I'd ask you to pay for lunch and get back to me when you've built something that I could use for free for a month. Caveat - if you're the former founder/co-founder of Dropbox, Square, Twitter, etc... this rule doesn't apply. You want to be in the position where someone offers you money (without you asking) because the product is so great.
what would you like to see in #4 that would spark your interest?
Hey Steve, I was referred to you by our mutual friend John. He mentioned that you were using X for booking off time. My startup has a similar, but better product that just went live. We spent four weeks in beta, and saw a 25-35% decrease in operating costs per month. We plan to launch this as a paid monthly service, but I'd like to offer it to you for free. It takes less than 10 minutes to migrate. Can you hop on a call this week and we'll get you started?
Thanks!
Me
Thanks!
Me
I really would suggest you look at Steve Blank's work.
You can take his online course (for free I believe) at:
https://www.udacity.com/course/ep245
You can take his online course (for free I believe) at:
https://www.udacity.com/course/ep245
Take a look at these articles from Mark Suster about enterprise sales:
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2013/03/19/one-of-the-big...
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/on-selling/ (look at the PUCKKA links, those are great)
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2013/03/19/one-of-the-big...
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/on-selling/ (look at the PUCKKA links, those are great)
I have the knowledge (worked at enterprise software companies in the past) of how to build and what tools to use but I just wish I had a client that would pay me to solve their business problem.
However, I am pretty much stumped at this point.
What actionable step by step did you take to discover, pitch, and close your deal with an SME (small, medium enterprises).