Getting your First Customer | Starting a Startup - Entrepreneurship PDF Download

As a startup founder, there’s no better feeling than getting your first customer and seeing money hit your bank account.

But a paying customer is more than just money in the bank. Customers validate your product or service, provide valuable feedback, and serve as social proof, all of which are critical in the early stages of your business.

But where do you find your first customer?

1. Use every relationship you have. 

It’s hard enough to make cold calls, but it’s extremely difficult to sell new, innovative products and services using that method.

You need to meet with people who have some connection to you, no matter how slight.

When I started my first company, my clients were supposed to companies. I sat down and made a list of everyone I knew who owned a business and came up with only five names. This was very discouraging.

But I decided to grow my list by tapping my existing relationships, so I met with almost every person I knew who might have ties to the business community and asked people to introduce me to five business owners. I was surprised by how willing people were to help. I quickly grew my list of prospects and even snagged a few early customers.

2. Stalk and awe.

Some potential customers will always be totally out of your reach but might make incredible early adopters. I like to employ my signature "Stalk and Awe" campaign. First, I stalk these people -- not the kind of stalking that’s an unwanted, obsessive intrusion on someone’s personal space that can lead to arrest.

Find anyone who might have a connection to the person you want to meet and ask for an introductory email or a warmup call. The harder this person is to reach, the more recommendations you'll need. Next, send a letter of introduction and follow up with a call. Locate opportunities to attend events where the person will be so you can “run” into them (networking and business events only). I'm not suggesting crashing a wedding or joining the person's gym. 

If you're able to arrange a meeting, now awe this person. Do research on potential problems in his or her business. Spend the first half of the meeting asking questions to locate possible pain points for that person and try to offer something of value independent of your business. Then if you bring enough value to the table and awe this person, he or she will be a lot more interested in you and your company. 

3. Accentuate the positive.

When you speak to potential customers, they might have all sorts of questions without great answers: "How many other customers do you have? How long have you been in business?"

Try to answer them by accentuating the positive: "How many other customers do I have? That number isn’t as important as the fact that of those who have tried my product or service, 95 percent would recommend it to their friends."

Or "How long have I been in business? I have years of experience in this market segment but recently opted to bring the same quality service that I offered through such and such big company but at a much lower rate."

4. Create partnerships for credibility. 

No one has heard of your startup and you have zero brand credibility. So why not use the credibility of an existing, trusted company to score your first customers? Find a group or a person that your target customers trust. This could be someone who already provides them services or just a  person with renown. Offer this potential partner a percentage of certain kinds of revenue, a sponsorship agreement or the chance to be a customer for a discounted rate in exchange for a public endorsement. 

5. Become an expert.

When you don’t have a track record of happy customers, the next best thing is having expertise in your chosen domain. If you can get your early customers to trust you as a knowledgeable resource in your subject area, they will buy from you. The key here is not to fake it. Before you start to prove your expertise, you have to develop it. 

Once you've developed your expertise, express it through any media resource. Tweet, post on Facebook or your blog or write a guest blog to spread the message. Write a white paper and email it to target clients. Put together a "lunch and learn" seminar and invite customer prospects to learn about your subject area. 

Fight the urge to spend all your communications trying to sell your company. Use your platforms to try to help people and your first customers will follow. The first customers will breathe life into your startup.   

The fallacy here is that you can't copy what I did and get a customer. The truth is that even I cannot copy what I did to get my first customer.

Tapping Your Warm Market

Where do you find your first customers? Well, ask yourself this question: Who are the people most likely either to buy from you or send you good referrals?

The step is to build your initial list of warm contacts. Here are 10 questions to stimulate your thinking:

1. Who are your personal friends-and their friends?
2. What about your school connections? Brainstorm a list of classmates, teachers, fraternity brothers, club members and so forth.
3. Who are your business connections? These include former employers, employees and customers.
4. Who are contacts within your civic activities? Are you a member of any civic clubs like Optimist International, Rotary or Kiwanis? What about fellow church or synagogue members? Think of all the organizations you belong to.
5. Who are your contacts in trade associations you've been a part of over the years?
6. Who are the tradespeople you know? Include folks like your lawyer, pharmacist, doctor, dentist, plumber, insurance agent, hairstylist, mechanic and even your babysitter or nanny.
7. Who are your neighbors-both past and present?
8. Who do you know through your sports and hobbies, such as hunting, fishing, running and golf?
9. Who are the people you know because of your home? These contacts include your mortgage lender, real estate agent, builder and so forth.
10. Who are the contacts you have through you and your spouse's families?

Lastly, a few cost-effective ideas to get you started:

• Send a personal letter and follow up with a phone call a week to 10 days later. In this letter, announce your new business. Offer a free consultation or a special discount, something to create interest and excitement in what you're doing. Perhaps you could offer to pay a "bird-dog" fee to those contacts who send you referrals who buy from you.
• Use the telephone. Call some folks to "catch up." Find out what they're doing and then share about your business.
• Set up breakfast, lunch or coffee meetings. Set it up as a "feedback session" where you present your product or service in a low-key manner as a way to solicit feedback from the person. At the end of the meeting, ask the person for referrals to people who might benefit from your offering.