The ability for a startup to secure early stage customers and adopters can often be the difference between failure and success. And while it can be difficult to get net new customers at any stage of the business, there are definitely some things that you can do and focus on to help secure those first customers.

The attached video is a recording of a presentation that Michael Halper delivered to an audience of startups and entrepreneurs that are currently going through an incubator and accelerator program that outlines tips that a startup can employ to help with securing those first early stage customers.

 

 

The Two Things You Can Control

One of the things we discuss in this webinar is that in order to improve your ability to secure your first customers, there are two things that you can control:

  • How you communicate with prospects
  • What you communicate to prospects

It is improving what you do in those two areas that will help a startup to secure its early-stage customers and early adopters.

 

How you communicate with prospects

When people think about sales or getting new customers, the first thing that often comes to their mind is the phone or cold calling. But there are many different ways to communicate with and find potential prospects, and here are a few:

  • Phone
  • Email
  • Voicemail
  • Networking
  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Pay-Per-Click Ads
  • Social Media
  • Email Marketing
  • Cold Walking
  • Physical Mail
  • Direct Mail

The key to an effective go-to-market strategy would be to use as many of these as possible. We like to view these different sales and marketing tools as being similar to a bag of golf clubs. In the same way that each golf club hits the ball a different distance with a different level of accuracy, each method of communication will deliver your message a different distance with a different level of accuracy.

 

What you communicate to prospects

We offer many different training videos and books on the subject of how to improve what you communicate when talking to sales prospects. But here are some of the main concepts that we discuss in this webinar recording, and they apply whether you are a salesperson for an established business or a founder of a startup.

  • Don’t sound like a salesperson that is trying to sell something
  • Minimize how much you talk about the product you are selling
  • Focus on the value or improvements that your product delivers
  • Focus on the pain points that your product can make go away
  • Ask questions that determine if the prospect has the pain points that you help with
  • Share an example of another customer that you have helped

We hope this webinar recording gives you some ideas for how to generate your sales script and secure new clients!