Launching A B2B SaaS Product - Getting your first customers

I work with two very different kinds of Founders. One group succeeds and scales quickly. The other spends months or years banging their heads against the wall before eventually shutting down their business.

Group 1:

These Founders understand that your only job in this space is to create a product that solves a painful problem for someone. They don't care about their particular solutions to that problem at the early stage. They aren't obsessed with features or branding or the latest tech.

They are customer obsessed. Usually solving a problem they themselves have faced and are on a crusade to solve it for others.

They run a business that is outwardly facing. Not thinking about their wants and needs (sales and investment) but thinking about their target customers pain. They spend most of their time and effort shining a spotlight on that pain and coming up with better and better ways to innovate and solve that problem.

When they do this, they build an incredible marketing machine that gets to work for them for free. People like them, who suffer from that problem feel understood. They get excited. They jump in and start using it, and when it deliver on the promise they tell others just like them.

They have kickstarted that word of mouth marketing machine and are building a steady and consistent following of customers who become fans.

These Founders scale slowly at the start, but take off quickly once their understanding of the real problem they are solving solidifies in their minds.

They will get paying customers before their product is launched, a lot of the time before they have even written a single line of code. Because people are excited to come on the journey with them and want to be there form the start.

They are in direct contrast to the next group.

Group 2:

These Founders are firmly in the camp of "Good Ideas" they spend a lot of time thinking about functionality. Wondering why an app for that doesn't already exist. They think that if they just identify the right idea the millions will show up for them in their bank magically.

They do not spend time to go outside of their bubble and seek to understand problems. They have a solution, they have a vision and they will be damned if anyone tells them it won't work.

They spend more time shoving that solution in the face of various types of customer that they think might find it useful in the hope they identify their market.

But this method puts people off from engaging with them. It's like being at a dinner party with someone who does nothing but talk about themselves. No one wants to be surrounded by people like that. They shove their website link down people throats. They are always looking for a quick deal, or an introduction to an investor.

They will spend a lot of time trying to fund painful pivots. Because they have missed the key insight that true innovation first starts from deep understanding.

They are massively at risk of focusing too much on the tech, and creating products that eventually go out of business when the hype cycle of the trend they are riding dies down. They have created a business that doesn't really solve any particularly painful problems for any specific people.

They have to experiment with freemium models, free trials etc. Its difficult to get people to sign up, its even more difficult to get them to stay.

They never get to tap into those sweet word of mouth referrals because their product is for everyone. No one ever signs up and feels completely understood. And, as a consequence never really grows to love the product enough to become an evangelist for it.

Validation comes from sales. But sales comes from understanding:

You are right to say that we should seek validation in sales and not sign ups. I like the idea behind driving people to a landing page and measuring sign ups to show demand. But the fact is we cannot know why they signed up.

The best way to drive sales is to deeply understand your prospect. Selling is about asking great questions it is never about asking people to buy. The more you try and force something down someones throat the more they will reject it.

But, to be a great salesman you realise you must first get them to state their problem. Then get them to state that your product would be a great solution to that problem.

So why no kill two birds with one stone?

Your first sales should come from your research conversations with your target customers. Identify people you want to help. Deeply. Then speak with them. Do not speak with them about your product. But ask them about their life. The problems they face. What the consequences of those problems are.

It takes bravery to do this. Because they might never identify the problem you would like to solve as a problem. This would mean your product idea is dead on arrival. But I promise you one thing. If you are brave enough to take this route, put aside your own passion and focus on uncovering really painful problems. A highly saleable product idea will be uncovered. People will literally tell you what innovation they want you to make to help them.

When you have identified that problem. Go and create a potential solution to it. Then reshow it to those same people and ask them to buy it. If they say yes and sign up... you have validation. If they say no... you have a golden opportunity to deepen your understanding and ask them what is stopping them from buying.

I have done this with loads of startups and on my own products now. I will not invest in creating a product until I have sold in 1 to 1 at least 5 times.

The best Founders I work with do the same. The worst build first then think about sales later.