Selling before building - any tips?
Hey everyone! So, I'm buying into the idea of selling first and was wondering if anyone had any tips & tactics around how to do it well?
I've just recently tweeted @stanrym asking for some sales advice, and he was incredibly generous replying! Can't thank him enough!
Here's what he said (maybe it'll help other people as well):
He did a great interview here as well: https://www.nocode.mba/interviews/how-orapa-built-a-scalable-platform-of-sales-reps
And his company's demo is awesome as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWI-tIVxQpk
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Just start cold emailing to your prospects and request time to speak with them without selling. Once on the call, understand their problems and try to match your solution and see if it really solves their problem. If it does, you can ask for a payment and provide them something in return such as a discount or access
I would think about it like this:
When your product finally does exist, how will you sell to customers?
From lead generation to purchase, you may be telling them what the value is, working with them on what problems your product will solve, maybe showing them demos, etc. etc. But they aren't actually using the product until they purchase (only if you do a free trial to convert).
And so, you don't actually need the product until after they've purchased. Aka, my tip is get into the mindset that you do have a product, what are you going to sell now. Except now you have a huge advantage, you can add features with the snap of your fingers if that changes the conversation from "Sounds Interesting" to "How Can I Buy It?"
Be ready to talk to potential customers. Start sending out cold emails and schedule small calls with them. Talk like the product already exists and what value would it be adding. Worked extremely well for my product Rocket. Cheers!