Download - Session 3 - Ignitor Bootcamp - 3 July 2015
Pre-selling
INGITE CANVAS
CAN YOU FIND EARLY ADOPTERS?
CAN YOU SELL EARLY ADOPTERS?
CAN YOU BUILD A PRODUCT THEY LOVE?
?
Can you… get lots of customers?
Why pre-sell? Can’t I just build my product and then sell it?
Reasons to pre-sell: OneAvoids you building something no one wants
How most startups launch
Business Plan LaunchProduct Development
Learning happens here!Months / Years
Warning!!! What happens if you don’t pre-sell?
0 /1700
Series1
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
1 day
365 days
Do you want to waste 365 days?
Reasons to pre-sell: TwoYou can test ideas quickly
The story of anyperk: 3 months
1 Dating site Mieple (Through friends)
2 Introductions to investors (Through friends)
3 Introductions to jobs (Through friends)
4 A translation company
5 Movie advice company
6 Teaching through Skype
7 AnyPerk (Offer discounts and perks to employees)
Reasons to pre-sell: ThreeThousands of other entrepreneurs have pre-
sold
$1.6B pre-paid
80 677 projects successfully funded
Example 1: dropbox 75,000 emails
Example 3: Business model generation470 strategy practitioners co-authored $250 each
$117 800 in pre-orders
Solution interviewsHow to pre-sell
CAN YOU FIND EARLY ADOPTERS?
CAN YOU SELL EARLY ADOPTERS?
CAN YOU BUILD A PRODUCT THEY LOVE?
?
Move once you have found a customer with a problem / disatified with current solution
1 Choose target customer
CAN YOU… sell early adoptors? Customer definition
1 Brainstorm 5 early adopter customer segments
2 Select what you believe is the best early adopter customer segment
3 Write it on a sticky note and place on the canvas
Hint: Choose a small market, reachable market with a budget and an unsolved pain.
2 Choose solution
Build something a small number of user love
Source: YCombinator
To build a great product start small
Create a compelling one line pitch
Solution advice
1 Make it great by keeping it small
2 Do a few things extremely well rather than many things okay
3 Perfect the one line pitch
CAN YOU… sell early adoptors? Customer definition
1 Brainstorm 5 potential solutions
2 Select the solution that will best solve the customers problem
3 Write it on a sticky note and place on the canvas
Hint: Keep it small with a few great features and a compelling one line pitch.
Solutiondescription
3 Write up expected result
Customer definition
Solutiondescription
Expected result
Early adopter customers will be willing to be part of pilot / pre-pay, buy or show a strong
signal they are interested.
Interviews in groups of 5.
1 / 5 Sign up, pilot
or pre-pay
5 / 5 Sign up, pilot
or pre-pay
B-to-B (No customers)
Interviews in groups of 5.
2 / 5 Sign up, pre-pay or pilot
5 / 5 Sign up, pre-pay or pilot
B-to-B (With customers)
What is your current conversation rate?
Interview in groups of 10.
1 / 10 Sign up, pre-pay or pilot
10 / 10 Sign up, pre-pay or pilot
B-to-C (No customers)
Interview in groups of 10.
1 / 10 Sign up, pre-pay or pilot
10 / 10 Sign up, pre-pay or pilot
B-to-C (With customers)
What is your current conversation rate?
CAN YOU… sell early adoptors? Customer definition
Solutiondescription
Expected result
1 Write up customer segment2 Write up solution3 Write up expected result
Time: 10 mins
4 Selling tools
Tools
Create a compelling story!
Create a story: Who?
Create a story: Why?
Create a story: Credibility indicators
• Famous people organisations• Testimonials • Proof you can build the product or service
Create a story: Reasons to buy and price
Create a story: Timelines
Create a story: Risk reversal
5 Create interview script
Solution questions
Set up the interview by saying you are looking for advice.
Describe the problem. Ask if they agree if that is their problem.
1 What part of the demo / product do you find most useful?
2 Which features do you think are most important?
3 Is there anything you think is missing?
4 Would you be an early adopter customer for a special price of X?
5 What are the next steps. i.e. Sign up for pilot, proposal, meeting
Write script & practice solution interview (15 mins)
Set up the interview by saying you are looking for advice. Describe the problem. Ask if they agree if that is their problem. 1 What part of the demo / product do you find most useful? 2 Which features do you think are most important? 3 Is there anything you think is missing? 4 Would you be an early adopter customer for a special price of X? 5 What are the next steps?
Google “Solution interview questions lean startup” for more advanced questions.
Interview customers
• Get out of the building
• Conduct customer interviews (Phone and face-to-face)
• Aim to do at least 5
• Ideally, run 3 sales experiments before leaving
• Feel free to ask for help from Justin or Paul after each round of interviews
• Mentor session 16:00