How to acquire your first 100 customers

Asia Orangio, Founder of DemandMaven
Asia Matos, CEO and Founder of DemandMaven, walks you through the go-to-market process for winning your first 100 customers.

 

Key takeaways on how to acquire your first 100 customers

  • Your mission: target customers you know so well, you could complete their sentences.
  • Use a marketing framework that makes sense to you and your team
  • Focus on filling the gaps in the customer journey
    and removing friction
  • Start thinking bottom of the funnel first – Start with people who have the pain first

Step 1: Know your customer – because thatโ€™s how we become more strategic

  • It may sound obvious, but itโ€™s a step most companies tend to skip
    • Customer research
      • Types : Market research / Competitive research / Prospect research / User research
      • Questions to ask customers: Jobs to be done Questions
        • What problem / Where have they looked / Time spent on channels / Where do they learn / Previous solutions
      • Your mission: target customers you know so well, you could complete their sentences.

Step 2 : Identify the gaps – Success Gaps – Objections / Competitive differentiators / Tools needed for Decision Making

  • You need to have a clear understanding of what your funnel looks like for your company/business. When you know your funnel, your job is to build a rapport with your customers and provide solutions.ย 
  • Identifying the gaps, the areas that prevent the customers from signing up. We need to make sure we are responding to those โ€˜leaksโ€™ in the funnel. Identify the gaps (there will probably be multiple) and focus on filling them.
    • Where are we not meeting customers halfway in the customer journey/ What’s blocking them from completing the journey?
      • Top of the funnel – Widest audience / Widest reach – Attract your target audience with a need/problem
        • Find out missing pages / Lead magnets
      • Middle of the funnel – More educated about the problem/ need, more educated about the solution
        • Information customers will need to make a decision /Emails you need to send /What value will you need to add
      • Bottom of the funnel – Most educated about your solution. i.e. Free trial
        • What questions do your process / How will you measure performance /Are you currently meeting benchmarks

Step 3: Target the pain – It’s easy to get distracted by people who donโ€™t have pain by starting at the bottom of the funnel.

          • The question you need to be asking yourself: What was your prospect doing right before they {Insert CTA here}?
          • Target – Bottom of the funnel = people who want to solve a pain now.
          • For example, the best project management solutions tool could be what your customer is looking for.ย  First, youโ€™re probably going to go to google I go through 4 or pages. I go through those websites and learn more about them. As the consumer, I then sign up for 5-10 different products because the space is crowded. Or I may go to Capterra and look at the options and reviews. Then I go to social media, look up questions, and ask questions on Trello. Thatโ€™s 30 minutes of my time, 6 or 7 channels.ย  6 or 7 opportunities for those companies to be at the top of the funnel.

Step 4: Define the Strategy – How are we going to win, not just a plan

    • Find alignment in who to target/why to target them /where to find them /how youโ€™re going to execute the strategy /translate into actionable steps.
    • Be aware when: youโ€™ve got conflicting strategies /not enough resources to execute the plan /nothing really is converting /donโ€™t have clear action items

Step 5: Execute!

  • There are no silver bullets in marketing and growthย 
  • Execution and focus are the top 2 threats.
  • You have to execute to get data
  • Try things, then measure if it works and how well it works.
  • What if we took a more healthy approach to marketing. Gathering data to inform our strategy.ย 
  • Iterate as we go.
  • Over time things get better and you get closer to your goalsย 
  • There HAS to be a feedback loop after the execution.
  • If you donโ€™t have the time and budget to experiment, then focus on these basics instead
  • If these 4 things donโ€™t work, it could be poor execution or a longer onboarding process.

Q and A on how to acquire your first 100 customers with Asia Orangio

Q: When doing customer research, what tools do you use? As someone with a very limited budget who cannot afford the pricey mintel reports, are there alternatives out there?

A: we just use email, and tools like Calendly to schedule, then zoom to chat and we do record through zoom and transcribe later through rev.com. You donโ€™t need to incentivise these people, it should be just people who want to help (you can give something after but donโ€™t incentivise). We keep it low tech.

Q I’m the first and only marketer at a startup CRO agency. Prior to me, 15/20 customers – all referrals – which is amazing, but reactive not proactive as you said earlier. How can I build on that?
Q2 how does the process change as you get to customer 100 as customer 20 will be different.ย 

A: Your customer base evolves over time. The first ten and the last ten there will be differences. Only the pain youโ€™re solving should remain the same.

Q: How do you feedback the research back into the company? When do you recognise you need to pivot?
A: There are different kinds of pivots: positioning and messaging, and product pivoting. Knowing the customers, gathering the data, helps leaders to make decisions to pivot or adjust things.
Positioning and messaging is a marketing thing.

Q: What are your favourite podcasts and resources?
A: Forget the funnel (most relevant to SAAS)

  • CXL.com
  • Growthhacks
  • Dave Gerhardtโ€™s podcast