How to find the first customer

[Vin Habbu]

Hi There,

My name is Vin. We have a built a prototype for an visitor management app. But do not know how to find that first customer. 

I would like to check what would be the right approach? Since we are just beginning, we do not have the budget to hire a sales professional. I have tried Google Ads and Facebook Ads. It's not helping either.

Any other suggestions?

Thank you for your time.

Best,

Vin.

[Hugh Mason]

Kevin Dewalt is a JFDI mentor who specialises in addressing this common issue: http://try.sohelpful.me/course.html

You might also want to check out:
http://www.forces.com/sites/steveolenski/2014/04/22/getting-your-first-100-customers-strategies-that-work/#23a308c44105
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/233822
https://www.groovehq.com/blog/startup-first-paying-customers
https://www.chargify.com/blog/8-actionable-ways-to-get-your-startups-first-100-customers/
http://www.inc.com/walter-chen/how-to-get-your-first-100-customers.html
http://retentiongrid.com/how-to-get-your-first-100-customers/

[Vin Habbu]

Thank you very much Hugh.

[Irish Delos Santos]

Hello Vin,

Welcome to Open Frog :)

As for your concern, please check these out:

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/185880

http://foreantech.com/blog/foreantech-as-a-startup-how-to-find-your-first-paying-customers/

http://www.businessknowhow.com/startup/findcustomers.htm

https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/03/the-things-any-startup-could-be-doing-to-get-fortune-500-customers/

I hope it helps :)

Cheers,

Irish Delos Santos | Community Manager at JFDI

[drllau]

With technology oriented firms, sometimes finding the FIRST customer is key towards differentiation and breaking out the herd. Intel got its start by doing a custom design for a Japanese calculator .... some respectable listed MNCs first got started by being a service company, then commoditising their experience into novel products that later found a wide-spread market ... I recommend you read the book Zero 2 One which one chapter (from memory) talks about working closely with R&D with just a single lead customer (note some very specific requirements including being willing to be public reference later, leading/bleeding edge requirements, ) ... if you have too many "customers" for software, the trap is being a customisation which is a personal service company and thus not investable (at least for VCs looking for high growth). Can still be great lifestyle company but you have to be realistic.

One way of reframing the visitor "management" software space is to ask the question why? What needs automation, what are the painful experiences that nobody has managed to solve yet. If you get a market insight then that is worth gold. The hard part is coming up with the business model which works out who is willing to pay for what as I can tell you that visitors are not interested in paying for "extras". and my experience of MICE operators is that because they have a lot of seasonal/casual workers, they don't want to invest in training transient staff.

Lawrence

http://www.linekdin.com/in/drllau

[Vin Habbu]

Thank you Lawrence for your insights.

Cheers!