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Stop talking about job titles. Stop talking about the things that you do. Instead talk about increased ROI, more conversions, decreased support costs, better P

Stop talking about job titles. Stop talking about the things that you do. Instead talk about increased ROI, more conversions, decreased support costs, better PR, etc. Talk to potential customers about their problems first. Then give them solutions to their problems. Ideally have stories from previous customers about those areas. Stories sell much better than skill lists. For example a while back I sent this letter (lightly edited to removed some identifying material). <quote> Hi $joe, Thanks for talking to me last week about $company. From our chat it looks like your biggest problem was transitioning from startup geeks to long term customers. I think we can help. We worked with $similar-company who had the same sort of issue reaching their long-term market. After helping them re-build their on- and off-line marketing materials their sales team saw a big increase in qualified leads, which helped them save money and focus their sales folk on some new markets. Conversions also increased significantly. If you like I can put you in contact with their CTO and head of sales who can talk about their experiences with us. If you'd like to talk about this further we should meet up. I could come and meet you next Friday afternoon in your offices. Drop me a line if this sounds interesting or if you have any further questions. Cheers, Adrian </quote> Note how I'm not talking about user interviews, analysing their search engine results, a new visual design, user testing, new CMS, web design, HTML5, jQuery, agile development, etc. Despite the fact that we did it all for $similar-company. Instead I'm saying "You told me this was you're biggest problem. Look we solved it for $other-company. Here are some people you can talk to for verification. Here is what you should do next". Find out their biggest business problems. Show them you can help them solve it. Leave out the details of how until the last possible moment.

edanm 15y ago
I agree with this in theory. Here's our problem: What we're mostly looking for is customers who need to build systems, and come to use to build them. Whether it's doing it per-hour, or taking some product specification and building it. What we aren't doing is going to companies that already have systems, and improving them. We're more focused on building products from scratch. It's possible that the problem is with our focus - but this seems the most natural fit for us right now. So I guess these are the questions: 1. Should we be focusing elsewhere? 2. If so, how do we find the kind of customers you're talking about? 3. If not, how do we take a customer, who's a lone guy or a company with a new product, and use the techniques above to present ourselves differently?
- adrianhoward 15y ago
  What we're mostly looking for is customers who need to build systems, and come to use to build them You might find it helpful to think about your customers as people with problems that mean they have to build systems. The customer doesn't care about the "system". They care about solving the problem. 1. Should we be focusing elsewhere? No idea. Are you finding customers for what you're offering now? 2. If so, how do we find the kind of customers you're talking about? I think we're talking about the same customers. Or were anyway (we're in the process of moving to doing more consulting/teaching/coaching ATM since it gives us more options). We build things for people who needs things built :-) You find customers for consultancies in the same way you find customers for software products. You need to start going to where the customers are. On-line and offline. Try adding some business meet ups to your technical ones. Listen - don't sell (at first anyway). Talk to them. Figure out what their problems are. Solve them. Do a reasonable job. Figure out what worked and didn't. Tweak your offering. Go talk to more potential customers. Solve more problems. Do a better job. Start getting references. Repeat. I've found the Business Model Canvas a useful tool for brainstorming ideas on my own business - looking for alternate revenue streams and markets - http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas - as ever YMMV :-) 3. If not, how do we take a customer, who's a lone guy or a company with a new product, and use the techniques above to present ourselves differently? I don't know - how do you present yourselves now?
  - edanm 15y ago
    We're new, so everything I say here is subject to change. We present ourselves as a software freelancing company. We ask our connections to refer people to us who need web applications built. We've also looked at something like Elance (but that targets the Israeli market, specifically). Most of our customers and potential customers were either: 1. people looking to build a new startup (or webapp), and want to outsource the development to us. 2. Freelance shops who represent customers looking to build webapps, and who are outsourcing the actual technical work to us.
    - adrianhoward 15y ago

edanm 15y ago

I agree with this in theory. Here's our problem: What we're mostly looking for is customers who need to build systems, and come to use to build them. Whether it's doing it per-hour, or taking some product specification and building it. What we aren't doing is going to companies that already have systems, and improving them. We're more focused on building products from scratch. It's possible that the problem is with our focus - but this seems the most natural fit for us right now. So I guess these are the questions: 1. Should we be focusing elsewhere? 2. If so, how do we find the kind of customers you're talking about? 3. If not, how do we take a customer, who's a lone guy or a company with a new product, and use the techniques above to present ourselves differently?

adrianhoward 15y ago
What we're mostly looking for is customers who need to build systems, and come to use to build them You might find it helpful to think about your customers as people with problems that mean they have to build systems. The customer doesn't care about the "system". They care about solving the problem. 1. Should we be focusing elsewhere? No idea. Are you finding customers for what you're offering now? 2. If so, how do we find the kind of customers you're talking about? I think we're talking about the same customers. Or were anyway (we're in the process of moving to doing more consulting/teaching/coaching ATM since it gives us more options). We build things for people who needs things built :-) You find customers for consultancies in the same way you find customers for software products. You need to start going to where the customers are. On-line and offline. Try adding some business meet ups to your technical ones. Listen - don't sell (at first anyway). Talk to them. Figure out what their problems are. Solve them. Do a reasonable job. Figure out what worked and didn't. Tweak your offering. Go talk to more potential customers. Solve more problems. Do a better job. Start getting references. Repeat. I've found the Business Model Canvas a useful tool for brainstorming ideas on my own business - looking for alternate revenue streams and markets - http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas - as ever YMMV :-) 3. If not, how do we take a customer, who's a lone guy or a company with a new product, and use the techniques above to present ourselves differently? I don't know - how do you present yourselves now?
- edanm 15y ago
  We're new, so everything I say here is subject to change. We present ourselves as a software freelancing company. We ask our connections to refer people to us who need web applications built. We've also looked at something like Elance (but that targets the Israeli market, specifically). Most of our customers and potential customers were either: 1. people looking to build a new startup (or webapp), and want to outsource the development to us. 2. Freelance shops who represent customers looking to build webapps, and who are outsourcing the actual technical work to us.
  - adrianhoward 15y ago