No.1 Customer acquisition strategy for new startups in crowded markets - part 2
No.1 Customer acquisition strategy for new startups in crowded markets - part 2
On the path to Product Market Fit
Hey everybody welcome to Product Market Fit Newsletter 🚀
My name is Guillermo Flor, ex-founder turned VC and on this article, I’m going to talk about how to find customers even when it seems everyone has a solution of a competitor.
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How to find customers that are already looking for a solution
So, a couple of weeks ago I shared a short article in which I explained a super valuable strategy to find customers when it seems that the market is already populated with many solutions.
The framework to do so is basically the following: rather than focusing on convincing entrenched customers to switch, look for people/companies actively changing their behaviors
1. Target behavioral change - identify companies that are changing and might be on the lookout for help/new solutions
When trying to find companies that are chaning you have to think about what makes a company change.
At each stage of their life cycle companies will have different behavioural changes that will lead to new needs.
On my previous article I listed a number of situations when companies change and might look for new solutions. These include:
Leadership Change
Funding Rounds
Expansion into New Geographies
Many more. Go back my previous article to read about the rest of situations that impulse companies to change and to look for new products and solutions.
2. Build a system for those companies to find you
The reason why you are going to target behavioral change is because companies going through a natural change process will be looking for many kinds of solutions.
Imagine a company gets a new funding round, it is likely going to have to hire a lot of new employees. For that, it is likely it will look to hire a selection consultant that can help with the hiring process.
If you are a selection consultant you want every company raising a funding round to know about you so that when it happens, they go straight to you.
This is just an example but there are hundreds of situations like this that can help you acquire new customers without the hustle to compete.
The process to create a system for those companies to find you is the following:
Identifying what behavioral change will trigger the need for your product the most:
If you are a selection consultant it might be interesting for you to target new funded companies, but also new CEO appointments or mergers & acquisitions or many other happenings.
Finding the channel where those companies and your ICP hang out at.
Ask the following questions: are these companies at the local business fair, are they on Linkedin, on Facebook, are they partners to any association?
Creating valuable content that helps them execute on the challenges that they need to overcome.
If a company is trying to hire a new CRM it will research how to properly use a CRM so if you write a blog about it and they end up reading it, they might consider purchasing your CRM.
3. Create an efficient closing + serving system:
This is where so many startups still fail.
You can be doing greatly all the previous steps but if you don’t have an efficient closing system you are going to make it hard for your potential customers to buy your product.
The idea is: allow customers to buy your product and use it at any time they want. Don’t force them go through a sales rep, you are losing so many clients there.
Extra: Want me to design & execute your organic customer acquisition strategy?
I’m launching a new iniciative to help B2B companies drive organic growth.
The process I’m following is the same explained here:
Analysis of the Ideal Customer Persona and best acquisition channel
Content creation + personal brand creation on Linkedin to attract customers & investors
Newsletter creation to add value to ICP and drive conversions
You can directly subscribe here!🚀
Email me if you have any questions!
See you in the next edition of Product Market Fit 🚀 🚀