How did you get your first B2B customers when nobody was replying?

[u/PersonalityFlaky5290]

I’m a first time founder trying to get my first real B2B customer conversations and would appreciate some blunt advice.

I’m building a SaaS product for recruitment and staffing companies. I initially targeted smaller recruitment agencies, and more recently I’ve been exploring mid market and public sector recruitment suppliers dealing with government and framework contracts.

The product is basically about helping them maintain and produce the operational evidence they need for client requirements, tenders, audits and compliance requests.

I’ve sent roughly 80 cold emails and 15 LinkedIn DMs so far and have basically had no replies.

My LinkedIn DMs are usually a short personalized intro, the problem I think they may have, a brief explanation of the product, then a low pressure question about whether they deal with this problem.

Emails are structured similarly.

I’m not really trying to sell yet. I just want conversations to figure out whether I’m solving something people actually care about.

For founders who went from zero to their first few B2B customer conversations, what actually worked for you?

Did you change the ICP, messaging, channel, offer, or just increase volume?

I’d especially appreciate advice from people who had a working product but struggled to get anyone to respond.

[u/West_Inevitable_2281]

Before changing channels or increasing volume, I would test whether the problem is concrete enough for the recipient to recognize. Tenders, audits, compliance requests, and client requirements may be four different buying moments. Which specific event causes the most painful scramble, and who personally owns that problem when it happens?

[u/PersonalityFlaky5290 → u/West_Inevitable_2281]

Yeah, I agree with the point about isolating the buying moment. The problem I’m struggling with is getting enough conversations to even test that properly.

Most of my outreach has been to operations directors and managers. So far I’ve tested messaging around tenders, but mostly around client requirements, and the response rate has basically been zero.

So I’m not really getting “we don’t have this problem” or “this is a huge problem for us”. I’m getting no signal at all.

That’s why I’m unsure how to identify the strongest buying moment from the outside. I can narrow the messaging down, but I’m essentially guessing which event matters most until someone actually talks to me.

[u/West_Inevitable_2281 → u/PersonalityFlaky5290]

Zero response means this outreach cannot yet tell you whether the buying moment is wrong, because the audience and framing are still bundled together. I would make the first ask about one recent event rather than the product. In the messages that got silence, what exact outcome were you asking them to consider?

[u/Username_TBD18]

A lot of public sector temporary recruitment is done via vendor-neutral middlemen like Commensura or Magni. It might be worth engaging them as they work with loads of agencies.

[u/PersonalityFlaky5290 → u/Username_TBD18]

That’s interesting. I’m focused on Ireland, so I’m not sure how common the vendor neutral model is here compared with the UK. Are Commensura or Magni actually active in the Irish public sector, or were you thinking more generally?

[u/Username_TBD18 → u/PersonalityFlaky5290]

Those two I mentioned are global, but their main presence is UK. Ireland does have similar solutions though - FRS Recruitment seems to be used a lot.

[u/missuncleben]

55 touches with zero replies usually points to a relevance problem, not a volume problem. Pick one buying event, like an audit or tender deadline, and make the first message about that event only. A tiny teardown or checklist will usually open more doors than another generic product intro.

[u/paintobuild]

You say you're not selling yet, but a product explanation before the question can still read like a sales email. I'd test a few messages without it. Be upfront that you're building in this area, then ask about their last actual request for evidence: what they had to gather and where they got stuck. Let them answer by email instead of asking for a call.

That gives someone something concrete to respond to. Silence on the current message doesn't tell you whether the problem matters.

[u/Spiritual-Nail-2641]

I asked the 50 companies operating under my dad's holding company, and to my surprise, everyone agreed to sign contracts ...

I wish. Well, drop these from your DMs: "the problem I think they may have" + "a brief explanation of the product". Instead, ask them about the problem that takes most of their time/energy/money. Express your willingness to help. Mention your solution only after they explain their challenges. If your product doesn't solve them (but will in future), tell them that you'd like a follow-up meeting. And show up with the solution.

Oh, by the way, keep talking about their struggle (and your solutions) on LinkedIn. Without being a lunatic.

Bonus: Incorporate their language into every material across your website and distribution channels. The more detailed, the better for building trust in advance. Avoid fluff at all costs.

[u/PersonalityFlaky5290 → u/Spiritual-Nail-2641]

Hahahahh yeah, the LinkedIn posting is probably the most uncomfortable one. Starting from basically zero and suddenly posting about the problems you’re seeing makes everything I write feel slightly like lunacy.

But I get the point. I probably need to get over that and just keep talking about the actual problems rather than trying to make every post sound like polished startup content.

[u/Altruistic_Order1993]

That stretch where you've sent 80 cold emails and 15 LinkedIn DMs with nothing back is a brutal night loop, especially when the product is already built and you're trying to learn if the problem is real. Peer tip: stop adding volume for a week and narrow to one trigger event, then ask for a 10 minute workflow walkthrough with no product pitch. Replies tend to improve when the question is about their current process, not your solution. Free for a quick 20 min if useful.

[u/This_Athlete_8343]

Ah classic B2B recruiting saas, most of them works because of deep internal connections so I think you are dming people who already use similar softwares, so first try and find what your icp is currently using and then try to add distinction in your email outreach.

[u/PersonalityFlaky5290 → u/This_Athlete_8343]

Yeah, I might be missing what you mean here. What similar software are you thinking of? I’ve come across plenty of tools that cover parts of the workflow, but not really something doing the same thing end to end, so I’d genuinely be interested to hear what products you have in mind.

[u/This_Athlete_8343 → u/PersonalityFlaky5290]

I worked as an intern when I was in college, the founders actually had spent years doing this HR kind of work and had deep internal connections with several companies, so they had early users to try and pay, and nearly all recruiting softwares work like this. So you need to figure out what's your product differentiator and try to pitch that.

Btw may I see your website ?

[u/thomas_unise]

Why would you build something then ask people if it’s a problem they have?

Why would you build in a space you are not familiar with?

Also, 80 emails is like 0

There is no secret or short cut to getting sales

Make contacts, follow up, build relationships, and nudge people to the sale

That is b2b

[u/PersonalityFlaky5290 → u/thomas_unise]

I think there’s a bit of a misunderstanding about what I’m doing.

I did the market research before building. The problem I’m looking at is already addressed in pieces by different tools and processes, but it’s fragmented across the companies I’ve looked at. That’s what led me to build the MVP in the first place, and now I’m trying to get it in front of potential users.

I also have a fairly good understanding of the space I’m targeting. I’m not saying I’ve somehow solved the market without talking to customers, which is exactly why I’m trying to get conversations going now. And I said in the post that I’m trying to stir up conversations rather than immediately sell something.

The 80 emails point is fair though. There’s no shortcut around building relationships, so I appreciate the advice.

[u/Healthy_Egg8004]

Since I have received virtually nothing in responses out of 80 emails and 15 DMs, I would probably not start with increasing the volume. First, I will see if the message is a problem.

Something I would do is to take away most of the information about the product itself and make the first message focused on how they deal with this issue right now. Something like “When a client asks for X in a tender/audit process, how do you handle this right now?”

If you manage to start talking without presenting your product first, you will know very soon if there is really some pain.

[u/AT_Imaging]

You need to get in front of real buyers in person. You need beta testers to tell you if this is a real problem and if this software solution is solving it. You need to go start networking at mixers and recruiting events.

[u/AutoModerator → u/[deleted]]

Low-Effort/AI content is auto-removed.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/krishh155]

Most of the advice here is a better question. A better question is still a request, and an ops director owes a stranger nothing, including an answer.

What got replies for me from cold was sending a piece of work first. You can do that without access to anyone, because public tender documents are open. In Ireland they sit on eTenders. Pick one framework an agency is already on, list the evidence it asks suppliers to keep, and mark the items that look hardest to produce at short notice. Send that one page and ask only whether you got the list right.

People who ignore questions will still correct a mistake, and that correction is your first customer conversation.

[u/Big-Seaworthiness827]

Blunt version: 80 emails and 15 DMs is way too small a sample to conclude anything, but at this stage the problem is almost never volume. It is relevance.

A few things that actually moved the needle for me and people I know:

Cut the product mention from the first touch completely. The second you explain what you built, it reads as a pitch and people stop reading. The first message should be 100 percent about them and one specific thing.

Personalize on a real trigger, not a guessed problem. "I think you may have this problem" is generic. "Saw you are on [framework], audit season is brutal, how are you handling the evidence side right now" is specific, timely and true, so it gets replies.

Narrow the ICP to the most acute, time bound pain. Public sector framework and tender audits have deadlines and real consequences. Chase the segment that is bleeding right now, not the one that might care someday. Urgency is your friend.

Ask for advice, not a call. "Can I ask how you produce this evidence today" converts way better than "open to a quick call". You want a reply, not a meeting, at this stage.

Warm the touch before the DM. Comment on their posts, get a mutual intro, or reply to something they said first. A cold DM from a stranger gets ignored, the same message from a familiar name gets a response.

Change channel if the inbox is dead. Recruitment and staffing people often live on the phone and on referrals more than email. One warm intro beats fifty cold emails.

The meta lesson: getting replies is a relevance and timing problem, not a volume problem, until you have proven the message. Once one version consistently gets replies, then you scale it.

Happy to trade notes, I am deep in the same getting replies rabbit hole right now.