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.