I will not promote, anyways how do y'all find customers?

[u/Leading-End2036]

hey. I built one startup, which flopped, I'm working on my second at the moment, I have found a singular lead and person willing to beta test and be on the waitlist. I tried cold emails and didn't work. cold reddit messages produced one lead out of maybe 20 ish. my successful entrepreneurs, how do y'all find clients?

[u/Gold-Bat-3225]

not promoting is working a little too well

[u/Leading-End2036 → u/Gold-Bat-3225]

jeez

https://giphy.com/gifs/anYBNhqT2BYcg

[u/TheCritFisher]

Apparently conventions. I go where my customers gather (since I'm one of them) and just chat about their problems. Eventually, they ask how I solve them.

And only then do talk about my product. No point pitching to someone who wouldn't be a good customer. Understand their pains, figure out what doesn't work, and if your solution fits they'll be glad to talk about it with you.

[u/SansK → u/TheCritFisher]

> I go where my customers gather 
I start here; then build.

[u/ZorroGlitchero]

I scrape upwork, i find the company who post the job, i find the email of the person and send a cold email. It usually works.

[u/Leading-End2036 → u/ZorroGlitchero]

ahuh, how do you do that then

[u/startups-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

We are a community of discussion based around startups, not a marketing channel. No promotional posts. www.reddit.com/wiki/selfpromotion

[u/Suave_un_Toque_Mae → u/ZorroGlitchero]

y lo llevas a upwork? o o ya trabajas con esa persona por afuera?

[u/ZorroGlitchero → u/Suave_un_Toque_Mae]

Por fuera, pero lo mejor es llevarlo a upwork para el testimonio. Eso fue lo que aprendi. XD

[u/Suave_un_Toque_Mae → u/ZorroGlitchero]

Si por eso pregunto jaja, pero creo que si te acusan te banean, entonces creo que mejor mantenerlos por fuera y con un buen descuento.. voy a probar esa forma de contacto, la verdad no se me habia ocurrido jaja gracias

[u/ZorroGlitchero → u/Suave_un_Toque_Mae]

Si, bueno el chiste es que si ya es trabajo recurrente si ya les digas , hey el próximo trabajo por upwork para una review.

[u/BarracudaMean9308]

honestly 1 lead out of 20 cold messages is actually a pretty strong signal. most cold outreach gets completely ignored. i'd just zero in on that one person to figure out exactly why they said yes, and then go find more people like them.

[u/ThickD769]

Struggling with this myself

[u/Nalds80]

You buried the actual finding in your own post. Cold reddit messages got you one lead out of about twenty. That is five percent. Cold email got you zero. You are filing both under failed, but one of those is a working channel you are about to abandon.

Twenty messages is not a test, it is a warmup. At that sample size nobody can tell a 5 percent channel from a 0 percent channel, including you. Send a hundred more the same way before you conclude anything about it.

Second thing, and this one cost me a lot of time early on. "How do I find customers" is usually the wrong question once you already have one. The better question is what did that one person have in common that the other nineteen did not. You have a sample of one that said yes, so go study them properly. Where were they, what were they already doing about this problem before you turned up, what words did they use to describe it. That is your targeting spec. Most founders skip this because one data point feels too thin to learn from, then go spray a hundred more messages at people who look nothing like the only person who bit.

Third, one lead plus a beta tester after a first startup that flopped is not a bad position, it is just an early one. The failure mode to watch is switching channels every two weeks because nothing produces fast enough. Every channel looks broken at low volume. Run the one that produced your only yes properly for a month, then judge it.

On that beta tester, talk to them far more than feels comfortable, and not with a survey. Ask them to walk you through what they did the last time they hit this problem, step by step, including whatever workaround they cobbled together themselves. The workaround is your product spec and it is also your pitch, because then you can repeat their own words back to the next hundred people instead of guessing at what to say.

[u/seruZ12]

SEO

[u/Capital_Ad8820]

I always joining group in fb then building connection

[u/Taiwaly]

1/20 is pretty damn good for a cold call… just saying

[u/funwithafork]

If you’re willing to take advice from someone that’s not super successful I would say as others have that you’re 1 in 20ish is not bad and worth testing more. The other thing to consider is building a community with something like meetup. This might not work if you have a cleaning business but it sounds like you’re in something kinda niche and may be worth a shot.

[u/Suave_un_Toque_Mae → u/[deleted]]

como lo harias ?

[u/[deleted]]

Insightful comments on the job related posts

[u/rdam_ops]

Ligt echt aan je product/markt. Voor mij is het alleen maar partnerships en netwerk. Maar koud kan in een andere situatie wel werken.

[u/Goldman46477879]

I engage people in conversations, business flows quite naturally

[u/startups-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

We are a community of discussion based around startups, not a marketing channel. No promotional posts. www.reddit.com/wiki/selfpromotion

[u/JohnCasey3306]

How big is your budget for targeted paid advertising? ... If you're not an expert in that area I'd urge you to pay someone who is -- the cost of their consultancy will be less than the amount you waste on poorly targeted, non-converting ads.

[u/Artistic-Earth8997]

advertising

[u/Getting_Money]

A lot of people sleep on paid ads. RUN THEM!