When CEOs should let someone else captain the đłïž; Warm intros are going đ„¶; Donât win your 1ïžâŁst customers with ads
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đ Running Google and Facebook ads is in any SaaS marketerâs blood. But for the super early stage folks, it isnât really the best way to get your first customers. Youâre pre-product market fit, so even if your ads bring in customers, they will leak out as you continue to iterate on product and identify your ideal user. It shows a bit of a lack of resourcefulness because ads are far from cheap, and there are plenty of creative ways to scrap for customers that donât cost a dime. At this infantile stage in your startupâs lifecycle, itâs ok to do things that donât scaleâmanually recruit your customers and learn from them!
đ Online reviews are an increasingly popular way companies choose their SaaS vendors, with review sites like G2 Crowd, Trust Pilot, and Capterra acting as the platform. These can be great resources for buyers because they highlight key factors in your selection process and hopefully, offer honest assessments. They are also beneficial for sellers because they provide free placement to advertise your product. But if we could offer a word of advice for both parties...
BuyersâFake reviews are an unfortunate reality, and pretty common for companies riding the struggle bus, so be on the lookout. If youâre serious about a product, take the time to demo it thoroughly.
SellersâSeemingly trivial things like the design choices you make for your profile have a large impact on review scores. A lack of reviews (which is likely if your product is new), can also hurt your chances of being selected.Â
đ© Founders wear all the hats in the early days, including product. After all, theyâre the ones closest to the problem that their business is attempting to solve, so who better to craft the solution? But as they scale, it will become too large of a task for one person, and the CEOâs focus will need to shift elsewhere. The best time to bring someone else in to run product is post-product market fit, when your engineering team is big enough to enact more changes. The CEO will also need to be mentally prepared to let someone else steer the roadmapâthe toughest requirement to meet.
đłïž Handing over the reins to your business is an even harder decision for a founder to make, but itâs a good question to ask: when is the right time to have someone else captain the ship? Every founder will view this differently. But often when the task extends beyond getting the business into growth, and youâre required to implement large internal structures to help the business run smoothly, many founders arenât the best suited (or even interested) to lead. If you do decide to pass the baton, these steps can help create a smooth transition period for you and the team and set the new CEO up for success.
đ€ Warm introductions are thought to lead to the best opportunities because thereâs hope the introductee is legitimate. But when it comes to hiring or investment opportunities, thereâs a bit of a problem with warm intros. Referrers are often introducing the people they know best, who in turn, have similar education, socioeconomic backgrounds, and values. If thatâs what youâre looking forâok. But youâre looking for a bit more diversity, you may need to reach beyond the classic warm intro.
đ The person in a meeting whoâs able to convince everyone of their viewpoint isnât always right, theyâre often just the most persuasive! Weâre not saying itâs better to be persuasive than it is to be right (hopefully youâre both), but Oren Klaffâs Pitch Anything is a great read to improve your selling. It centers on neuroeconomics, the study of how our brains make economic decisions. As you can guess, these decisions arenât always made rationally, so appealing to peopleâs fight or flight oriented âcroc brainâ can be the best way to win them over.