41–50 of 121 posts
I think your question is really: "how do I find people to interview?" First, find out where your prospects actually spend time. LinkedIn is garbage for a lot of industries. Most doctors don't change jobs much or building "personal brands", so they're not scanning LinkedIn often. Reddit can also be often a better community. Second, don't cold message people. Put out HELPFUL (not clickbait) content. It can be as simple…
Have you considered offering them something for their time? Something as simple as a gift card to a coffee shop, so you can have virtual coffee and chat about their pain points? I know you don't want to sounds sales-y, and there are ways to offer this without sounding like a salesperson. Just an idea
I've had luck in another field, finding a very popular forum online that those in the field used. I simply introduced myself and offered to do IT work on their offices as a chance to meet people and learn more about the industry. It worked wonders.
Get an actual job in the domain and you'll quickly discover all the pain points. For example, become a medical physicist or dosimetrist and try working in a cancer clinic. Asking to shadow random medical professionals won't work well unless you have a friend on the inside greasing the wheels.
[Before, during, and after the session you treat them well, don't waste their time, thank them, etc., which hopefully goes without saying]
Then when you're done with each interview, you ask the participant "hey, this was so great, can you recommend anybody else I should talk to?"
To that last sentence, I often used to add "... I'm looking for the most outspoken, opinionated expert you know, the person with no filter, who just tells it like it is". Chances are they know a person like that, and that person immediately leapt to their mind. That's who you really want to talk to anyway, the person who will tell you exactly what is wrong with everything out there.
In terms of asking people about pain points, the best approach I've used is to get them to list their pain points, then ask them to stack rank that list. If applicable, ask them how much they'd pay for a product that solved each of those problems, or just the top n. You want to know whether they're just brainstorming minor quibbles, or if there is actually an opportunity there.
I think your question is really: "how do I find people to interview?" First, find out where your prospects actually spend time. LinkedIn is garbage for a lot of industries. Most doctors don't change jobs much or building "personal brands", so they're not scanning LinkedIn often. Reddit can also be often a better community. Second, don't cold message people. Put out HELPFUL (not clickbait) content. It can be as simple…
If you follow Steve Blank's approach, the ideal thing to do is start with "friendly first contacts" - that is, people you actually know personally and/or people who you are referred to by people you know personally. Then, once you get even a few "friendly first contact" meetings, you ask those people to refer you to their contacts, and so on in turn. Note that this stuff is never as easy as it sounds on paper, but if…
a "business" already works on what is built or established, refining processes to branch off beaten paths to sales/marketing
a "startup" operates with too many unknowns for the average person, 99% failure means only 1% of the people figure out the unknowns to become a "business"
I just don't understand why people just default to "startup". You should be focused on running a business and make a 15 cents out of a dollar spent, not spend a dollar to make 15 cents in hopes that someone will "buy you out" or you "ipo"
such are pipe dreams
Users, mortals, normal people would come in for a gift card and lunch.
Small business owners, C levels, non bank VP's had to be given (and im going to date myself) a palm V or something of equal value to come in....
Short of putting money on the table your response rates are HUGE. The question is are you getting the responses from the right/best segment of the industry. Remember your competing for their "attention" with every medical sales person out there, drugs, devices, marketing... "golf" is still a thing.
If you feel the need to add something into the mix: Build a News letter (head start on marketing. Run ad campaign (very targeted and expensive) and sign up form or survey (exclude all non dr's you capture).
In the realm of cold calling / emailing, 1% conversion is actually pretty normal. 2-5% would be unusually good. I would stick with what you're doing and don't lose faith! If you want to try different strategies in parallel, I work in sales for a healthcare SaaS and while my product is results/outcomes oriented, I have much better luck talking to people about RESULTS they want to achieve vs. PROBLEMS they want to solv…
You made good points for the stage that you're in, i.e. you already have a solution that you can sort of pitch upfront (even seeding the conversation is a version of that). I'm at the point where I can't/don't want to bias them with the slightest hint of what I'm solving because it will taint their response. That makes it quite hard!