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Ask HN: How to actually “talk to your customers”?

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Re: Ask HN: How to actually “talk to your customers”?

#91

Post by ddingus »

goatherders wrote: post #54
conanbatt wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that you work in a "9 figure web hosting company" might be a cue of why you can start a conversation, because of the brand of a company. Im sure Airbnb can get into a broker house any day to have a chat. Do you think it would be easy for you to walk into Uber in the next few days and someone tell you what you should be building that they would buy? Im honestly asking, i do b2b, please tell me some secrets :)

Before that I ran my own semiconductor brokerage abd the approach was the sane. "what about your job sucks?" "it sucks when I plan a build for Monday and 49 chips show up but 1 doesn't arrive until Wednesday. So my customer is mad that we are behind schedule and I pay mt staff to stand around.". So I started selling complete kits. One vendor, One PO and one box of components that arrives on time with everything in it…

Awesome sauce.

This is all spot on. The beauty of it is the real friends you make and what it is all worth.

There are calls I answered at O'dark thirty 10 years ago that are HUGE today.

People starting careers, people I helped to get there. They remember, and when I need or ask, they return consideration I gave them.

Or, I walk into a booming department, shake hands with the person building it, and we go have a lunch to chat about the early days.. They share all they are doing, and it's awesome.

When people know you know it makes sense to get there more than just do a deal, everyone values that.

Re: Ask HN: How to actually “talk to your customers”?

#92

Post by ddingus »

onion2k wrote: post #69
Spooky23 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Persistence pays. I was an account manager intern at a VAR in college and was really shocked to discover this. I sold about $50k of training to a big company based on a cold call. One time a guy called looking for advice on sharing files on NT4 and ended up in a conversation about licensing -- I sold him an EA. Another time I was in a wingman role for a site visit with an account exec. On the way back, we stopped at…

Aren't the statements " the account exec bullshitted his way in " and " Just treat people well " a little contradictory?

Not really. Social charm is often the necessary bit of lubricant needed to get a conversation going.

Think of it this way... It can be an excuse to make a pitch, which sucks. Everyone knows the charm was just a ruse.

Or, if your team has a genuine interest in the field, that charm isn't a ruse. It's genuine and earnest interest. It's the piece that can get the real convo started.

The difference is, after a time and maybe some business done, whether real understanding and a shared, common interest in success exists.

Where it does, everyone will have improved and that network of people has value. Becomes a center of gravity, attracting others.

Where it does not, it's just a deal, and maybe it was worth it, maybe not. But nobody is invested on a personal level. There is no real understanding.

With the former, it's common to check in, exchange news, share success, failure, introduce new people, etc...

With the latter, it's extremely common to only talk when needed, as it's just noise otherwise.

Truth is, for a given niche, there are always interesting people who care about it. You want to be and cone to know those people because they are where all the real action is.

Circle back to the bullshit way in.

Having the goal I put here means that conversation is extremely likely to have enough value to warrant the effort needed to start it.

Re: Ask HN: How to actually “talk to your customers”?

#93

Post by ddingus »

blazespin wrote: post #37
PaulHoule wrote: post #2

It depends a lot on what you are selling. If you go to a small retail business (say a cafe) when it is not the peak hour, you might find the owner working there. It is usually not hard to get them in a conversation, many of them will talk your ear off. (Sometimes this even works for a supermarket or a large chain store.) On that front, people usually like to be heard so if you do a lot of listening that takes the pre…

I think you have to be careful to separate those who will buy your product versus those who will talk about the industry.

You want both, just deal with them them differently.

Who does the talker know? Introductions and referrals are often worth some chatter.

Re: Ask HN: How to actually “talk to your customers”?

#94

Post by ddingus »

beamatronic wrote: post #8
kbyatnal wrote: post #4

I'm working on a consumer product. Here's what I do. - Include an invite for a quick 10-15 minute chat in the welcome email (more people than you would think actually take up the offer) - Ask them why they signed up (this is key to help you determine what problem people want you to solve) - Ask them their biggest frustrations about the solution so far And just take it from there.

Give them a $5 Starbucks card at the end as a thank-you.

I would prefer to make a standing offer for lunch or coffee and have a reason for it.

Re: Ask HN: How to actually “talk to your customers”?

#95

Post by jonwachob91 »

vecter wrote: post #30
danpat wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely this. This is also one of the reasons why there seem to be many successful business where the founder "scratched an itch" - they built a business on something they knew a lot about.

I think the "build a product to scratch your own itch" is one of the worst pieces of advice for entrepreneurs, especially first time entrepreneurs. The reason is that most entrepreneurs end up building businesses to scratch an itch, not solve a real serious problem. Source: been there, done that.

>especially first time entrepreneurs

I disagree. We know that most first time entrepreneurs will fail. Not b/c of a terrible idea but because of lack of experience. Someone's first venture should be relatively easy, not necessarily a great idea or even an idea that can raise funding. You mentioned in another comment a bill splitting app, definetly an itch, nothing unique, and in itself will never become something special. BUT the lessons you learn from building and shipping such a simple product will help you immensely in your next startup.

Re: Ask HN: How to actually “talk to your customers”?

#96

Post by jonwachob91 »

Read the book "The Mom Test" -> http://momtestbook.com. Even if you just read the first chapter, it'll help you out a lot.

To properly talk to customers to identify if there is a need for your product/idea requires for you to not bias them by telling them what you are working on. You should be able to talk to your mom about your idea without her ever knowing that you have an idea for a product.

Re: Ask HN: How to actually “talk to your customers”?

#97

Post by ensignavenger »

onion2k wrote: post #69
Spooky23 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Persistence pays. I was an account manager intern at a VAR in college and was really shocked to discover this. I sold about $50k of training to a big company based on a cold call. One time a guy called looking for advice on sharing files on NT4 and ended up in a conversation about licensing -- I sold him an EA. Another time I was in a wingman role for a site visit with an account exec. On the way back, we stopped at…

Aren't the statements " the account exec bullshitted his way in " and " Just treat people well " a little contradictory?

"Bullshited" in this context may mean that he lied, which would indeed be contradictory. However, it is more likely to infer that he had an improvised conversation, as in "shooting the bull" http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/shoot+the+bull, or engaged in idle conversation- http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bullshitted

Re: Ask HN: How to actually “talk to your customers”?

#98

Post by exceptione »

pryelluw wrote: post #55
conanbatt wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I agree with you. Its true what the op says that there are people that naturally want to share and mentor what they do. Now that you can easily find them or that there are signs of it you can find as a stranger.. Im running a b2b business, and even though i have personal contacts in the area, im frequently stonewalled to even start a basic conversation, let alone a product sales one.

Are you leveraging social media to warm up the leads? Find and target them with ads and follow up with a phone call or visit. Works pretty well.

What kind of ad do you make? I am very interested in the way you concretely go about this!

Re: Ask HN: How to actually “talk to your customers”?

#99

Post by pryelluw »

exceptione wrote: post #98
pryelluw wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you leveraging social media to warm up the leads? Find and target them with ads and follow up with a phone call or visit. Works pretty well.

What kind of ad do you make? I am very interested in the way you concretely go about this!

Email me and we can talk about your marketing needs.
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