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Best way to social network?

What's the best way to get customer development meetings outside one's social network?

  • We're trying to meet as many potential customers to get their feedback about our product hypotheses and better understand their problems (i.e. we're not selling) and we wonder what's the best way to get such meetings with customers who are not in our immediate social network. Thanks!

  • Answer:

    I am having lots of success with random offers to introduce me.  In other words, I talk to as many people as possible about what we are doing and that we are in the stage where we are talking to people in industry to verify our assumptions.  At that point, people usually say something like "Oh, yeah I know so and so at company X, you should talk to them."  I am not even having to ask.  Furthermore, most of these contacts are coming from just chatting casually in social circles where it is considered good etiquette to be helpful to others. Last, don't think you need to talk to as many people as is possible.  You need to talk to as many as it takes to understand how the customer works and what their pains are as if you were the customer.  You also need to be able to articulate this the rest of your team.

Willis F Jackson III at Quora Visit the source

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I've found that soliciting "professional opinions" should be an innocuous way to get people's time, but it's not always that easy.  I agree with what was leading up to, there is no better way than to put yourself face-to-face with someone.  Find social settings and work the heck out of it. There are some other techniques that I've used: 1) Hand written letters are so dated that they're noticed when they come across someone's desk.  When was the last time you received a hand written letter for work? 2) Humor works...only if it's mildly cheesy, amusing and / or actually funny.  Be very careful with this one.  I've sent a box of Godiva with a message that says, "You know how guilty you'll feel eating this chocolate if you don't give me a meeting?" It worked without being over the top.  Even if the person doesn't eat chocolate, every notices the little gold box. 3) Just show up.  Waiting politely can have two outcomes, meeting or security getting called.  But, if security gets called you can cross that person off your list b/c they are no longer a maybe...

Matthew Hurewitz

Meeting people to interview is one of the most difficult tasks in Customer Development, but easily the most rewarding. Here are some ideas and rules: 1. Create a flash site introducing your product and buy some adwords to bring in your target demographic. Have a "sign-up to learn more" option and followup with an invite to chat over Skype. (this is also a great way to first test the concept - just measure how many people entire the site vs sign-up.) 2. Always followup an interview by asking if they can recommend anyone else to speak with. 3. Setup a MTurk that invites people have a short interview over Skype. You can decide who sees the MTurk by country, gender, etc. The MTurk crowd is pretty diverse. 4. Figure out where your customer segments are in the real world and target them there. Are they college students? Do they use Day Cares? Use the gym? 5. Talk to random people on the street. Takes balls, but it works.   6. Offer a free coffee or $5 gift card to anyone who interviews. (could be via Craigslist or at the local coffee shop.) When you do in-person interviews do it some place public (coffee shops, etc.), but never when someone is eating a meal. You are both distracted and it's a little awkward.

Jon Chamberlin

Ask for referrals. You'll soon find yourself in interviews with people outside your social circle

Erik Larsson

Do you know what your potential customers read? Where they work? What industry events they go to? Who they trust? Where they currently find a solution to their problems?

Thomas Knoll

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