Talk to your f!*king customers!

A hack I will use every time I start anything ever.

We recently launched a new version of our product and I’m using an awesome hack to talk to potential customers about it. Everyone always says “talk to your customers”, but no one ever really suggests how.

Here’s my hack:

1. Join a group on LinkedIn whose members you think could be potential customers for your product or idea.
2. Message 20-40 of them per day with your value prop and offer to jump on the phone to talk about a potential fit. This is my script:

Hi [Name],

I found you in the MailChimp users group. We (www.gochime.com) recently built a MailChimp integration that allows you to reach (via a newsfeed ad on Facebook) the people who don’t open your emails. We are also using the same technology to reach groups with very similar characteristics to your audience, but much bigger.

I’d love to talk if there’s a potential fit with what you are working on now.

Thank you,

Austin Evarts

I’m sending this to the 400+ members in the MailChimp Users group on LinkedIn, our potential customers. 20% of people are responding, usually within 24 hours, and it’s resulting in at least one to two customer calls per day.

The results are not at all what I expected:

• I’m getting “knowledge bombs” dropped on me daily from a range of potential customers in different countries all over the world.
• I’m getting told “no”. I’m getting told “yes”.
• I’m learning about ways to further promote our product in the community.
• I’m getting offered to guest post on industry blogs.
• I’m getting software suggestions to make our lives easier.
• I’m feeling out price points. I’m feeling out pain points.
• I’m learning about the email marketing industry as a whole from people who have lived and breathed it for years.

All of this has been extremely valuable for our product priorities and direction. It’s helping us with our messaging and sales channels, and we are getting new customers.

I don’t think I will start anything ever again before finding a group on LinkedIn who I think might be my potential customers, and sending them a message about my idea.