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independence3 unconnected · 2 more authors in those circles
applies to

b2b and consumer, no audience needed

confidence

high

evidence

5 claims · 5 articles · 4 receipts

window

2016-10-28 → 2024-02-23

3 builders who never spoke to each other

Mine your own network for introductions

When the target customer cannot be reached cold, the route in is somebody you already know, because acquaintances do favours strangers never will. A blog reader with a sister getting married, an accelerator alumni list where any name will take a call, or a single client traded a discount for introductions to their trade all produce first customers that outbound does not. Offering an incentive widens the warm circle further.

The method

  1. 01

    When your target customer is hard to reach cold, mine your own social graph for introductions instead, because acquaintances will do you favors that strangers never will.

  2. 02

    Find the one person who will vouch for you before you have any track record, and let their introductions produce your first paying customer.

  3. 03

    An accelerator's alumni network doubles as your first customer base and as people who will take a call from you cold.

  4. 04

    When one business asks you to build them something custom they cannot afford, trade a lower price for introductions to their peers and access to their trade community.

  5. 05

    Offer an incentive for referrals when you are hunting for the first beta clients, to widen the warm network beyond your own contacts.

What it returned

  • After failing to find brides on forums, marketplaces or Facebook, Zue got his first customer interviews through a blog reader whose sister was getting married, and lined up more through friends attending weddings.

  • Rebecca told everyone about Justin's new wedding video company while he had not yet produced a single video, and she landed him his first paid job and drove him to the rehearsal.

  • The initial user base came through the programme's network, and any alum could be emailed for a call or an answer.

  • A freelance programmer approached by a single industrial window-washing firm was introduced to other operators and to a forum for window cleaning businesses

Sources

the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

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the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

963 corroborated plays to draw from · 3 a week

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