Welcome to the Dreamit Dose. Startups often screw up their
first big meeting with a potential customer.
They don't know where they should be spending their time and the key
pain points, benefits, and differentiators they should be hitting.
Having a great initial meeting is really easy to do.
You just need to know where to spend your time and what BS to stay away from.
Let's dive in.
Every startup can't wait to get in front of potential customers.
They're looking to grow their pipeline, increased revenue,
and make it to that big next milestone.
As potential customers are going through your pipeline,
I'm assuming you're applying a sales technique like BANT
to make sure you're using your time effectively
and meeting with the right people.
Now you're setting up your initial meeting with a potential customer.
Let's get things started on the right foot.
Only ask for 30 minutes. Don't ask for an hour.
Remember, the less time you ask for the more meetings you're going to get.
And since you're going to be efficient with your time,
30 minutes is going to be plenty.
So you get to the meeting and it’s about to start.
In the first 1 to 2 minutes get all of the niceties out of the way.
Who made the intro. How you met. Who you know in common.
And then don't make the common mistake we see so many startups make
where they spend 5 to 10 minutes on the team slide and everyone's backgrounds.
Instead, just focus on name and role and get straight to the meat of the discussion.
Before we go further, for the next few suggestions, remember
you're meeting with a customer not an investor.
So don't overexplain what the problem is.
Unlike investors, who may not be intimately familiar with the problem,
now you're meeting with a customer who hopefully lives with it every single day.
If you overexplain the problem, you run the risk of talking down to a customer.
So talk about the problem minimally and focus on the key pain points that you solve.
Next, don't talk about the size of the problem if it's already widely known.
For example, did you know that obesity in the United States...?
Did you know that on average hackers steal...?
Did you know the construction projects are typically late by...?
Well, as a matter of fact I did and you just wasted three minutes of my time
telling me something that everybody knows and is common knowledge.
Just show a slide that describes the key pain points that you solve
and note the size of the problem.
If they're not familiar with it, sure go in for a few minutes of detail
around the problem. But be really careful to read the audience
and see if they already know what you're talking about and the size of it.
Now you can show off your solution.
And this is where you want to spend 90% of your time in the meeting.
Talking about what's unique, your key benefits, and your differentiators.
And if at all possible, show don't tell.
So to do that, demo your product with a use case demo
where you show your product in action.
As you demo, weave in the strongest proof that you,
reduce costs, save time, provide new capabilities,
get more done for less, get rid of other tools,
and have worked with other customers.
By the way, want more on use case demos?
Watch or Dreamit Dose on How To Crush Your Demo When You Pitch,
and you'll be an expert in minutes.
Once your use case demo is complete, you can follow up with
implementation requirements, hopefully low effort and low friction.
You could talk about next steps to get started.
Do you start with a proof of concept, a trial, a freemium,
or is it a purchase order?
You may want to go into a trial close
and figure out what their objections to sale may be.
And then finally, if it seems like they're showing buying signals,
go through pricing and talk about what the different options are
and what it will take from their budget to get started.
That's it. That's how you nail an initial meeting with a prospective customer.
Ask for only 30 minutes. Keep intros short.
Describe the problem briefly. Show, don't tell.
Focus on key benefits and differentiators. And describe what it's going to take to get started.
That's your Dreamit Dose in about 5 minutes.
If you have questions, please leave them in the comments.
Also, if you enjoyed this video, please make sure to like and subscribe.
We have a lot more coming.
Also please make sure to check out our live show, Dreamit Live,
where we interview wildly interesting guests and take your questions live.
See you next time.