- If you're building a SaaS business,
in this video, I'm gonna walk you through exactly
the four principles I would follow to get my first 100 users
if I were to start SaaS business today.
Intro.
(upbeat music)
What's up, everybody?
Welcome to Unstoppable, I'm TK and on this channel
I bring an episode every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday
to help startup founders like you
navigate the path to product market fit
and navigate the path to the next stage of growth.
So, if you are new to our community, welcome,
be sure to hit that subscribe button and that bell icon,
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I drop an episode.
Before I get into exactly how I'd get my first 100 users
if I were to build a SaaS business again,
if you are in that spot
where you're building your SaaS business
and you don't wanna navigate the journey alone,
be sure to check out my SaaS school, where I coach founders
on how to go from zero to 3 million ARR.
I will link to it below and tell me more details about it at
the end of this video, but let's start to dig in, shall we?
Let's go into exactly how I would go
about acquiring my first 100 users.
So if you're ready to get started, smash that like button,
not really, smash that like button, it just helps us out.
Let's dig in.
Okay, so here's the first thing I want you to understand.
For any of us that have ever started SaaS businesses before,
I started ToutApp and I sold it to Marketo,
and then I went to Marketo, and then we help sell that.
I've been in SaaS business for a while.
At the end of the day,
it all comes down to our ideal customer
who wants to get to the promised land,
the promised land being either more money or saving time.
That's why software gets used.
Along the way, the reason they buy software
is they essentially have some sort of a major problem
or some sort of an obstacle.
So, that's the first thing you really wanna understand.
The first principle to understand is you really wanna dig
into what is the macro trend
and the obstacle that's happening?
That's number one for you
that need the necessitates your software.
See, people like you and I, we don't just build software
for no reason, not the successful ones, at least.
And people wake up one morning say,
"Oh, I really wanna pay for one more SaaS software"
no one does that.
The reason they actually invest in software
is so they can get a return on that investment
by either making more money or saving time.
That's it.
And so what you want to figure out,
the first step to all of this is what is
the big macro trend that is happening
that necessitates the software you're building.
Now, you don't have to do this
when you've already built a product.
If you haven't built a product,
you should start with this right now
and start following this process.
If you already built a product,
and now are turning on sales and marketing to get users,
you definitely should do this
because you're a little late to the game.
So, the first step in this is how do you actually identify
the big macro trend that necessitates your software?
Now, I'll give you an example, for ToutApp,
at the end of the day with ToutApp,
what was happening was there were more leads
being generated than ever before.
There are more leads there
and because of those leads required seven to eight touches
to convert that lead to an opportunity,
salespeople needed software
to touch people seven to eight times,
to email them phone calls, social, all those things.
They couldn't manage it all in their heads and it took
eight touches to actually capitalize on that lead.
That's why that software was necessary.
So that was our macro trend.
We identified that was a clear macro trend,
and we started talking to VPs of sales around it.
We also realized that VPs of sales wanted their salespeople
to be prospecting and they didn't wanna be prospecting.
So we help them automate that as well.
Those were big macro trends that came into play.
So we identify the macro trend.
The second thing you do is you create a manifesto.
Now, a lot of marketers will tell you
to create a lead magnet.
A lead magnet is like threat 10 shocking things
that you didn't know about blah, blah, blah.
It's kind of noisy out there, people won't care.
This is why I like manifestos and I'll be doing an episode
on what's the difference between a lead magnet
and a manifesto and why manifesto is so much more powerful.
This is what we teach in our SaaS school program.
So I will create a manifesto.
Ours was how to write kickass sales emails for ToutApp
and it was a really successful manifesto.
We talked about like,
hey, here's literally how to write your sales emails
so that you get noticed.
And we taught people our unique point of view
about what our software enables,
and how it solves this big macro trend
and the obstacle that's in the way of them making money.
So step number two in this is to actually create a manifesto
Once I have this Manifesto, this PDF guide,
it doesn't have to be terribly complicated,
I will go on and post on LinkedIn, post on LinkedIn
or post on Twitter, wherever my ideal customers hang out.
I will post it every single day or three times a week,
whatever is necessary, I will do that,
I will actually post it and I will actually highlight
that big macro trend that's happening.
I'll highlight the big macro trend and I'll say,
"By the way, we thought about this,
"follow the link in the comments to check out our manifesto"
and people will then go download with that manifesto
and give me their email address.
And I will do this over, and over, and over, and over
until I build an email list of 300 to 500 people.
And I can start doing this even before I have a product,
or I can do this once I already have a product,
or I can do this as we're building the product.
But the point is, I'll get super specific
about who our ideal customer is,
I'll figure out where they hang out,
I'll figure out the macro trend, I'll create this manifesto
that has our unique point of view,
and I'll keep promoting it on LinkedIn or Twitter
in front of these people,
and I'll keep connecting with these people.
Are you guys getting this?
Now let me pause here for a second
before I go to principle number four.
This is a dramatically different way
to actually approach this because what most people do
is they build, build, build, build, build,
and then say, "Oh, let me hire sales and marketing."
Or even worse, they try to do all the things, right?
There's a recent stat I came across.
Turns out that only about 4% of seed stage companies
graduate to a series A, 4%!
Which makes me wonder what is the 96% doing wrong
and what is the 4% doing right?
Here's the thing, every single seed stage company will do
all the right things around sales and marketing, right?
They'll create a blog, they'll get a snazzy website,
they'll create a logo, they'll do all kinds of content,
they'll do a billion things
but ends up neither here nor there.
The only thing that matters
is that you craft your manifesto the right way,
and you find the right macro trend,
and you get it in front of your audience
in a consistent way.
Are you starting to see the difference here?
Are you starting to see how this is the most essential
aspect of getting that first 100 users and beyond.
And of course, you do this right,
it's not gonna get you just 100 users.
This could be your primary growth engine
for your SaaS business.
If you start to get this,
the difference in the approach here,
can I just get a "YES!" in the comments below,
so that I know you're here with me.
And if you haven't smashed that like button already,
please do so, means a lot to us.
And by the way, if you are just at that stage
where you're building out your sales and marketing machine,
you're trying to get to that hundred users and beyond
or even trying to grow your sales and marketing machine.
This is exactly what we teach founders
to do in our SaaS school.
I'll tell you more about it, I'll link to it below,
I'll tell you more about it at the end of this video.
Now, let's go to principle number four .
Principle number four is, okay, I'm posting on LinkedIn,
I've got people downloading the manifesto,
I've got an email list, what do I do?
I would run a once-a-week webinar.
I'd run a once-a-week webinar,
or I would just email these people
and ask to get on a call with them
so that we can compare notes around the manifesto.
So that I can educate them more about the market,
and so that I can actually get them into my product
and actually get them into the product.
This is exactly what we did a ToutAPP
and it worked beautifully.
We published our book, "How to Write Kickass Sales Emails"
We did more books after that.
We published a weekly webinar,
where we invited people that downloaded the guides
to say, "Hey, come to this webinar, we'll teach you
"how to get seven to eight touches for your sales leads."
And at the end of the webinar, we'd say,
"Hey, let's get on a call or try out the product,
so you can actually put these strategies into place,
and boom, we had our way beyond our first 100 users.
It was incredible.
And it's a very simple system.
When you start to do this every single week,
what you end up doing is starting
to get new people coming in
and being aware about what you guys are doing
and understanding your unique point of view,
and then engaging with you to actually understand
that your software will help them make more money
or save time and save money.
Now you know exactly the system that I would follow
to get the first 100 users.
Well, what you don't know is how to actually find
the right macro trends.
What you don't know is how to craft
the manifesto in a very specific way.
And what you don't know is how to actually run this webinar
in a way where you actually drive to sales conversations.
This is exactly what we teach in our SaaS school.
We work with SaaS founders to help you build
an unstoppable sales and marketing machine,
a go-to market machine,
so you can actually scale your business, get to revenue,
get to product market fit and beyond.
So if you're in that stage, and you wanna work with me
to build your go-to market machine,
and accelerate your revenues, go beyond the 100 users,
then follow the link below to actually check out SaaS school
to actually schedule a call with me,
so that we can actually figure out if you're a good fit.
Or you could just go to tkkader.com/gtm
That's it, tkkader.com/gtm,
I'll give you all the details are on our program
just now open for enrollment.
And it'll actually give you a link to schedule a call
to see if you're a good fit for the program.
Now, a couple of caveats.
This call is not a free strategy call.
I'm not getting on a call to answer all your questions
and give you all the answers.
I am getting on this call to evaluate
if what you're working on is a good fit for the program.
If we can help you and then I can tell you
what it would take to be part of the program.
That's how the calls are structured,
so you wanna be fully transparent.
So to recap, if you wanna get to your first 100 users,
get super specific about your ideal customer profile
and figure out what their macro trend is.
Number two, create your point of view, your manifesto.
Post where they are every single week, multiple times,
get them to dollar in your manifesto,
invite them to a webinar,
and then drive to sales conversations
and put them into your product.
That's how to get the first 100 users.
I've used this system before in my ToutApp journey.
I've seen it used with multiple companies
that I work with while I was SVP of strategy at Marketo.
This system works.
It's the most essential way to actually build
a sales and marketing machine,
which is why we've build the whole program around it.
I wanna thank you for watching this video
all the way till the end.
Be sure to smash that like button if you got value from this
If you're new to the community,
I post a video every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday
to help startup owners like you
get to the next stage of growth.
So be sure hit the subscribe button and that bell icon.
If you also have a friend
who's also building a SaaS business,
and could get value from this,
and you're not super competitive with that person.
You wanna help him out, or help her out,
be sure to share this video, it'd mean the world to us.
And lastly, check out tkkader.com/gtm.
We'd love to have you as part of the program.
We're now open for enrollment for a few more members.
Last, remember, everyone needs a strategy
for their life and their business.
When you are with us, yours is gonna be unstoppable.
I'm TK and I will see you in the next episode.
(inspiring music)