A practical guide to validate pursue your idea

I have advised at least 200 founders in the last year alone who were on their journey from 0 to 100 Happy Paying Customers. I often grill them on what they’ve done already before coming to me. There is one stand out differentiator between founders who are able to rapidly execute go-to-market micro-tests to acquire customers versus those who have to ‘go back to square’. That single differentiator is if and how they ran their customer research conversations with real prospective customers.

In this post, I am covering the exact recommendations I make to founders on how to validate your idea: run customer research-sales calls with an objective to land your first paying customer.

What's in this guide

• New way to validate pursue your business idea

• An underlying framework & how to get started (vide …

• 10 steps to land your first customer

• Customer research-sales calls agenda

• Specific questions to ask on the call

• I am in! Where do I begin?

New way to validate pursue your business idea

• Traditional ‘customer discovery’ does not work because it is self-serving and provides highly theoretical insights (more reasons in the video below)

  • Instead, focus on talking to 100 people who fit your descriptor the type of humans you want to solve problems for. How? More below!

• The single most important priority for any (aspiring) business owner is Happy Paying Customers.

  • In your research this means, founders should focus on getting one person to pay you then deliver extreme value so they are happy.

  • Then assess if this might be a replicable Happy Paying Customer —> validate it by doing it again

• Mindset is critical

  • Don’t let perfectionism hold you back from talking to customers.  

  • It isn’t “selling” if you are simply trying to understand their problem and giving them a way to solve it.

An underlying framework & how to get started (video)

10 steps to land your first customer

(0) Think about the type of humans whom you want to work with.
Bonus: note preferences on the type of business you want to build such as b2b or b2c. Solo reflection prompts to consider:

• Whom do I want to solve what problem for?

• What does success in this business mean to me? What will my life look like if I am successful? What's a definite no-go?

• How might this impact the type of business I should build?

Talk to 100 people who fit this description:

(1) Have the first batch of 20-30 conversations
Goal: objectively discover what problem to solve and for which sub-segment

(2) Pause and brainstorm ideas for solutions.
Prompt: which segment of these types of humans have a problem I am excited to solve, and what might that solution look like?

(3) Articulate positioning options you can test in the form of:

• Who: which specific customer segment and problem do you want to solve?

• What: what might this solution be in the simplest terms?

• Why you: what might the differentiator of your solution be compared to their current status quo?

(4) Have another 20 conversations
Goal: start testing positioning you develop in the above step (i.e. who + what + why you).

Pro tip: If you struggle to articulate your positioning, have more conversations that help you discover options you are excited about.

(5) Iterate on the positioning as needed. If you were testing multiple, prioritize one.
Reminder: still do not build anything.

(6) Have another 20 conversations
Goal: test new positioning.

(7) Have another 20 conversations
Goal: get them to pay you for the idea.
Reminder: you still have not built anything.

(8) Deliver on what you promised.
You might deliver with some combination of no-code / low-code solution, a high fidelity design, or simply provide services. The goal is to solve the problem you promised to, get feedback and iterate before building something scalable.

(9) For the next 10-20 conversations
Goal: sell more of the above solution to (in)validate if the above is a repeatable Happy Paying Customer segment.

Pro tip: you want to make sure you're not building custom solutions and that there are many others in this customer segment who want the same solution.

(10) Design and micro-test a repeatable playbook to get to 100 Happy Paying Customers. Build along the way based on the continued input from your dream customers.

p.s. I did exactly this before building Founder-Led Marketing Club (FLMC). Many of my peers told me it'd be best if I focused on more 'proven' businesses. But, in speaking with 100+ underestimated founders (my dream customers) I discovered a massive need to help with go-to-market to get the first 100 Happy Paying Customers! I learnt that this was the biggest bottleneck in building thriving businesses on their terms resulting in many giving up on their idea. I started to solve this problem with marketing consulting services. After honing my positioning, I launched the prototype of FLMC as a Slack community. Then, earlier this year I upgraded it to a small group coaching program so I can provide more high-touch support to founders in a small group setting.

Customer research-sales calls agenda

Recommended agenda for customer research-sales calls

1. Let Them Talk (15 mins): Get the prospective customer talking about their problems, goals, and current solutions. Ask questions to understand their job-to-be-done, pain points, and current status quo (direct competitors or however they are currently solving/not solving the problem).

2. Agitate the Pain (5-10 mins): Reflect back what you've heard to double-down on their key challenges. Uncover the real consequences of their current (hopefully broken) status quo to solving that problem.

3. Pitch & Get Micro-Yeses (5 mins)*: Briefly pitch how your solution could help solve their problem using the positioning statement you develop. The goal is to get them to say "yes" to small next steps (e.g. trying a demo, setting up a follow-up call).

4. Next Steps & Recap (5 mins)*: Clearly define the action items for both you and the prospect before ending the call to further validate the micro-yes.

* PRO TIP: This agenda is written for step 6 and beyond. Depending on the step you are in from the above section, you’ll need to prioritize the appropriate outcomes to align with your goals for that step. E.g. if you are in step 1, the goal is to discover which customer segment and problem you might want to solve. In this case, you will not have anything specific to pitch. Instead, simply ask if (a) they can introduce you to someone else who may be interested in speaking about this topic, (b) if you can reach back out to them in a few weeks.

Specific questions to ask on the call

Here are some sample questions to incorporate into your customer research-sales calls:

1. [problem definition] Tell me about {insert your problem topic without specifically describing it}. Why is this a priority? What are the most painful parts of this for you?
   
   Pro tip: the goal here is to discover how your dream customers are talking about the problem, if at all. Pay close attention to the segment of customers who have an urgent and important problem they want to desperately address.
   

2. [outcome] What are the consequences of not {achieving a job to be done /solving a problem}? Why is this important to you / your work?
   

3. [status quo] What have you been doing about it? What have you tried to solve {problem they describe}?
   
   Pro tip: keep pushing to discover the problem that they have done something about. No matter how painful something is, and no matter how much you believe their life would be better if they adopted your solution, if they have not done anything to address the problem, it is something they are willing to live with. Your earliest adopters will be the customer segment that is already doing something about the problem e.g. using an adjacent tool, hiring contractors, spending their weekends on it, Googling some DIY ideas, etc. The best case is if they are spending money on it.
   

4. [push] Tell me about the last time you {insert status quo}? How did that go? 
   
   Pro tip: this is the way to ‘call their bluff’ with real factual data on what they have already done about it. It will also give you insight into what they hated about this status quo and hence how you can position your solution as a far superior alternative.

5. [pull] What else have you considered? What drew you to those options?
   Our goal with this is to continue to explore what else they are trying and what their pull towards those solutions was. This will further help strengthen your positioning.
   

6. Have you tried something that {describe your ‘what’ and ‘why you’}?

   If you are in steps 0-2, you may not have anything to test for your positioning. Instead, focus on finding out what else they’ve done to solve their problem. This might be other alternatives or it might be more depth about the alternative they told you about earlier. The goal is to deepen your insights about their status quo so you can develop a strong hypothesize for the positioning you can test in the next batch of conversations.

I am in! Where do I begin?

• Map your go-to-market hypotheses (I provide an overview in the presentation)

  • This will ground you in what you are working towards so you can build something the market wants. 

• Follow the 10-step process to validate your idea outlined in the presentation and above blog. 

Added support for you: 

• As you go through this process, you’ll have follow-up questions such as where to find these people, or you might want feedback on your outreach. Or, you might want deeper support on drafting your hypothesized go-to-market that you can design your business around it. I got you: 

• Whenever you feel ready to go from idea to 100 Happy Paying Customers, join other smart, ambitious in the Founder-Led Marketing Club, my high-touch membership for new founders. Get 1:1 support via Slack and small group coaching sessions.

• I’ve created this video for those of you who want to learn more about the Happy Paying Customers methodology and the Founder-Led Marketing Club. 

Have feedback or questions? Email or DM me anytime.

Was this resource helpful? Please consider leaving me a LinkedIn recommendation. It would be a huge help to me and my business.

Rooting for you always,

Sweta Govani
Founder of Happy Paying Customers & Founder-Led Marketing Club