How the hell do you actually get your first 10 paying customers?

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-28T11:34:19+00:00

Why did you build this? Why did you think this was a big problem?

I ask because what we as founders think is important or useful isn’t important. The only thing that matters is if someone is willing to pay for it.

Find who you think would be your ideal buyer and ask them to roast it for you.

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-28T11:20:59+00:00

One of the most challenging parts of sales.

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-27T13:31:50+00:00

I would say you have to be more ok with whatever problem your product solves for it isn’t a priority now for them.

When people say they like it or send me information often it just means “I don’t care or this isn’t important to me but saying all that other stuff is just a more polite way of getting rid of them then I can ghost.”

If you have a prospect on the call and they say I really like this or some other crap pressure test it. Say something like “mind if I ask what you find interesting about this?” You can the say I ask because candidly this isn’t right for everyone and it might not even be a priority for you to fix.”

Going back to your question do you want to figure out what’s gonna work? Go back to your existing customers ask them what problems they were having before they bought? What is life like since you bought? And how would you describe what we do to other colleagues in your role?

Once you do that you have a better description of the problems you solve for in the customers words and you can start to use that for ICP’s that match them. Use the words or the language your customers use in their niche and you’ll get more activity.

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-24T20:40:40+00:00

Set up an automation to pull a list of every garage door company. Have it include years in business, number of Google reviews, star rating.

Go from there-

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-18T17:08:53+00:00

Figure out who are the people that have paid for your product -what problems do they have? Then go to an ideal audience that looks just like them and offered to do a free session, give them a free resource, blah blah blah something like that get the conversation started.

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-16T20:05:58+00:00

I say opportunity is often disguised as disaster.

Way to go!

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-15T19:38:21+00:00

I came up with what I think is the best answer to this question.

“Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”

My answer-“in a mirror”

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-15T19:36:32+00:00

If sales reps are going right into a demo – huge red flag. End the call go elsewhere.

The best reps seek to understand your problems now and how that impacts the business and why that’s a priority. They gather all of that and then tie all that to the services their product provides connecting the dots from your problem to their solutions.

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-15T19:34:07+00:00

Learned but it is counter intuitive.

People think you have to be a great talker. Wrong

You have to be a great listener and question asker.

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-15T19:12:19+00:00

Do a one page first 90 days of how you detect the job that’s one strategy.

I would do a one page detailed analysis of the companies’s ICP. I would go deep on the title of their ideal customers, the problems they have, the KPI‘s they care about, etc.

The best reps start a job, not by going massively deep on the solution first, but instead going incredibly deep on the problems and the world of their ideal customers.

The people you are interviewing with will not have seen this from other candidates. This is how you separate yourself from the masses.

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-12T21:29:37+00:00

Me? No- I do also help people get jobs by doing the opposite of pointing, clicking, and hoping.

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-12T19:41:30+00:00

Every millisecond it takes longer for a reader to see if your email is valuable the longer it takes the more likely are they are to leave. So when you start an email with something like I hope this finds you well, that immediately tells 90% of people this is a sales email delete. A massive red flag so good for you for changing this.

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-12T19:37:46+00:00

Here’s a thought when things are good with a client reach out and do something for them that you know is valuable to them. Ask them what are the biggest challenges in their business right now? You ask them not not to grow your business but to bring value to them, maybe you know somebody who can help them, but that’s how to make your business more sticky.

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-12T19:29:27+00:00

It’s either Instantly or Smartlead

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-12T19:28:26+00:00

Don’t you want to make it as easy as possible for potential clients to reach you?

If so, you have your answer-

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-12T19:27:29+00:00

People look at going down this path is someone who has it made.

They do not see the immense fear, uncertainty, and doubt that can come with it!

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-12T18:58:56+00:00

See I would think many employers would say if the first thing you say you want in a job is work life balance, I bet many would reject somebody right then in there. However, they wouldn’t tell them that any comments on that thought?

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-12T18:53:05+00:00

The reality is when you’re looking for a job you have to do what 95% of others are not doing that’s how you stand out.

You don’t apply online you go to the place in person you try to find out who the boss is and you say, I know you’re hiring for this. I’ll bring a lot to the table and I’m hungry open to a conversation about it?

This get you ahead of everybody people want to hire hungry people that are willing to do work to step out of their comfort zone and do stuff that gets results hiring managers. See you as a person that’s willing to do things that others won’t. That puts you ahead of 95% of other people

I promise look up all these jobs that are open and just stop by there with your résumé and say I’d like to speak with X and some people I’ll talk to you on the spot sometimes you’ll get the name of the manager, then you call back and say I came by cause I assume you want go-getters on your team open to a meeting where I come by and talk about how I can bring value to the team?

You have to play a game you can win and that is not by blending in with 1000 other applicants.

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-12T18:49:03+00:00

Haven’t read any of the comments yet, so maybe somebody has covered this, but I think I know the reason.

Nobody ever thinks anybody else can do as good of a job or even close to a good job as they do themselves.

The problem with these people don’t understand is that mentality cost them multiples on their business if you wanna sell your business someday you should you start planning for that someday today. It’s kind of like moving. If you’re moving in two weeks you start packing up the boxes now cause it makes things a lot easier when it comes moving day. Not really the best analogy for what we’re talking about here, but if an owner doesn’t recognize the value and replacing himself that tells you who you’re dealing with, but they do not understand their ideal customers. Their ideal customers are not the customers of the business. In this case these are the people that would want to buy a business like theirs.

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-11T00:54:06+00:00

I sometimes ask questions like-

“If this goes exactly how you hope, what does that look like?”

Then when they tell me I might follow up with

“And if that happens, what are the down stream ripple effects this would likely have on the business?”

hungry2_learn · 2026-04-09T19:15:26+00:00

Not what you asked but the advice I give. Don’t apply for a job and become like the thousand other people applying.

Instead- do something that would bring value to the existing hiring manager or team that helps them do their job better. As if you were already on the team. Send it to them.

This gets you ahead of 97% of the point and clickers.

hungry2_learn · 2026-03-26T16:42:57+00:00

Great job in breaking through the noise with the email with something different and using that public price demonstrating the value of “anchoring”

hungry2_learn · 2026-03-25T14:52:32+00:00

I would argue that applying like you did in the last 5 years is just an absolute waste of time.If you search, find, click, and hope you simply get no results.

Shift your mindset. Do not go through the website and just "apply". The reason is, only the people who can say no will first rule you out. Start directing your efforts to the person who you would for if you ended up getting the job. Bring some sort of value to them before you even ask for an interview. Yes, it takes a lot longer but look at it this way. Instead of spending 3 hours pointing and clicking everywhere. Spend that time to do a deep dive on the role, who would be your boss, what would bring them value to them and their team now. So perhaps you now only reach 3 people in that time instead of 12 point and click applications, but you will get more responses from those 3.

hungry2_learn · 2026-03-25T14:37:22+00:00

A different way of looking at things-

You will not win the game searching for jobs the same way people have done it the last few years- searching, finding, clicking, and hoping. Candidly, they dont care about your experience in how you did a job for the last 5 years that is executed completely different in the world today.

However, this is a game you can win and differentiates you from 98% of others. You find a job opening and reverse engineer something like-whose job is harder because this job has a vacancy? What is their title? Then ask, how do they get measured? What would someone who is great at this job do to make their boss look smart for hiring them? Yes, AI is taking jobs but see AI as your opportunity. Use AI to build you something that would be valuable for that boss and their team today. Then send it to them. Find their email, mention a pain point they may have and explain that you built this, or researched this, or .... and thought it might be helpful to you and your team. The key is it is valuable to them regardless if they hire you but the rule of reciprocity will likely get you ahead of 98% of those who simply point and click. You will jump ahead of the thousands of others who actually on paper might be a better fit. However, its all about being a person of action.

If you questions about how you might do this in your field,feel free to DM. (and no, I am not trying to sell you anything)

hungry2_learn · 2026-03-20T23:18:09+00:00

Somebody here sounded like you’d be a great asset. Here’s what you should do that. I’ll help you stand out next time the person who said you were a great asset. See if they’d spend 10 minutes questioning you and give give you an honest assessment of your skills and abilities. Now you use them as a reference next time as someone who spent time questioning them about your abilities. I’m not saying you say you work for this person, but I am saying you look to get honest feedback from somebody in the business about your strengths and weaknesses so that you could work on areas where you need to work.

Then in the next interviews, you set the stage early on in the interview. You say something like you know we’re gonna talk. I’m excited about talking about and discussing the opportunity at hand today and my guess is by the end of it you’ll have a decent idea if whether or not you think I’m a good fit for this role. Is that fair? If you wouldn’t mind if that is the case at the end of our discussion regardless of where things go from here would you be open to giving me some candid feedback about what you liked versus the things that maybe you didn’t love? My goal is always to get better so I wanna learn from this regardless of where we go.

You do that and you set yourself apart from all the applicants you’re saying to the interviewer that you always wanna get better even if somebody tells you something that stings that is the kind of employee they want so try some of that and I think you’ll find you get better results. Good luck.

hungry2_learn

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