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SAAS Execution, Dane Maxwell style

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

MartinH

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Hello everyone,
I read "The 4 Hour Work Week", "The Millionaire Fastlane ", "The Lean Startup" and "Get Real (37Signals)" and those books completely changed my life - but it wasn't until I discovered Dane Maxwell that I was actually ready to take action. I devoured all his free content online and now I finally have the courage to start my own software company.

I'm 21 and so far I've dropped out of law school and business school and started two businesses: A lasertag arena and an e-learning platform for German law students. I failed in a spectacular fashion, but I also learned a lot.
I'm not going back to college and I'm sure as hell not getting a full-time job that will distract me from living my dream: Becoming a location independent entrepreneur with passive income.

I want to share with you what I'm doing everyday to build my business - to hold myself accountable and maybe even inspire you!

My long-term goal is to build a web app that generates monthly recurring revenue of at least 100€/customer and get enough customers to fund my lifestyle.

My goals for the next three months are:
1. Talk to A LOT of business owners in order to find a painful unsolved problem
2. Create clickable mockups of a web app that solves those problems
3. Get pre-sales from at least 4 companies (based on those mockups)
(if I don't get 4 companies to pay me upfront I'll ditch that industry and look for a different one)
4. Hire a developer and have a MVP developed in under a month
5. Get feedback from my first ~4 customers, adjust the app to my customer's needs, invest a good part of my profit in further development to make my web app super awesome, get testimonials and then
6. SCALE SCALE SCALE SCALE
7. Profit ?
 
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LiveTheWay

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The best 4 hour work week I ever had was the week I spent 4 hours reading the Millionaire Fastlane . I used to spend so much mental energy on MY needs/wants.... passive income, location independence, x$ per month, etc. One of the most powerful concepts in TMF is when MJ states (my paraphrase) that we must get over our own selfishness and learn to address the selfishness of others.

I believe this goes beyond "find the pain" to becoming someone who sees the world as a "producer". Genuinely seeking create REAL value in the most effective way and putting my selfish desires aside to become incredibly effective in having the greatest impact on others. I also appreciate that MJ has not asked me to sign up for any upsell costing costing in the thousands of dollars.

Oh not to mention the first commandment ;-)
 

bane

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I read "The 4 Hour Work Week", "The Millionaire Fastlane ", "The Lean Startup" and "Get Real (37Signals)"

mate same!!!! Except Get Real & this Dane Maxwell stuff. So I'll have to check them out!

The lasertag arena sounds interesting haha


I want to share with you what I'm doing everyday to build my business - to hold myself accountable and maybe even inspire you!

I look forward to this! And hope to see you stick to it!

1. Talk to A LOT of business owners in order to find a painful unsolved problem

love this. will be very interested to read about this step in particular

Good luck and have fun!


What an awkward title for your first post
+1 :p
 
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IceCreamKid

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Who is Dane Maxewell?

Dane helped me to build my first software solution for dentists. I ended up being unable to scale it due to licensing issues, but that was completely my fault for not doing enough due diligence. I tend to just jump in without enough due diligence.

He's a good guy and a damn good entrepreneur...gets pretty emotional at times though. Really though, at the core he just wants to help people.
 

jon.a

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Dane helped me to build my first software solution for dentists. I ended up being unable to scale it due to licensing issues, but that was completely my fault for not doing enough due diligence. I tend to just jump in without enough due diligence.

He's a good guy and a damn good entrepreneur...gets pretty emotional at times though. Really though, at the core he just wants to help people.
That was almost certainly a joke from Kak. Everyone who has been here for very long knows who Dane Maxwell is. He did an AMA last year.
 
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IceCreamKid

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That was almost certainly a joke from Kak. Everyone who has been here for very long knows who Dane Maxwell is. He did an AMA last year.

Ah yes I should've caught on to that, especially after the who is zen******* thread.
 

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Kak

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Lol I was serious. I must have missed his AMA. After I saw the thread I assumed that he was an author or something. Didn't find him on amazon.
 
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MartinH

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Day 1:

My first objective was to find a suitable industry and then start cold-calling.

My criteria for choosing an industry are:
-Profit driven businesses
>5.000 businesses in that market
-Reachable by phone
-->Can get manager on the phone
-Already use software products
-Lucrative industry with >100k revenue

For starters I decided to try it in the cleaning industry for corporate buildings.
I live in a major metropolitan region in Germany so there are lots of skyscrapers and offices to be cleaned.
When I searched for "cleaning companies (corporate buildings)" on yellow pages, I found more than 180 companies in my city alone. (There are at least 15 cities with a larger population than my city in Germany)
Fair enough - let's get started.

Last sunday night I already sent 30 emails to companies nearby. This is the template I used for all emails:
"Hi (NAME),
My name is (MY NAME) and I am a software developer from (MY CITY). We are currently doing research on (INDUSTRY)
in order to create custom software that solves problems that cannot be solved by standard CRM or accounting applications.
What are the biggest problems you face on a day-to-day basis?
This is not spam and I am not going to try and sell you anything, I would just like to learn about the pain points you experience in your profession.
I would love to hear back from you, even if it is only one sentence!
Kind Regards,
(MY NAME)"

Sure, those emails will show up on top of their inbox on monday morning but it will take days until I "may" call them:
(I write them an email, they answer in one sentence, I reply asking when we could schedule a phone call, they reply, I call)

BTW
I was really happy that so many of you awesome people commented on my first post. THANK YOU FOR THAT.

So in order to take action NOW I didn't wait for those companies to reply, I simply startet cold-calling.

It's Monday morning, 10.30 am, and I already called 25 companies. My goal was to get at least get one manager on the phone and interview him long enough to find a few problems.

Here's what happened:

The first few companies I called directly hung up on me after I introduced myself with the following words:

"Good morning, my name is {name} and I'm a software entrepreneur from {city}. We are conducting a survey in {their industry}
to get to know you problems and hopefully create a software product that will solve those problems."

Some of the replies where:
"We don't buy anything!" *click* (I didn't try to sell anything!)
"We're not interested" (She didn't even let me finish my sentence)
"We don't discuss that on the phone but you can email us" *click* (I already did)

I mostly talked to secretaries and when I asked to speak to the manager they often replied with:
"He's not at work today" (living the good life, huh?)
"He's not in his office"
"You can't" *click*
"He only responds to email" Me:"Can I have his email address, then?" -"No, just send an email to info@weneverreply.com"

So I figured the word that scared those secretaries away most was "survey" (in german it sounds even scarier, lol) because they associate this to "sleazy salesperson" and the natural reaction is to hang up.

So this is the script I used from there on:
"Good morning, my name is {name} and I'm a software developer from {city}. We are currently working on software especially designed
for {your industry} and in order to provide the best user experience we are interviewing all companies in {my state}, in order to get to
know the most painful problems, that you encounter on a day-to-day basis. Can I talk to the manager please?"

The next calls went a lot smoother and the secretaries were much friendlier and chatted longer. But the end result remained the same:
They don't need software
The boss isn't there anyway
They don't want right now
They don't use "software" that much anyway
They are perfectly happy with the software they have
Their boss doesn't allow them to talk about software at all - I should do everything via email.
etc.

Four times I actually got the manager on the phone. *Success*
The first three politely declined and said they were not interested in any software right now and I shouldn't call again.
The last one was pretty friendly and scheduled an interview for tomorrow morning. (He also said that monday is their busiest day that's why he can't talk right now)

So bottom line after 25 calls: One manager at least agreed to talk to me tomorrow. The other secretaries didn't even let me talk to the manager. I will see how they will respond to my emails but I suppose it won't change much.

Maybe this is an industry where they generally don't use a lot of software, if at all.
Maybe it's one of those industries where the secretaries work on Windows XP and schedule appointments in MS Excel (but are perfectly happy with this).
Plus many companies I called seriously showed no interest AT ALL in any software.
Germany is a bit different than the US, small businesses generally tend to not use a lot of software even if it could save them a lot of time
because the people using it (secretaries, part-time employees, etc.) are old school and prefer to "never change a running system". A long time ago I did several internships and basically worked as a secretary and saw this first hand: Small German companies are really against "paperless" office communication. Everything needs to be printed out like it's 1995.

I will definitely wait for them to reply my emails, then call some more companies on a not-so-busy Tuesday and see if I can get a manager to open up and talk freely about his problems.

If I can't get at least a few interviews done, I'll stop bothering those businesses and pick an industry where a manager might say something like "Oh you're doing special software to help my business succeed? Just a few questions? Sure -fire away, son!"

So the goal for tomorrow is to:
Get a manager on the phone for 30 min. and find problems to solve


Other options would be to pick a completely different industry or do face-to-face interviews; I got a few friends that are managers and I could simply ask them about problems. I guess that's what Dane did with his first company: Ask his uncle about problems and solve those problems.
I got friends/relatives in leading positions in a:
-law firm
-wholesale store
-energy company
-private high-school
-construction company

For sure the biggest problem today was to get from "Hey, you don't know me but I want to help you succeed, answer a few of my questions, please!" to actually talking to a manager for a longer period of time. I guess that's the hardest part of any cold call, the "threshold".
If I could just manage to overcome this problem I'm sure ideas would start flowing. But for now I'll just improve my technique, learn from my mistakes and do a better job tomorrow.

Any feedback / suggestions where to go next / criticism ?
 

Nur

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There's a course on SAAS on edx.org starting soon i think on the 18th maybe you wane check 'em out.

Not sure if the course is entrepreneurial

Do you code?

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk 2
 

nickR8

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Congrats on taking action!

I can totally relate to the small german businesses not wanting new software... I used to cold call small to medium-sized businesses here in Germany that had really crappy websites... 95% were not interested in any sort of improvement in their web presence... they said things like: "we get all our clients through trade shows and word of mouth" *click*... I think businesses here are just a little "slower" in adapting to new technologies.

One suggestion would be to not directly say that you want to create a software solution for them in the first email because most people will say (and think) that they don't need any more software... Here is the original email script of the foundation (or I think it is the original) which is a little more ambiguous :

******

Subject line: Strange Question?

Hey.

I’m doing a research project on how to make the *insert industry* easier, faster and more profitable.

I had a strange question you might not get asked often. How is business going for you? Is it up? Down? Sideways? Has your business been affected at all by the recession? If time permits me, I may reach out and call you later this week.

Thank you,

*You Name*

*******

Make sure to be extra polite (use last name) in your emails when in Germany... I sent tons of physical letters to businesses pitching my marketing consultation services and I used the owner's first name... big no-no in Germany. When I did the follow-up calls they were super pissed off :D

If I were you I'd definitely first tap my existing network for "idea extraction"... so much easier to get access to them and they can probably refer you to other people in the field and also explain the industry to you a little more.

Keep on posting, keep on pushing and don't get discouraged.

- Nick
 
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MartinH

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There's a course on SAAS on edx.org starting soon i think on the 18th maybe you wane check 'em out.

Not sure if the course is entrepreneurial

Do you code?

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk 2

Thanks dude, I'll check that out.
And about your other question, haha:

Do-you-even-code-bro.jpg

I started with Webdesign last year and finished a few projects for friends and myself, slowly got better and now with all these easy mockup tools and my design skills I feel good enough to even start freelancing. But freelancing is what we'd call the slowlane, because there are only 24 hours in a day ;-) That's why I want to do SaaS.
I am a big fan of Javascript, having a good grip on jQuery I soon wanted to discover what else is possible with Javascript alone.
I learned about Meteor JS and the holistic concept of using JS client&server-side made a big impression on me and I learned a lot about this framework. I can create small apps but for bigger apps (like this SaaS business) I'd definitely hire a developer.
But the good thing is: Although I probably couldn't code everything myself I could at least understand what my developer is doing and maybe even do the maintenance myself one day.
My plan is to concentrate less on HOW to develop something, removing myself from the equation, and to focus solely on finding & solving painful problems. My previous businesses all failed not because they were poorly executed but simply because there was no need.
 

Nur

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Thanks dude, I'll check that out.
And about your other question, haha:

View attachment 7157

I started with Webdesign last year and finished a few projects for friends and myself, slowly got better and now with all these easy mockup tools and my design skills I feel good enough to even start freelancing. But freelancing is what we'd call the slowlane, because there are only 24 hours in a day ;-) That's why I want to do SaaS.
I am a big fan of Javascript, having a good grip on jQuery I soon wanted to discover what else is possible with Javascript alone.
I learned about Meteor JS and the holistic concept of using JS client&server-side made a big impression on me and I learned a lot about this framework. I can create small apps but for bigger apps (like this SaaS business) I'd definitely hire a developer.
But the good thing is: Although I probably couldn't code everything myself I could at least understand what my developer is doing and maybe even do the maintenance myself one day.
My plan is to concentrate less on HOW to develop something, removing myself from the equation, and to focus solely on finding & solving painful problems. My previous businesses all failed not because they were poorly executed but simply because there was no need.

Try dartlang.org client-server all in one RoR not needed

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk 2
 

MartinH

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Congrats on taking action!

I can totally relate to the small german businesses not wanting new software... I used to cold call small to medium-sized businesses here in Germany that had really crappy websites... 95% were not interested in any sort of improvement in their web presence... they said things like: "we get all our clients through trade shows and word of mouth" *click*... I think businesses here are just a little "slower" in adapting to new technologies.

Make sure to be extra polite (use last name) in your emails when in Germany... I sent tons of physical letters to businesses pitching my marketing consultation services and I used the owner's first name... big no-no in Germany. When I did the follow-up calls they were super pissed off :D

If I were you I'd definitely first tap my existing network for "idea extraction"... so much easier to get access to them and they can probably refer you to other people in the field and also explain the industry to you a little more.

Keep on posting, keep on pushing and don't get discouraged.

- Nick

I did the same thing, I feel your pain. I wrote about 100 emails to companies that had horrible websites and offered to "polish" their websites, make them responsive, even transfer all the old content to a new shiny CMS - nothing ^^ Simply no demand.
I know a few freelance developer and they are all "doing OK", not great. Like I said earlier, freelancing would in most cases be considered Slowlane, whereas founding a web development & IT consulting company with several employees and creating an "all inclusive" package like those guys http://www.chiropracticmarketing360.com/plans-pricing/ would definitely be fastlane ^^

Yeah I'll talk to my friends and relatives next, something I should do more often anyway, and look for problems there!
 
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Lakeview

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Guys - No disrespect but REALLY?

I wrote about 100 emails to companies that had horrible websites and offered to "polish" their websites, make them responsive, even transfer all the old content to a new shiny CMS - nothing ^^ Simply no demand.

If they have horrible websites, there is demand. It's not what your offering they are not responding to but the way you must be presenting it.

The first few companies I called directly hung up on me after I introduced myself with the following words:
"Good morning, my name is {name} and I'm a software entrepreneur from {city}. We are conducting a survey in {their industry}
to get to know you problems and hopefully create a software product that will solve those problems."

If you were on the other end of the line, busy in your day-to-day, how would you respond? What have you given them of value? Answer: Who you are, what you do, what your doing, hoping to drag information out of them in hope you can monetize it.

Business owners/bosses get lots of calls like that everyday, which is why the gatekeeper is there to block these kind of calls. It's not that there is not a market for what you are offering, it's just you have not communicated well as to what you can do for the prospect. It is never about you, it's all about the customer. It's not about the problem but about what they will experience once the problem is solved.

While I know both of you have good intentions, your responses are all about what you can do for them and not about the customer. First off, never pitch the gatekeeper. Secondly, craft a script that clearly communicates what you are trying to accomplish. EX: Solve a problem - Ok, let's be clear as to what that means. A problem is just something that is preventing them from experiencing something (getting off work on time, more time to do something else, doing something they hate doing.....)

Without going into a marketing course here, search how to write copy, selling and marketing threads. Lots of discussions you will view as gold. Both of you have legit ideas but when it isn't working, adjust what you are doing and how you are doing it. Clearly, both of you are good on the technical side, but need to spend time on understand what makes people buy.
 

jon.a

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@jon.a There you go being nice again. Awkward is not my first choice of words but is probably the best gentleman's response.
I chose awkward because it could have been simply awkward. Seems like maybe it was.
 

MartinH

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Guys - No disrespect but REALLY?



If they have horrible websites, there is demand. It's not what your offering they are not responding to but the way you must be presenting it.



If you were on the other end of the line, busy in your day-to-day, how would you respond? What have you given them of value? Answer: Who you are, what you do, what your doing, hoping to drag information out of them in hope you can monetize it.

Business owners/bosses get lots of calls like that everyday, which is why the gatekeeper is there to block these kind of calls. It's not that there is not a market for what you are offering, it's just you have not communicated well as to what you can do for the prospect. It is never about you, it's all about the customer. It's not about the problem but about what they will experience once the problem is solved.

While I know both of you have good intentions, your responses are all about what you can do for them and not about the customer. First off, never pitch the gatekeeper. Secondly, craft a script that clearly communicates what you are trying to accomplish. EX: Solve a problem - Ok, let's be clear as to what that means. A problem is just something that is preventing them from experiencing something (getting off work on time, more time to do something else, doing something they hate doing.....)

Without going into a marketing course here, search how to write copy, selling and marketing threads. Lots of discussions you will view as gold. Both of you have legit ideas but when it isn't working, adjust what you are doing and how you are doing it. Clearly, both of you are good on the technical side, but need to spend time on understand what makes people buy.


Thank you for your advice, Lakeview.
It's a good thing I joined this forum otherwise I would've never gotten so much valuable feedback. I have much to learn about "what makes people buy", no doubt.

But I did write emails to many businesses and told them who I am and what I'm planning to do and if they could - in one sentence - describe some of the problems they encounter in business (I made several different templates to test which one converts best). I won't cold call any more of those companies tomorrow but only call those that replied to my email request. This way it will be a "warm call" :)

I have never cold-called anyone in my life until this morning and considering that I actually got through to 4 managers and talked to them I'm quite happy, I didn't even expect that.

You told me not to pitch to the gatekeeper. This "pitch" was basically part of my introduction (who am I, why am I calling / what's in it for you).
And once I'm talking to the secretary, what do I do if she tells me
"We don't need any kind of software"
She doesn't run the business, her boss does, yet she is standing between me and her boss and we can't ask the boss if he'd like to discuss possible solutions for his business that would help him save time & money.

And even worse, the problem that me and NickR8 were discussing is that although there is need for something, there is no demand.

I mean we all know the "Sell me this pen" pitch. But it only works perfectly if the person you're pitching to doesn't already have one (or even several) pens in his pocket. Because if he does, chances are he's not interested in your pen because his one is writing perfectly fine. If there is no real pain (like "A horse! My kingdom for a horse!") it's much harder to get someone excited for what you can offer.
So I guess my point is, if I get a business owner on the phone and I tell him "I'll solve any problem that you currently have and develop a custom software solution and you're not even obliged to pay me anything (unless you like my solution)" and the guy still states "We don't need software at all" and if this happens with more than one owner - chances are there really is no demand and although I could possibly make something happen with sick copywriting skills, it would be a waste of energy because there's so many businesses I could solve problems for, like companies that actually realize their old website is shit (and I don't have to convince them first).

Dane has this question where he asks business owners "What software have you been looking for,
but have not been able to find a solution that fits your needs?"

I suppose if he asks this several times and all he hears back is "We have't been looking for software, everything is fine the way it is" - I don't think he would keep pushing. He would choose another industry that actually has unsolved problems and knows it.

It's like in the gym when you see a new guy doing squats totally improperly (like the way it will wreck his spine anytime soon) and you're like "Hey, I've been doing this for a few years now, do you want me to help you get a better form?"
There are some guys who'll gladly accept my help and some who don't. I'd help those who want my help ;-)
 
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Vigilante

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He's your god? Um.... you can learn from him. You can enroll in his course.

Catchy headline. You'd never see me making a similar claim about any guru, or any man.
 
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Lakeview

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Without going into a marketing course here, search how to write copy, selling and marketing threads. Lots of discussions you will view as gold.

Again, please do your due diligence and search other selling/cold call threads. You will find the following as well as other helpful posts and videos.

http://vimeo.com/46164281
Good luck!
 

MartinH

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Day 2:

Today I took some time to reflect and plan ahead. I realized that I hadn't really given the process of cold-calling business owners and extracting ideas enough thought. So I decided to learn from people who had done what I'm about to do: (Ex-)Foundation members.
There's one guy in particular who is basically doing the same thing I'm doing (building a SaaS business and sharing his experience in a blog) and he uploaded some great videos and blog posts that answer many questions any newby might have. For anyone interested, the guy's name is Pascal, that's his blog: http://makeawesomeshithappen.com/

So I basically spent many hours listening to information available on how to successfully perform "idea extraction".
I also read the first chapters of "The Ultimate Sales Machine" and watched some training videos on how to improve my cold-calls.
And I changed all my scrips and made new ones, I actually wrote possible questions on sticky notes and created a flowchart for getting past the gatekeeper (based on Chet Holmes' talk) and I'll apply what I learned tomorrow.

On my first day I've sent about 30 emails and called 25 companies. That's obviously not enough.
The foundation member I mentioned above sent out about 1000 emails and I guess if that's what it takes I'll try to do that, too.
So I signed up on MailCheat(Chimp), set everything up and designed a few different campaigns to use tomorrow.
I wrote about 8 different email templates and I'll test each of those in the following days. "All" I have to do now is collect enough email addresses. Luckily every German business is legally obliged to reveal their business email on their homepage so getting enough email addresses won't be a problem (although it might take some time).

I also created a custom database in Filemaker Pro to store all information about the companies I call (like name, email address, name of the person I spoke to, position of the person I spoke to, timestamp, etc.) and also to keep track of which script I used for which company so I can evaluate what works and what doesn't. A much simpler and more lightweight solution than any CRM.

There are so many new tactics I learned today and I'll try to apply all of them!

For example:
I want to use a three step process to get through to the bossman:
Day 1 Call secretary, get owner's name and personal email address.
Day 2 Send an email to the owner (in the style of Sam Ovens or the other 7 templates I built)
Day 3 Do a follow-up call and reference the call to the email I sent

or I want to cold-call the company and pretend that I'm a (very naive) student doing research on {topic related to what this company does} and that I would like to ask a few questions. And I'll ask the secretary if she "knows someone" who'd be qualified to answer my questions.

or I'll simply do the Chet Holmes thing where I first growl along to my favorite Death Metal Songs to get my voice to the right baritone pitch and then simply do the *deep voice* "Hello, is {boss's first name} there?" -"Who's this?" -*even deeper voice* "Tell him this is Chet Holmes calling". ( I must remind myself not to say "Chet Holmes", but my name simply doesn't have the same sound to it ^^)

Haha I'll have a blast for sure :)

This evening I had an awesome conversation with a fastlaner from Germany who is working on a SaaS business, too. He gave me a lot of helpful advice and even some suggestions for a slightly different but less risky business model and I'd love to try that as well.
Nick, if you're reading this: You made my day!

So although I didn't get a lot of calls done today and I'm still far away from my first really productive "idea extraction interview" I'm really happy that I will get up tomorrow, have a huge breakfast and then pick up the phone and start moving closer to my goal.
 

nickR8

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Awesome, man. Was great talking to you too!

If you stick to it and find out what works, you'll be rocking it for sure :)

-Nick
 
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CommonCents

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What business or person on earth wants software? NONE.

Does a builder attract future home buyers by selling them a hammer? A builder shows the future homebuyer a completed home or the home plans/photos(prototype) and shows them other happy homeowners enjoying the BENEFITS of their home and shows them how they can enjoy the benefits too.

Nobody wants software. Software is your tool to help them achieve the benefits they want, that they are willing to pay for.
 

MartinH

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Day 3:
Today I started cold calling early in the morning to test my new scripts. After my cold calls on monday went completely wrong
I decided to try this new script: I introduced myself as a college student who's doing research on his thesis and then I asked the secretary if she happens to know the right person to talk to.
The secretaries then basically gave me carte blanche and replied: "Well who do you wanna speak to?" (if it was a big company) or simply "That would be our CEO, wait I'll put you through."
And I got through...
Every
Single
Time

For someone who had been failing at cold calling that was really liberating. My script contained about 5 different responses to cope with being rejected by the gatekeeper but I didn't have to use any of them.

So I ended up calling 15 businesses and most of the time I ended up talking with the CEO. Many times the CEO was really in a hurry so I scheduled a return call (because idea extraction takes time).

But I am happy to announce that today I did my first 3 Idea Extraction Calls ever :)
OK, they lasted about 10 minutes each, but it's a start and definitely more than I expected!

I only got Level 1 Problems though (meaning very general problems like too little revenue due to small profit margins, difficulties communicating with subcontractors, etc.) but I got my foot in the door and that's all that matters.

So I'll keep cold calling but once I get through to the CEO I'll ask if he's busy and if he is I'll schedule a return call for the following day (or whatever date suits him best).

Later that day I sent out 100 emails using Sam Oven's template with only a few alterations (like instead of calling myself Tech Entrepreneur I said I'm a college student) and we'll see how that goes.

So my plans for tomorrow are to continue cold calling, getting to know more CEOs and their problems and I'm especially looking forward to the return calls that I scheduled with some CEOs today because I hope they'll give me more than 10 minutes of their time :)

Apart from that I'm pretty happy with the way things are progressing. But to keep things interesting I'll send out another 150 emails tomorrow and call more companies and maybe try calling in a different industry just to see their response. It's too early to settle for one niche anyway, I got time to experiment!
 
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MartinH

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Day 4:
Today I did more cold calls, this time more confident because I knew I wouldn't get rejected.
I got through to many CEOs but they were all extra busy because it's the last day before Good Friday
so I made appointments for next week. I didn't want to rush in and only get level 1 problems again.

Also a few of the companies I sent emails to replied today.
I got only 6 Emails back (from over 100 recipients on my list) and some owners were really pessimistic
and complaining a lot about high taxes and legal obligations whereas others were euphoric and excited to talk to me
"after Easter" because they see a mutual benefit in talking to me :)

So next week there will be a lot of idea extraction calls.
 

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