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randomnumber314

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Hey @DanC, can you elaborate on some communication tips that helped you weed out real problems--or that helped entice the conversation to a genuine problem?

Thanks!
 
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HowToMillion

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Hello @DanC, thanks a lot for this AMA and congratulations on your success. Before I saw this thread btw, I am in the middle of something and actually pre-sold(not much though).. so after I saw this thread, I re-thought and send out a bunch of e-mails and called. If not ignored, most of the responses are negative, I might be reading between the lines but I'm almost quite sure they are a little bit scared I might accidentally disclose their ideas and losing their competitive advantage. How do I erase those fears and doubts right from the start? or do I?
 

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Thanks for doing the AMA. Also congrats on having the Australian accent, I was blessed with the gift as well. I appear to have missed the cut off for "The Foundation" and was wondering if there is anything equivalent that will provide you with the necessary skills. Thanks heaps!
 

Growth & Learn

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Hi Daniel,
What are some tips for scaling your growth? We're increasing our customer base by about 10-30 customers per month but I feel like the growth rate is not very Fastlane.

MJ is in my head in a good way :)
 
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thidr0

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A little late to the party, but something I've wondered about the pre-selling phase:

When trying to pre-sell, are you only speaking to decision makers? What do you do when the person who likes your product needs to kick it up to his/her boss for approval?
 

DanC

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Hey @DanC, can you elaborate on some communication tips that helped you weed out real problems--or that helped entice the conversation to a genuine problem?

Thanks!

Ask people why or how does that work like 4 or 5 times to really understand something. Dane has some videos on idea extraction on Mixergy check them out.

People usually know what their problems are but are bad at expressing them. In a way its like if you went to a therapist they are going to ask you a bunch of questions till they get down to the root of your problems being your parents letting you wear a bathing suit instead of underwear :) You want to avoid surface level answers and go deeper, your the therapist helping them to see things clearer (and also getting clearer yourself).
 

DanC

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A little late to the party, but something I've wondered about the pre-selling phase:

When trying to pre-sell, are you only speaking to decision makers? What do you do when the person who likes your product needs to kick it up to his/her boss for approval?

Talk to their boss.

You really want to talk directly to the person who will be making the decision so that if they have any objections you can cover them in real time rather than through a proxy.

If thats a regular thing in your market where you don't talk to the decision maker (shouldn't be in most and def not in small businesses) you would probably want to get the person you are talking to really bought in, so they can make the best possible presentation to their boss and effectively sell them for you.
 
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Last edited:

DanC

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Hi Daniel,
What are some tips for scaling your growth? We're increasing our customer base by about 10-30 customers per month but I feel like the growth rate is not very Fastlane.

MJ is in my head in a good way :)

If thats recurring thats still nice your growing. I'd try aim for a percentage growth e.g. between 10 - 20% customer growth per month things will start to compound if you can maintain that kind of rate.

Do more of whats working + try some new things like paid advertising, webinars, outbound sales, write a 7 part course, research how your competitors get sales etc. I would just try one new thing at a time.
 

evlttwin

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Hello @DanC, thanks a lot for this AMA and congratulations on your success. Before I saw this thread btw, I am in the middle of something and actually pre-sold(not much though).. so after I saw this thread, I re-thought and send out a bunch of e-mails and called. If not ignored, most of the responses are negative, I might be reading between the lines but I'm almost quite sure they are a little bit scared I might accidentally disclose their ideas and losing their competitive advantage. How do I erase those fears and doubts right from the start? or do I?

This is an interesting question that was never answered.....

Im curious to know this as well.
 

DanC

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Hello @DanC, thanks a lot for this AMA and congratulations on your success. Before I saw this thread btw, I am in the middle of something and actually pre-sold(not much though).. so after I saw this thread, I re-thought and send out a bunch of e-mails and called. If not ignored, most of the responses are negative, I might be reading between the lines but I'm almost quite sure they are a little bit scared I might accidentally disclose their ideas and losing their competitive advantage. How do I erase those fears and doubts right from the start? or do I?

I did miss this one.

I'm not really sure what the issue is, it could be timing e.g. this would be a terrible time of year to email accountants.

Or it could be subject line, phrasing in the email etc. Post some examples here and people can probably help out with some suggestions.

Remember your expecting to be ignored by most people, it's the people that reply and want to talk to you, that your going to help and learn from.
 
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