Get your first ten customers

No brand, no referrals, no budget. Work out who to talk to, what to say, and how to close.

4 steps, 16 questions underneath, read for breaking into gtm

1. 1
   Who you sell to

   Picking a customer worth chasing, and knowing early when a deal is not one.

   What is an ICP and how is it different from a persona? People use both words for the same thing. 4 → We have about fifteen customers and they are all different. How do I find an ICP out of that? 4 → The person who uses our product every day is not the person who pays for it. Which one is the ICP? 4 → Every deal seems to have five people in it. Who actually signs, and who am I wasting time on? 3 →
2. 2
   Positioning and messaging

   Making a buyer understand in one sentence why you exist and why you are the one to pick.

   What is positioning in plain English, and why does everyone insist we have got it wrong? 3 → How do I write a one-line description of what we do that a normal person actually understands? 4 → What is the actual difference between positioning, messaging and copy? I keep being asked for all three and they feel like the same job. 4 → Does our name actually matter? We keep arguing about it and I cannot tell if it is important or a distraction. 5 →
3. 3
   Outbound that works

   Cold email, cold calls, LinkedIn, sequences and lists. How to start conversations with people who have never heard of you.

   I have never sent a cold email in my life. Where do I even start? 4 → I am a founder in India and my buyers are in the US. How do I get a stranger twelve time zones away to reply? 4 → My cold emails keep landing in spam. How do I set up sending so they actually reach an inbox? 4 → Is LinkedIn a real outbound channel or just noise? Should I be using it alongside cold email? 4 →
4. 4
   Running a sales process and closing

   Discovery, demos, qualification, champions, procurement and the last mile to a signature.

   I have a call booked with a real prospect tomorrow. What do I do on it? 4 → Founder-led sales sounds terrifying. Why can I not just hire a salesperson? 4 → The buyer said yes, and now it is going to legal and security. What actually happens next? 4 → Everyone says find a champion. What does that actually mean, and how do I know if I have one? 4 →