Get your first customers

The scrappy, unscalable work of going from zero to your first users.

What founders use for get your first customers, ranked by how many answers lean on it.

  1. A concrete framework, from a long-running sales training school, for making sure every call ends with a mutually agreed,... Sandler Training Article How to Ensure Every Call Ends with Next Steps Frank Gustafson
  2. Jason Lemkin's argument is that a single first rep gives you almost no signal: you can't tell if a slow start is the person,... SaaStr Article · 10 min read When You Hire Your First Sales Rep, Just Make Sure You Hire Two Jason Lemkin
  3. Roberge built HubSpot's sales org from zero using data instead of instinct, and this is his framework for hiring, training, and... Mark Roberge Book · 250 pages The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million Mark Roberge
  4. This is the practical, step by step version of the discovery call our answer says to run before you ever demo: what to ask, in... Close Article · ~15 min read 18 Steps to a Successful Discovery Call Close
  5. A short, specific essay on why leading with the customer's need, not your product, is what makes a pitch land, with a simple... Dave Bailey Essay How to Sell the Problem Before Selling the Solution Dave Bailey
  6. Gong built this from analyzing hundreds of thousands of real sales emails, so the advice on what to put in a post-call recap,... Gong Article · 12 min read 6 Cold Email Follow-Ups that Speed Up Deals Gong
  7. Written for the founder who built the product and is now terrified of the word sales, this argues the skill set is closer to... Y Combinator Startup Library Essay Enterprise sales for hackers Y Combinator Startup Library
  8. This book's research finding is counterintuitive and directly useful here: the sales reps who win complex deals are not the... Amazon Book The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson
  9. Benn Stancil cofounded a company that sold into large enterprises, and this essay is an unusually honest account of how slow,... Benn Stancil (Substack) Essay So you want to sell to the enterprise? Benn Stancil
  10. Chargebee's first real customer was Freshworks, and they got in the door because a cofounder happened to live in the same... SeedToScale (Accel) Essay The Early Story of Chargebee: Why it's Better to Start with People, not Ideas SeedToScale (Accel)
  11. This is the foundational text on separating people from the problem and negotiating on interests rather than positions, which... Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School Book · 240 pages Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In Roger Fisher, William Ury, Bruce Patton
  12. Sabeer Bhatia, who sold Hotmail to Microsoft, traces his negotiating instincts back to haggling in vegetable markets in... tim.blog Essay · 8 min read How to Negotiate like an Indian - 7 Rules Tim Ferriss
  13. This is a short, practical guide to making invoice follow up a routine instead of an awkward one off, with an actual cadence:... Chaser Article · 7 min read 7 tips to collect unpaid invoices from customers Chaser
  14. Lemkin's blunt answer is that the founder has to get the first 10 customers personally, through their own network and direct... Jason Lemkin (SaaStr) Article Dear SaaStr: How Do I Get My First 10 Customers? Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)
  15. A direct answer to the exact question in the title: yes, charge for pilots, and here's roughly how much. Jason Lemkin argues... SaaStr Article Dear SaaStr: Should We Charge for Pilots and How Much? Jason Lemkin
  16. Picks up right where the previous piece leaves off: once you've decided to charge for the pilot, how do you actually structure... SaaStr Article Dear SaaStr: We're Starting a Big Paid Pilot. How Do We Maximize the Chances of Success? Jason Lemkin
  17. A pricing consultant's argument that most companies discount reflexively instead of strategically, with a framework for... Harvard Business Review Article The Art of Discounting Rafi Mohammed
  18. A short, sharp reminder that your price tells a story, and that cutting it to close a deal usually just tells the buyer the... Seth's Blog Essay On pricing Seth Godin
  19. The other side of the discount question: sometimes a genuinely low price is the right strategy, not a concession. Jason Lemkin... SaaStr Article Dear SaaStr: When Does It Make Sense to Price Low in the Market? Jason Lemkin
  20. A practical, no-nonsense walkthrough of what a pipeline is for and how to keep it honest, written by a company that sells CRM... Close Article The Ultimate Sales Pipeline Guide: How to Build, Manage, & Measure Close
  21. A short, honest account of the exact failure mode this question warns about: a solo founder loses a good prospect purely from... Indie Hackers Thread Built a dead-simple pipeline tracker after losing a deal because I forgot to follow up Indie Hackers
  22. Welsh shows the exact two-step process he used to build a million-dollar pipeline from cold DMs: find people already talking... Justin Welsh Essay · 10 min read How to Get Replies from Your Dream Customers Justin Welsh
  23. This is the LinkedIn half of the question: a simple system using alerts and triggers (funding news, new hires, press mentions)... Justin Welsh Essay · 10 min read How to Find More Customers on LinkedIn Justin Welsh
  24. Ferriss writes from the other side of the inbox: what actually gets a reply from someone who gets hundreds of pitches a day.... Tim Ferriss Essay · 5 min read 5 Tips for E-mailing Busy People Tim Ferriss

Show the next 24

The questions

Getting your first 10 customers 18

Do things that don't scale to get to ten.

How do I actually get my first 10 customers when nobody has heard of me? 19 → Isn't doing things that don't scale a waste of time, shouldn't I automate from day one? 17 → Where do I find the very first people to even talk to about my product? 18 → Should I charge my very first customers or give it away free to get traction? 18 → How did real successful startups actually land their first customers? 20 → All 18 questions in Getting your first 10 customers →
Launching (again and again) 18

A launch is a tactic you repeat, not an event.

When is my product 'ready' to launch? 19 → My launch flopped and nobody cared, did I mess it up? 20 → How do I actually launch on Product Hunt and not embarrass myself? 15 → What's the best channel to launch on, Product Hunt, Reddit, Hacker News, or LinkedIn? 17 → How do I build up an audience before I launch so it's not just crickets? 18 → All 18 questions in Launching (again and again) →
Founder-led sales 18

Nobody sells your product better than you, yet.

I'm a technical founder and I hate selling, do I really have to do sales myself? 18 → How do I run a sales call without sounding like a pushy salesperson? 15 → How do I handle objections and prospects who go silent on me? 17 → When do I know it's time to hire a salesperson instead of doing it myself? 19 → What sales process should I follow if I've never sold anything before? 17 → All 18 questions in Founder-led sales →
Cold outreach & email 18

Start conversations with strangers who need you.

How do I write a cold email that people actually reply to? 19 → How many times should I follow up before giving up on a cold prospect? 18 → Cold email or cold LinkedIn/DM, what works better for reaching first customers? 19 → Is cold outreach even worth it, or is it just spam that hurts my brand? 19 → How do I build a targeted list of the right people to cold email? 18 → All 18 questions in Cold outreach & email →
Distribution & channel strategy 18

The channel is the strategy.

How do I figure out which distribution channel is right for my startup? 2 → Why does everyone say 'distribution is more important than product'? 2 → What are the actual distribution channels I can choose from? 1 → Should I focus on one channel or spread across many? 2 → How do the fastest-growing B2B companies find and scale their distribution? 2 → All 18 questions in Distribution & channel strategy →
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →