The Challenge:
Our member, Kelvin Htat, founder of a no-code AI application platform called Carry, faces difficulties with sales and marketing and determining product-market fit and message-market fit. Kevlin's primary goal for the call was to understand how to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to generate more demand for his business.
The Real Issue: The biggest problem Kelvin faced wasn't tactical selling or how to use a particular channel for communication with ideal prospects—it's understanding who the ideal customer is and the problem that needs solving in the first place. Without a clear focus on the right problem, all the messaging will be off. This includes everything from cold call scripts to follow-up brochures, pitch decks, and actual offers. Sometimes a lack of B2B sales success isn't about demand generation tactics or even sales strategies. First, you must have product market fit and have your message clarified around your dream client's biggest problem.
Creating an Avatar Document: One key strategy to address this is creating an Avatar Document covered in detail in prior video lessons in this class.
Understanding Your Customer: Start by deeply understanding your customer's problems. Tools like "The Mom Test" can help structure surveys to uncover genuine needs (again, covered in prior lessons in this class).
Conducting Interviews: Talk to 10-20 potential customers. Ask them about their biggest challenges and pain points. This will help you identify the real problems they face and tailor your solution, sales messaging, and marketing channel accordingly.
Focusing on Problems, Not Solutions: Shift your focus from selling a solution to understanding and solving a problem. If you can describe your customer's problem better than they can, you're on the right path.
Practical Steps:
- Stop Selling for Now: Spend 30 days understanding your customer.
- Use The Mom Test: Ask potential customers about their challenges.
- Create an Avatar Document: Define the individual and company-level details of your ideal customer.
By following these steps, you'll be better equipped to understand your market and effectively position your product. In later steps, we will return to crafting the sales messaging and choosing the channel to prospect your dream client. Don't skip ahead, though. The steps outlined here are the most important.