PM in B2BLeanstartup Circle SF unconference, Dec 7 2016

~20 Product Practitioners in the room

Multiple countries represented

Q&A format

Lively discussion

This is a summary of that session

How do you create buy-in for customer development internally?

Talk to key people about the risk of not doing it

Look at gainsight research regarding why customers churn

Find key people, figure out what gets them promoted, tailor for that ;)

Make buddies with these key people, personal relationship, lunch, coffee

Why are people not buying my product? (failed leads)

It’s hard to contact people who’ve decided not to buy your product and find out why they didn’t buy

Improve Qs asked during lead qualification

Ask them early about their problem, not your solution

Review the Sales pitch / process

Offer incentives to failed leads for a short follow up call

How is B2B customer development different from B2C?

B2C -- solve a problem that the purchaser has (hopefully). B2B -- the actual purchaser may not have the problem you are solving for.

B2C -- you can use street teams, FB targeted surveys etc. B2B -- Segment and then network your contacts to get interviews.

B2C -- people agree with your solution out of politeness and not buyB2B -- people may not readily agree with you but if convinced, high change of buy.

How to add more value prop to an existing product? (feature add)

Spend a day with your current customers & observe like a child

Talk to your customer implementation team about their most popular fixes

Talk to people who are adjacent to your core users instead of your core users

How do you get time with your customers for interviews?

Offer value added training for them and then interview

Offer free stuff to lure them, send them a gift, direct mail works!

Setup routine check-ins with them so that you don’t have to do something special

Look up their renewal date and message around that.