Today, I want to talk about your go-to-market strategy. I’ll be sharing a presentation that I gave at the Founders Institute in Sacramento. We will talk about finding entrepreneurs and guiding them through the entire startup process: from marketing to raising money to creating a corporation and going to market. This presentation was well-received so I wanted to share this with a little bit of extra just for you, so stay tuned!
Bottoms Up Strategy
This strategy involves starting with an audience who will quickly say “yes” to you. These are the people who you don’t need to talk too much to convince. When you reach out to your prospects, there’s likely to be a ton of objections so find those who have the least.
In the presentation, the bottom up strategy is represented by a pyramid divided into four sections, A, B, C, and D. The top section (A) represent people who do not have a lot of budget but need to growth hack their app downloads. On the other hand, those in the D group are those I need to convince more because there’s so much competition here with the different app marketing firms.
I found my sweet spot in the As and Bs, those who quickly say “yes.” Just by sharing your knowledge with them, they will more likely work with you. Not everyone is your audience so find those in your niche. This is called bottoms up because it’s small at the very top, so find that audience first. Remember, the biggest companies started small like Facebook and Uber.
Look for your target audience
After defining your target audience, look for them. For me, I started looking for my target audience on Facebook and LinkedIn groups. I built up my audience by creating more and more content and posting it on those channels.
I got my early clients from those platforms because they saw me being so active in these particular groups and all I did was share really good content. Another great platform is Reddit.
Try to look for built-in communities with your target audiences like LinkedIn, Facebook and Reddit. It could also be Quora or Stack Overflow. Be wherever your target audience is so you can engage with them by sharing your knowledge.
Go talk to them
I won’t say go and sell to them but talk to them. Personally, I like to ask questions. I will ask about their app and what they are struggling with so I can understand what their concerns are. I will also tell them how I would solve those particular problems.
Listen to them and educate them, this is the thing that I always do on all my sales or coaching calls. I really try to give one tip to my potential customers that they can use even if they don’t hire us.
By doing this, if they’re not gonna work with me, they will leave thinking “this guy is really good, he knows what he’s talking about,” so if somebody else they know needs help, they’ll likely refer me. I recommend that you educate first because the best way to sell is through education.
Next, show some social proof. Leverage your connections from previous companies. In the beginning, I would say I’ve interviewed a ton of people on my podcast but even before that, I would say I ran growth for a start-up in San Francisco and I built the first ever photo and video platform.
Whatever you can use, leverage it because that’s gonna help out your potential customers who are looking for any indication that you are legit. Social proof is important to back up your credentials because potential clients will also think of reasons not to work with you, so drop these little hints in there that you’re legit and a big deal.
That’s the super simple and three-step process to market any idea — whether it’s an app, SAS or an online business. This is the approach I use in all of my businesses – focus on the niche first, build up social proof and go after the big guys.