What are your best strategies to speak to potential customers in the market research phase to validate your idea?

Marc, I recently completed the NSF I-Corps program which goes through this exact process of “customer discovery”. I completed over 100 customer interviews in 6 weeks time, mostly in person. Tips on getting in contact with people: 1) Ask your network for referrals - referrals are the most powerful introduction 2) Play the “researcher”, or better yet, the “student” card if you can. Saying you are a researcher developing technology with potential applications in a certain industry, and thus want to learn more about the industry, is way more effective than saying you are a startup looking for industry insights. 3) Go to trade shows and/or conferences and/or meet ups for the industry you are investigating. More efficient to talk to a lot of people and people are open to talking at these events. 4) Try cold calls. Try cold interviews. Sometimes an effective way is to just call the general number of a company and sweet talk your way past the operator/office assistant. You can often times ask to be referred to so-and-so who you may have found from LinkedIn. The same can be done for walking into offices. It takes persistence, but that’s what it’s all about! Good luck! And I’d love to hear more tips from others. Alex

I've realized that B2B is a unique challenge myself, especially when you need to do cold outreach. Personally, I find that my response rate is much higher when I provide a simple, clear request towards the beginning of an email. In a market validation context, I like to ask for "advice" - most people love providing advice. And, at the end of the day, the advice that your potential users provide will help you refine your product and value proposition.

I wouldn't provide vouchers.

Hi Marc,

There are several alternatives, but an easy and cost effective, if you have a budget, is to conduct an online survey through a B2B online panel. There are many companies who have an online data base of profiled professionals by title, industry etc, purchase decision making etc. who are willing to participate in Market Research studies. Again, if you have a budget some of this companies will even program and host your questionnaire if needed, but you can always use free survey software tools if its not a complex questionnaire. Depending on your target audience and how long the survey will be, they will charge you on a cost per completed survey basis. Some of this companies as InnovateMR, ProdegeMR, ResearchNow, Op4g etc. Google online survey panels B2B.

Best of luck

Dear Marc,

Absolutely right - don't use vouchers in B2B (or B2C IMO).

If I were you, I would try and figure out the commonalities of the people who are willing to engage with you. Then narrow your search to find more people like that. Try and make your value proposition targeted at this group. This is also a good way to get to an MVP.

Also, have a standard way to approach people so you can tweak it over time (but definitely don't be a robot).

Talk to their better nature ("You want to help people like them, but you need feedback to get there.")

I do a lot of cold outreach - and craft each one with a personalized pitch.

It takes time but I often get 60%+ response.

Adding to what Bill Lennan said... in cold outreach the 1st sentence or two needs to generate enough interest to read the rest of the message and respond. How? Describe "their" problem (not your solution) and express your desire to talk about their problem. If the response rate is low this might say that there is little economic benefit in solving that particular problem.

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