Thread by @swaycopy

[thread]

Something I don't see enough #SaaS #startups doing during the early days of trying and failing to get their first few customers?

Systematically recording and categorizing their objections as follows...

1. Could I overcome this objection by speaking to someone else at the company?

Even if you've got the right product and you're speaking to the right type of company — speaking to the wrong person can kibosh the whole thing...

2. Could I overcome this objection by speaking to a different type of company? (size, industry, need, geography, etc.)

Even if you have the perfect product and the right role is on the line, you're going to fail if it's not right for a company like theirs...

3. Could I overcome this objection by changing the way I talk about my product?

Even if you have the right product and you're talking to the right person at the right company — you can shoot yourself in the foot by talking about your product in a way that throws 'em off...

4a.) Could I overcome this objection by adding, subtracting, or changing something about the product?

4b.) Would this change be relevant to the people and companies I'm targeting?

Only now are we thinking about changing the actual product in a significant way...

👆And THIS is the core problem I see over and over again...

⁉️Objection autotragically = item added to product roadmap⁉️

This is the recipe for an out-of-control-product that does a poor job of serving a bunch of customer types (AKA doomed to fail)...

But if you systematically record and categorize objections and feedback, you dramatically improve your chances of addressing:

+ Sales problems with sales solutions
+ Marketing problems with marketing solutions
+ Product problems with product solutions...

Sounds like common sense. It IS common sense. But I think it's hard to act on — especially if you're technical —because you're used to solving problems by building things.