SKYNET

Early Sales Are to Earlyvangelist, Not Mainstream Customers

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In Customer Validation, our startup is focused on finding the visionary customers and getting them to make a purchase.

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Unlike "mainstream" customers who want to buy finished, completed, and tested product, earlyvangelists are willing to make the leap of faith and buy from a startup. They may do so because they perceive a competitive advantage in the market, bragging rights with peers in their neighborhood or in an industry, or political advantage within their company. Earlyvangelists are the only customers able to buy a yet-to-be-delivered, unfinished product.

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Recall who those visionary customers are. They not only understand they have a problem, but they have spent time actively looking for a solution, to the point of trying to build their own. In a company this may be because there is a broken mission-critical business model process that needs to be fixed. Therefore, when we walk through the door, they immediately grasp the problem we are solving is one they have, and they can see the elegance and value of our solution. Little or no education is needed. In other cases their motivation might be that they are driven by competitive advantage and will take a risk on a new paradigm to get it.

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Earlyvangelists "get it." However, they usually don't or won't get it from a "suit," a traditional salesperson. Earlyvangelists want to see and hear the founders and the technical team. In exchange, we will not only get an order and great feedback, but visionary customers will become earlyvangelists inside their companies and throughout the industry-or as consumers, to their friends and neighbors. Treated correctly they are the ultimate reference accounts.

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The earlyvangelists we need to talk to are the people we describe in Customer Discovery-the one who are in operating roles, have a problem, have been looking for a solution, have tried to solve the problem and have a budget.