Stop asking your dad
And 7 people to ask instead
When I say set up interviews with customers I don’t mean talking to your dad.
Listen dads (and mums of course) are great cheerleaders for your business. Let’s keep them for morale (and sometimes financial) support, for guidance on high level direction (if you have that type of papa), for a listening ear and even for emergency childcare, but don’t base your whole business strategy on what your parents think.
They will invariably tell you what you want to hear (or what you don’t want to hear and you’ll ignore it). They mean well but don’t take their word as gospel. They are inherently biased. Fact.
Stop playing it safe and go speak to real people. People who know you through your business and people who don’t (yet). People who’ll surprise you, challenge your own bias. People who don’t walk, talk and look like you.
That’s where the real magic happens.
Earlier this month, we looked at some of the reasons stopping you from doing customer interviews (see below).
Then last week I gave you 3 email templates to use when asking folks for an interview (see below).
This week it’s all about figuring out where to find people in the first place.
Here are 7 places to find them:
Existing customers. Start where the door is already open. If you have a business, you have customers. Whether they are actively paying for a product or service or you’re offering something for free, they are customers. So draw on this group first. If you’re in the process of building a business and don’t have any paying customers yet, then start with your assumed target customers.
Lapsed customers. Customers no more? They can still be useful. They’ve bought once, never to return. Unsubscribed or decided your product or service is surplus to requirements. Doesn’t mean they don’t have something to say. In fact, people with no skin in the game are great people to speak to.
Your mailing list. If you have a mailing list, then you have people to speak to. Your mailing list will be made up of people who are genuinely interested in whatever you have to sell or say. They make a great pool of people to draw upon for interviews.
Social Media. If you have followers, you have people to speak to. You don’t have to have a huge following on social media to find willing people. Either do a broad announcement to all followers or DM people individually.
Alumni. LinkedIn is a great one for this. Even if your business is not an obvious fit for LinkedIn, of all the peeps you’ve accumulated over a lifetime, chances are half a dozen of them have found their way to the biggest professional network on the planet. Reach out, build connections and if they are in your target audience, ask away.
Personal network. Dog walker, cleaner, gym buddy, school gate parents, weekend football crowd, choir-pals and co-working buddies. Tap into your real world network. By network I mean all the people who flow in and out of your life on a regular basis. You can find people to talk to for market research in the most unexpected places.
Friends of friends. While close friends is a big no-no (unless you have one of those friends who always tells you it straight), friends of friends are personally one of my favourite places to poach people for interviews. By asking your own friends to ask their friends or their partners (have done this many times when recruiting) you increase the chances of getting a yes because someone else who they know well is doing the asking for you. Win.
So moral of today’s musings is STOP PLAYING IT SAFE and hiding behind well-meaning family members and friends and go set up interviews with REAL people.
If you want a firm but fair kick up the backside when it comes to getting started with customer interviews I’d highly recommend my second book How To Get To Know Your Customer. It’s a pared-back version of my first one with a step by step guide to securing customer interviews. You can read one chapter a day + the mini coaching exercise and you’ll be a pro in no time.
Enjoy the sunshine this week, it’s going to be a scorcher.
All the love
Katie