Lets talk about customer feedback.
I have recently worked with several more mature startups keen to gain deeper insights into their customers’ minds, ultimately to try to refine their understanding of how to reach product-market fit. If you’ve never actively pursued this, you are almost certainly missing out on invaluable insight.
Here are three reasons why gathering customer feedback is crucial:
Understanding the ‘Why’ Behind the Sale
It’s perfectly natural for early-stage startups to solely focus on just closing the sale at every opportunity possible. The fear of jeopardising a deal often outweighs other considerations, such as gathering deep insights into the customer’s real problem or how their decision-making process works. So, while you were focused on securing the sale, it’s likely you haven’t fully understood why the customer chose your product.
After more than 25 years of commercialising cutting-edge technology, I’ve refined my abilities to both uncover the ‘why’, alongside running the sales process. However, I know this is a rare skill. So, my advice? Close your deal, allow your solution to settle in, and then let me spend just 30 minutes with your customer. I’ll extract actionable insights that you can use to replicate your success with other customers.
The Value of a ‘No’
As a startup, hearing “no” or even a “not yet” can feel like a gut punch. However, understanding the reasons behind a rejection can often prove more valuable in the long run than the revenue from a single “yes.” Knowing why a customer isn’t buying can potentially be the difference between optimising your product and achieving product-market fit – or hitting the end of your cash runway.
If you can line up a call with a prospective customer that said ‘no’, make it clear that I will have zero hidden agenda to try to sell to them again, this will be one of the most valuable things that you can invest effort in, when optimising your offering towards PMF.
Neutrality Enables Honesty
As a founder, it is almost impossible to lead these conversations objectively and extract all the insights available. You might have heard of ‘founder bias’, well it is real – and understandable. Even if you are personally open and receptive to feedback, customers are very unlikely to be as candid with you as they will be with an impartial third party. I have seen this in every customer feedback project that I have worked on. A combination of my experience getting customers comfortable, asking the right questions in the right way, and following threads that others with less experience wouldn't spot, all result in extracting much more from these scarce opportunities.
Let me help you gather real customer and market insights to optimise your startup and accelerate towards product-market fit. Drop me a message, and let’s talk!
