MY THIRTY GOLDEN RULES FOR GETTING THE EARLY CUSTOMERS

1. Write to all your contacts from the past without an exception and without any
expectations.

2. Build a prototype, actually keep building them all your life-show them off proudly to
whoever comes your way. The world likes a toy.

3. Buy a database of prospective customers, send them a Power Point or a PDF document
explaining what you do, not just an e-mail introduction.

4. Call on your larger competitor’s installed client base in person—do not just push your
products and services, ask if there is anything else you could do for them given your
capability and willingness. Ask for a small opportunity, a pilot project.

5. Always ask your existing customers to give you new leads.

6. Always go back to people who disqualified you in a bidding round for some business you
were competing for and update them on what is new and different at your end.

7. Keep your banker periodically posted n what you do, ask her for leads.

8. Visit trade shows regularly and talk to people at the exhibition stalls about what you do.
Specially make it a point to attend vertically-focused, industry-specific trade shows.

9. Seek alliances with industry leaders—these are typically product and service companies
that always need new partners to make their sale happen. Have someone exclusively
focus on alliance building. Seek low-cost, co-branding opportunities for events along
with them.

10. Become a member of the right industry bodies. Attend their events and seek opportunities
for participation through speaking engagements in their seminars and conferences.

11. Write generic articles for the business press aligned to your area of work.

12. Regularly seek out industry analysts, brief them on your work, get some of them to visit
you. They love tracking upcoming companies, so seek out a few analysts and personally
focus on them over time.

13. Build a relationship with a few academic and research institutions, so some exploratory
work withy them, involve them with internal projects and events.

14. Co-locate your seniormost people in geographies where your customers are located.
Some founders must be physically based where customers are.

15. Locate mutual opportunities with similarly situated, similarly sized companies.

Extract from Book High Performance Entrepreneur – Subroto Bagchi

MY THIRTY GOLDEN RULES FOR GETTING THE EARLY CUSTOMERS

16. Brief the commercial attaches of the embassies of countries, with whom you want to
establish a business relationship, invite them over. Though they are usually focused on
the established players, remember, everyone loves an underdog.

17. Track new investments coming up in various fields through venture funding and private
equity. This is publicly available information. Write to them and follow up with a phone
call.

18. Call on your investor’s other investment companies; periodically nag your investor for a
business lead. Do not feel disheartened if nothing comes up, though.

19. Call on your customer’s suppliers and see who else they are selling to. Go along with
them and make sales calls.

20. Have a great website with search optimization done so that website-generated leads can
come in.

21. When hiring senior people, seek business leads. Be careful about their non-compete
agreements with previous employers and do not get them to violate other people’s
intellectual property in the process. You can get sued.

22. Invite trade and educational delegations to visit your premises.

23. Speak to a few very large competitors and see if there is an alliance possibility.

24. Personally build a relationship with select journalists who track your industry.

25. Build a relationship with local government officials who promote your industry.

26. When a new sales person is appointed, go along with the person and make calls with her,
discuss her rolodex and see if there is an opportunity.

27. Periodically attend learning conferences and network with speakers and attendees.

28. Do not fall into the Tender Loving Call (TLC) trap of repeatedly pitching to a
sympathetic person who has no capability to give you any business but is always very
nice to you. Save that energy and without fear of rejection, make real sales calls on
wooden-faced, tough-talking prospects.

29. Speak to the person seated next to you –in an airplane, a business lounge, a dentist’s
waiting area or an industry event and ask him what he does.

30. Make cold calls; accompany your sales folks often and without being tired.

Extract from Book High Performance Entrepreneur – Subroto Bagchi