Startup Founder's Guide to Customer Development - š„GPT editionš„
An article we liked from Thought Leader Alok Nandan of First Rays Venture Partners:
A lot has changed since I wrote one of these. I wanted to revisit some of these insights from the previous series (Part 1, Part 2, AI-edition, COVID-edition) ā in the brave new world of AI.
For founders, as part of the idea maze of navigating the category creation vs existing category question, customer development is a key activity. This is a key piece that founders should not take shortcuts (especially if you donāt come from the industry/domain). LinkedIn is your friend but you need to know how to craft a LinkedIn message that customers appreciate and more importantly, respond to.
šÆ If you can master the art of cold outreach, the world is your oyster.
Hereās a suggested structure for sending emails on LinkedIn with regards to customer development.
1ļøā£ Customer Development
Subject: Research//Reference//Share Insight//Request
Research: An opening that shows you have done your homework and that this is not a COLD call.
Reference: Refer to other clients/people you talked to that have had a similar experience and what they did. Human beings value social proof a lot
Share Insight: Offer value, such as a link to some blog or white paper
Request: Offer to share more insights and ask for a meeting or a phone conversation.
I have listed some other best practices in my previous blog.
š”GPT note: Each of these steps are super-charged in the world of GPT and Perplexity. The time it took earlier to craft this was of the order of days, now you can do it 30 mins or less!
Prospecting using GPT prompts to get vertical / market insights, and show up smarter on your next meeting. What other prompts or tips do you love to use?
Hyper-personalized emails
1. Google search for ā[COMPANY] CEO interviewā
2. Copy transcript from Youtube or interview text
3. Paste into ChatGPT and ask āWhat are the top 3 takeaways from the CEO in this interview?ā
4. Copy the takeaway that best matches your value prop ā¦
Read the rest of this article at linkedin.com ā¦
[Thank you to Annie Spratt for the photo on Unsplash]
Want to share your advice for startup entrepreneurs? Submit a Guest Post here.