Apply the Lean Startup in B2B to Build Products Businesses Want (Course slides)

1. Apply the Lean Startup in B2B …to Build Products Businesses Want Étienne Garbugli www.leanb2bbook.com #leanb2b

2. 1. The Challenges of Being a Lean Startup in B2B

3. The Lean Startup - Identify the risks; - Create hypotheses; - Build-Measure-Learn; - Validated Learning.

4. Lean Startups in B2B - Length and complexity of sales cycles; - Smaller markets = bigger reputational risks; - Expertise often required; - MVP much further.

5. In this Course 1. Troubleshooting your vision 2. Creating your ﬁrst hypotheses 3. Finding early adopters 4. Contacting early adopters 5. Conducting problem interviews 6. Finding problems that matter 7. Creating a Minimum Viable Product 8. Preparing your pitch 9. Validating a solution 10. Evaluating product-market ﬁt More…

6. “The number one reason that small companies fail is the lack of focus.” Bill Aulet, Managing Director MIT Entrepreneurship & Author

7. 2. Meet your Instructor

9. 3. What Makes B2B Different

10. What Makes B2B Different - Return on Investment (ROI); - Depth of Client Relationships; - Decision-Making Process; - Expertise, Whole product, Risks.

11. The Challenges - Acquiring the Industry Context; - Building a Relevant Professional Network; - Understanding the Whole Product; - Estimating the Return on Investment (ROI); - Reducing the Enterprise Risk.

12. 4. Vision

13. 1. Finding the right product for the right market; Things that Matter 2. Not running out of money.

14. Quiz: What’s the Best Place to Start in B2B? An Idea A Technology A Passion A Market Gap

15. Many Paths to Success…

17. Start a business where you can easily get access to customers. - Max Cameron, Kera Co-Founder and CEO

19. “Your vision should rarely change. Your strategy should occasionally change. Your tactics should regularly change.” Aaron Levie, Box Co-Founder and CEO

20. 5. Creating First Hypotheses

21. Typical Challenge

22. Typical Challenge Solution

23. Typical Challenge Solution Problem Problem Problem Problem Problem Problem Problem Problem Problem Problem

24. What’s a Market? - A number of potential customers; - People who share a pain, problem or opportunity; - Channels for these people to connect, discuss and share purchase decisions.

25. B2B Market Opportunities Construction $143B Corporate Legal $650B Domestic Airline $708B Mining $731B Oil & Gas $4,000B

26. Dismissals to Avoid - “This has never been a problem for us.” - “We don’t need to do that.” - “You don’t know ABC Inc.? They do just that.” - “With the current freeze on expenditures, we don’t have the budget for new technology.”

27. Information Sought - Where the industry is headed; - Companies and people selling in the space; - Types of products being sold; - The value propositions and promotion   models that work in the industry; - Potential competitors and partners; - Trends; - Inﬂuencers; - Opportunities; - Market potential assessment.

28. Solutions that Matter 1. Solutions that can help increase revenues 2. Solutions that can help reduce costs 3. Solutions that can help increase customer satisfaction 4. Solutions that can help decrease risk 5. Solutions that can help increase market share

29. Soft vs Hard Beneﬁts A “Our new solution will increase employee happiness.” B “Our new solution will improve sales by 10%.”

30. www.launchpadcentral.com

31. Creating the Money Map - The key problems of your prospects; - The motivations for spending money; - How much money is available; - The perceived alternatives and competitive landscape.

32. Creating the Money Map

33. Creating Value Proposition Hypotheses

34. 6. Finding & Selecting Early Adopters

35. https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/jseita/4486823805/

36. What Early Adopters Are - They’re looking for a competitive edge; - They have the ability to ﬁnd new uses for a technology; - They like to be unique and share new products (it makes them feel good); - They exert some kind of technological leadership in their companies; - They will use a product that isn’t complete.

37. Days to purchase...

38. -114 days (May 22, 2011) Days to purchase...

39. -114 days (May 22, 2011) Days to purchase... +3,000 days (and counting...)

40. “The best way to ﬁnd internal champions is through your network, no further than one link away (i.e., friends of friends).” Steve Blank, The Four Steps to the Epiphany Author

41. Finding Early Adopters - Your personal network; - Groups on LinkedIn; - Drop ins; - Cold calls; - Social media recruitment. - Your contacts’ professional networks;

42. Selecting Early Adopters The best early adopters are also advocates or champions for your startup.

43. Finding the Influencers 1. Personal influence — how many people can this early adopter influence? 2. Company (or employer) influence — how many companies can be influenced by a case study from their employer?

44. Indicators of Inﬂuence - # of followers on Twitter; - # of contacts on LinkedIn; - Activity level in groups on LinkedIn; - # of articles or publications; - # talks they gave; - # of blog posts they’ve written; - Popularity of their blog; - Visibility on search engines;   - # of times other people have quoted them; - Word-of-mouth in the industry; - Etc…

45. 7. Leveraging Domain Credibility & Visibility

46. Early Credibility is… - Personal Credibility; - Commitment; - Reliability; - Passion; - References.

47. + iBwave Makes PROFIT 200 List of Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies for Third Consecutive Year

48. How to Build Credibility - Secondary research; - Team and advisors; - Personal network; - Previous successes.

49. Examples Mehdi Ait Oufkir Ranjith Kumaran Rich Aberman Ben Yoskovitz

50. 8. Contacting Early Adopters

51. Generating Interest 1. Create interest in your proﬁle or the story of your founding team. 2. Create interest in the beneﬁts of the contribution.

53. What you can Offer 1. Competitive edge; 2. Visibility; 3. Discussions;

54. People love to talk about their problems. The moment that you’re talking about a person’s problems, they’re happy. - Brant Cooper, The Lean Entrepreneur Co-Author

55. What you can Offer 1. Competitive edge; 2. Visibility; 3. Discussions; 4. Action; 5. Intelligence; 6. Fun; 7. Networking; 8. Ownership; 9. Promotion; 10. Equity.

56. A few Pointers - It’s about them; - Their time is important; - You’re not selling; - It’s not for them.

57. Our product is for marketing teams in small retail chains that are dissatisﬁed with newspaper advertising. Our product improves revenue through greater reach. Unlike newspaper advertising, our product allows marketers to reach highly targeted customers faster. Value Proposition

62. Cold EmailingA How to Contact Early Adopters B Cold Calling C References

63. Email Script Good morning Mr. Smith, Your ex-colleague, Max Scott, strongly suggested that we seek your advice before going too far. We’re a young company helping retail marketing departments reduce their dependencies on newspapers for local customer targeting; a problem I believe you’re also passionate about. After discussing with Max, I believe you have industry knowledge that few people have and I’m coming to you for help. The Forbes and Gartner industry analysts we spoke with believe that targeting local customers could be greatly improved. We’d like to get your perspective. Would you be available for a quick 20-minute chat in the upcoming weeks? Thank you, looking forward to connecting.

64. Email Script Good morning Mr. Smith, Your ex-colleague, Max Scott, strongly suggested that we seek your advice before going too far. We’re a young company helping retail marketing departments reduce their dependencies on newspapers for local customer targeting; a problem I believe you’re also passionate about. After discussing with Max, I believe you have industry knowledge that few people have and I’m coming to you for help. The Forbes and Gartner industry analysts we spoke with believe that targeting local customers could be greatly improved. We’d like to get your perspective. Would you be available for a quick 20-minute chat in the upcoming weeks? Thank you, looking forward to connecting. <-- Personalization <-- Relationship <-- Broad problem, Common ground <-- Ego, Request for help <-- Social proof, Offer <-- Low commitment, Call to action

65. Other Examples http://www.startupmoon.com/how-i-got-meetings-at-twitter-linkedin-and-github-using-cold-emails/

66. Other Examples http://www.startupmoon.com/how-i-got-meetings-at-twitter-linkedin-and-github-using-cold-emails/

67. 14. What We Try To Find Out Through Problem Interviews

69. Your Mission Look for a big pain or a big gain that can be tied to a budget, a problem that will deliver a big ROI.

70. Problems that matter-Pain+ - Budget +

75. Different Kinds of Problems 1. Explicit Problems 2. Implicit Problems

76. Elements of a Problem that Matter 1. The problem or the pain experienced — the pain 2. The people to whom this problem matters — the jury 3. The prize available for solving that pain — the gain

77. Forget Surveys “Would you buy our product?” YES NO MAYBE

78. Demographics What is your role? What are your responsibilities? How long have you been working in this company? With what department and business unit are you afﬁliated? Business drivers What are your objectives this year? How will you be evaluated this year? Problem priorities What keeps you up at night? Why? What are your top three challenges? Problem drill down How are you currently solving this problem?   How do you typically work around this problem? Sample Questions

79. Intensity of pain What would be the impact of solving this problem? How many people are affected by the problem? Problem ownership Who else in your company shares these problems? Who would most beneﬁt from solving this problem? Decision-making power What was the last technology purchase that you’ve been involved in? Who also is involved in decision making? Buying process If you identify the need for a new product in your department, how does your team typically go about purchasing the solution? Sample Questions

80. Sample Questions

81. 16. How to Conduct Problem Interviews

82. Meeting Sequence 1. Greetings (two minutes); 2. Qualiﬁcation (three minutes); 3. Open-ended questions (20 minutes); 4. Closing (ﬁve minutes); 5. Note review (ten minutes).

83. Greetings (two minutes) Thank you for taking the time to meet with us.   We’re a young company helping retail marketing departments reduce their dependencies on newspapers for local customer targeting. We’re currently exploring a few product alternatives. We would like to understand your needs and reality before going too far into product development. I have roughly 20 questions for you today, none of which should be too difficult. Before we begin, I’d like to stress that we don’t have a finished product yet and our objective is to learn from you — not to sell or pitch to you. Does that make sense?

84. Qualiﬁcation (three minutes) - What is your role? - How long have you been working in this company? - With which department and business unit are you afﬁliated? - How many people report to you? - Can you walk me through a day in your work?

85. Open-ended questions (20 minutes) -What are your objectives this year? - What keeps you up at night? Why? - What are your top three challenges? - Do you expect these objectives to be different next year? - How are you currently solving this problem?

86. Closing (ﬁve minutes) A Followup meeting B Referrals

87. Note review (ten minutes) - What elements stood out? - Were there any surprises?

88. - Listen (really); - Abstract the problem one level; - Ask open questions; - Ask follow-up questions; Techniques to Get Prospects to Talk - Make use of silences.

89. 17. Analyzing the Results

90. + ?

91. The Importance of Taking a Step Back - Did you take a step forward?   - Did you learn?   - Were there noticeable differences in the proﬁles of your prospects?   - Do you feel like you can help those prospects?   - Were you able to speak with decision makers?

92. Prioritizing Problems 1. By frequency – Is that pain shared by a lot of early adopters? 2. By intensity of pain – Are prospects actively trying to solve it?

93. Painful Problems - The same person repeats it frequently with passion; - The company is actively trying to solve the problem; - The problem is frequently listed in the top ﬁve of your early adopters.

94. Prioritizing Problems 1. By frequency – Is that pain shared by a lot of early adopters? 2. By intensity of pain – Are prospects actively trying to solve it? 3. By budget availability – Is this the pain of a buyer?

95. Keep in Mind the Money Map…

96. Prioritizing Problems 1. By frequency – Is that pain shared by a lot of early adopters? 2. By intensity of pain – Are prospects actively trying to solve it? 3. By budget availability – Is this the pain of a buyer? 4. By impact – What kind of ROI can you expect if you solve this problem? 5. By market education – Would you need to create a completely new paradigm?

97. 19. Why Solution Interviews Are Hard

98. https://twitter.com/davidjbland/status/467096015318036480

99. > SELLLEARN

100. Failure to Validate Revenue ≠ ValidationFree Products ≠ ValidationLetters of Intent = ValidationMoney Up-Front

101. Solution Interview Objectives - Learn the value that your solution provides; - Learn its place in your prospects’ technology mix; - Deepen your relationship with your prospects; - Learn how to repeat sales.

102. Your First Customers Should… 1. Be willing to spend money for your product 2. Beneﬁt from your solution (really) 3. Agree to endorse your company with a case study

103. 21. Creating a Minimum Viable Product

104. How B2C and B2B Compare Vision Problem Solution B2C

105. How B2C and B2B Compare Vision Market Jury Problem Solution B2B Vision Problem Solution B2C

106. Creating a Test Plan There are other customers The product can be productized The market is wide enough to sustain a business Th won le restr

107. Creating Testable Hypotheses

108. What your MVP Must Say About You 1. You can solve this problem 2. You can provide the value they seek 3. You’re different

109. A Valuable MVP is… - An experiment – What are you trying to learn with this particular MVP? - That outputs data – What data are you collecting about your experiment? - And has a failure criteria – What determines the failure of the experiment?

110. As Simple as Spreadsheets…

111. Reaching Back to Your Prospects Good morning Mr. Smith, <-- Personalization Thank you again for taking the time to meet with us. We were able to make good progress on a solution to help you reach local customers more effectively. <-- Where you’re coming from, Problem We’d like to hear your perspective and advice on our solution. Would you be available for a quick 20-minute chat in the upcoming weeks? <-- Asking for advice, Call to action We also collected a lot of market intelligence that I’m sure, would be useful in your work. We’d like to share those insights with you. <-- What’s in it for them Thank you, I look forward to catching up.

112. 22. Preparing Your Pitch

113. “The person you want to sell to is the person with the pain and/or the money.” Ken Morse, MIT Entrepreneurship Center Founding Managing Director, 1996-2009

114. Economic Buyer Concerned with the ROI User Buyer Concerned with the user experience and day-to-day impact Technical Buyer Concerned with the security and feasibility Buyer Roles (Jury)

115. Coach / Recommender Concerned with seeing your solution implemented Saboteur / Gatekeeper Concerned with not losing ground Buyer Roles (Jury)

116. Creating a Compelling Offer

117. Selecting a Revenue Model - Commerce and retail; - Subscriptions and usage fees; - Licensing; - Auctions and bids; - Data; - Transactions/Intermediation; - Freemium; - Financial services models.

118. What Value are you Providing? VALUE (Actual or Perception of) - RISK (Perception of) IMPLEMENTATION POTENTIAL=

119. Target the Appropriate Budgets

120. Set a Delivery Date

121. Discounts - Provide extra service or free support; - Give early access to new functionalities; - Give a full feature account without increasing the cost; - Give custom features; - Guarantee beneﬁts by giving customers a 30- or 60-day risk-free trial; - Introduce a money-back guarantee (“If you don’t ﬁnd it useful, I don’t want you to use it”);   - Urge your customers to call you at home (if needed).

122. Work with a Conditional Purchase - “If we’re able to increase your sales by 5%, then your company will buy.” - “After 60 days of the solution functioning as expected, your company will buy.”

123. 24. Conducting Solution Interviews

124. Meeting Sequence 1. Greetings (two minutes); 2. Problem qualification (three minutes); 3. Telling a compelling story (five minutes); 4. Solution exploration and demo (15 minutes); 5. Closing (five minutes).

125. Problem Qualiﬁcation (three minutes) “You had mentioned that problem A, problem B and problem C were important to you. Our team has worked hard to ﬁnd a solution to problem A…”

126. Telling a Compelling Story (ﬁve minutes) WHY SHOULD I CARE?

127. Solution exploration and demo (15 mins) Expectations What would be wonderful?   How does this compare with what you had envisioned?  Is that what your company was expecting? Usage How do you imagine your work being different with this solution?   Who would use this ﬁrst?   How do you envision this being used?   Is this an everyday solution?   What would be the barriers to adopting a product like this?   Risk Would you deploy the solution across the enterprise if it were free?    

128. Solution exploration and demo (15 mins) Risk What do you foresee as the biggest challenges to deploying this solution in the company?   What do you perceive as the weakest aspects of this solution?   Are there departments who might disapprove of this solution?   Value What impact do you imagine this solution will have on your work? What would we have to do to get you to pay two or three times that amount?

130. Sales Readiness Checklist They have the pain you’re solving; They have money or a budget; All buyers roles were identiﬁed and met; Nobody else can veto this deal; Other departments won’t disapprove the deal; Legal or Purchasing cannot block this deal; There are no other internal options that might prove more attractive than your proposal; There are no major risks or unresolvable issues with this deal.

131. 25. How to Deal With Your First Purchase

132. A Customer is Willing to Pay?

133. How to Write the Agreement - Date; - Users; - Budgets; - Payment; - Evaluation of value; - Endorsements; - Discount; - Approval process.

134. 26. Evaluating Product-Market Fit

135. What is Product-Market Fit? 1. Revenue; 2. Engagement; 3. Growth.

136. Revenue “Success in enterprise B2B requires a deep understanding of your customers. This is why we made Psykler a key part of our customer management process. It gives us actionable insights that you cannot get from traditional CRM tools.” [Client name], CEO

137. Engagement - How long does it take for end-users to start using your solution? - How often do they use the solution? - How much time do they spend using the solution? - Can the main reason for buying be completed without effort? - How long does it take to complete the main tasks?  - Do users enjoy using the solution? - How many features are being requested?

138. Growth

139. Evaluation - Were you able to consistently add value for customers in a single market segment? - Did the clients pay after the pilot was over or did they churn (move on)? - How engaged and satisﬁed were the clients with the product? - Did they refer your solution to other prospects?

140. 27. Pivots

142. “A pivot is a structured course correction designed to test a new fundamental hypothesis about the product, strategy, and engine of growth. Pivots imply keeping one foot ﬁrmly in place as the company shifts in a new direction. ” Eric Ries, Lean Startup Author

143. Pivots in B2B

144. Different Ways to Pivot - Zoom-in pivot; - Zoom-out pivot; - Product value pivot; - Value capture pivot; - Channel pivot; - Technology pivot; - Customer need pivot; - Customer segment pivot.

145. +

146. 29. Common Challenges & Solutions

147. + Being Everything

148. Pet Problems

149. The Curse of “Interesting”

150. Postponed Usage “If you made your app easier to use I would start using it. I’m really busy right now but I’ll start using your app soon. If your app was cheaper I would start using it. ” David Cancel, Serial Entrepreneur

152. Insufﬁcient Credibility https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/dbrulz/665624565/

153. Gatekeepers and Saboteurs

154. Soft Value Propositions

155. Committed Budgets - Can another department pay for the solution? - Can it come out of the operating budget (opex)? - Are there business grants that can be leveraged to pay for the solution? - Can the solution be heavily discounted the ﬁrst year on a three-year deal?

156. 31. Techniques to Speed up Product-Market Validation

157. Techniques for Speed 1. Finding the watering hole

158. +

159. Techniques for Speed 1. Finding the watering hole 2. Moving in with customers

160. +

161. Setting up a Customer Dev Panel

162. Techniques for Speed 1. Finding the watering hole 2. Moving in with customers 3. Setting up a customer development panel 4. Using experts to gain social proof 5. Recruiting key staff and advisors 6. Using other sales staff to gain an edge

163. Techniques for Speed 1. Finding the watering hole 2. Moving in with customers 3. Setting up a customer development panel 4. Using experts to gain social proof 5. Recruiting key staff and advisors 6. Using other sales staff to gain an edge 7. Starting with a free version

164. +

165. Techniques for Speed 1. Finding the watering hole 2. Moving in with customers 3. Setting up a customer development panel 4. Using experts to gain social proof 5. Recruiting key staff and advisors 6. Using other sales staff to gain an edge 7. Starting with a free version 8. Multi-tracking the validation process

166. 32. Process Review & Further Questions

167. In this Course Troubleshooting your vision Creating your ﬁrst hypotheses Finding early adopters Contacting early adopters Conducting problem interviews Finding problems that matter Creating a Minimum Viable Product Preparing your pitch Validating a solution Evaluating product-market ﬁt

168. Interested in the Course? Étienne Garbugli www.leanb2bbook.com #leanb2b Subscribe to the Lean B2B Blog for a 30% Discount

Apply the Lean Startup in B2B to Build Products Businesses Want (Course slides)

Étienne Garbugli

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