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How do you sell to someone when they don't want to be approached? (alien.top)

submitted 1 year ago by Zealousideal-Leg-288@alien.top to c/entrepreneur@indiehackers.space

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So I did a lot of research through my journey of building a product and selling it. I built a recruiting software and I tried doing the cold dm approach. When that didn't work, I went to a recruiting subreddit and asked why are recruiters so tech averse. Like why won't they reply to me.

Turns out that recruiters (my audience) don't want to be approached. Personalize it as much as you want and they don't want to be approached. Not even for asking what their problems are. Rightfully so, because they have busy days and the last thing they want is a "Hey, what problems do you face?"

How do you reach your audience here? I did the SEO approach but its taking far too long. I got 3 new users but that's it.

Please note that I haven't incorporated and can't do things that need incorporation.

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[–] Xeurb@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

I don't mean to diminish the research you've done, but my guess here is you still need much more.

"Hey, what problems do you face?"

This is your problem. Say I receive this, here are the things I know already:

I don't know you.

This is likely a waste of my time, and probably money if you're contacting me. (law of large numbers)

I know that you don't know what problems I face. (you're asking)

Therefore, there's almost zero likelihood that you have a product that solves my problem. (You're doing market research at best)

Even if you are competent to deliver a solution for somebody, the question itself means you don't in fact know that I'm even your target market.

So, you cant approach someone who doesn't want to be approached and hand them a burden (a vague DM).

You need to A) already understand what problem they are facing and B) already have a product to solve the problem. This is pretty baseline just to have a dialogue that isn't a complete waste of time.(you say you have this, but it doesn't sound like the product is being put first.) If you're trying to approach a target cold, who isn't interested to begin with, you also need C) provide them with the solution. A trial, a demo, improvements based on real industry data, etc.

I also had to reread your post, possibly the most important factor you sneak right in at the end. You acquired 3 users. You acquired 3 users! It worked, that's a win. And they're now your biggest asset. Presumably, if you did what you did ten times over, you'd acquire another 30 users. It sounds like your complaint is conversion ratio, but this can also just be overcome with scale.

Those 3 users are your ticket to ride. If your product is worth what you say it is, let those 3 prove it. Positive word of mouth advertising is just about the highest efficiency marketing possible. If they're impressed, they'll mention it to their peers. Get feedback from them. Give them discounts if you need to to solicit feedback. Act on the feedback. If they're happy, offer them discounts for referrals.

Temper your expectations. Everything takes longer than expected.