David Telleen-Lawton, UC Santa Barbara - Technology Management Program , @DTLinSB
This talk will focus on the down and dirty details of setting up meetings for Customer Discovery. The mindset you need, combined with specific tactics on how to will be discussed. Having set hundreds of B2B and B2C discovery meetings over the years, Telleen-Lawton has employed every stall tactic and excuse to delay reaching out and setting these meetings. He’ll show you how to avoid them and get on the fast track to a bull’s-eye product and a sustainable business model…or the realization that time would be better spent on a different idea.
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The Nitty Gritty of Setting Up Customer Discovery Meetings
1. The Nitty, The Gritty of Setting Up
Customer Discovery Meetings
Prepared for
Lean Startup Conference 2015
18 Nov 2015
David Telleen-Lawton
Career Development Manager
Technology Management Program
UC Santa Barbara
DTL@TMP.UCSB.edu
2. Problem to Solve
“I still (after all these years) still find talking to
customers the hardest. I always come up with
reasons why I don't have to.”
Eric Ries,
22 October 2015, Live Chat, The Leader’s Guide
4. Setting Up Meetings
Proper mindset
1. Believe prospects are rational
2. Adopt a discovery sales approach
3. Be the puzzle master
A few skills and techniques
1. Simple script
2. Start at the top
3. Batches of Meetings
4. Plan the work and work the plan
6. BS & MS Industrial Engineering (Stanford)
P&G then 9 Startups since 1980
Learned My Craft at Frank H. Robinson & Co.
• Market Validation (1987 – 1993)
• F500 companies, startup companies
• hardware, software, services
• B2B, some B2C
Later for Non-profits, Educational Institutions
Why Me?
7. Setting Up Meetings
Proper mindset
1. Believe prospects are rational
2. Adopt a discovery/diagnostic sales approach
3. Be the puzzle master
A few skills and techniques
1. Simple script
2. Start at the top
3. Batches of Meetings
4. Plan the work and work the plan
8. 1. People are Rational
You solve a problem I
have, I’ll make time to
talk to you.
I will tell you what we
need.
We want your candid
answers.
If we DO solve an
important problem for
you, we’ll be back to ask
for the order.
9. Implications of Rational
IF: Their lack of interest
doesn’t make sense?
THEN: Wrong person,
missing data,
something hidden on
one or both sides
10. Setting Up Meetings
Proper mindset
Believe prospects are rational
2. Adopt a discovery/diagnostic sales approach
3. Be the puzzle master
A few skills and techniques
1. Simple script
2. Start at the top
3. Batches of Meetings
4. Plan the work and work the plan
11. 2. Adopt Sales Model
“We’ve reversed the traditional process:
design, build, sell.
We sell, design, and build and that has
saved us from innumerable problems.”
-- C. Scott Holt, VP Marketing, Connor Peripherals (mid-
80’s)
12. Sales & Marketing Team
Customer Development Phases
Surprises
Engineering Team
Product Development Phases
Idea
1st Customer
Ship
Brea
k
Even
Fix the problems
Integrated Product and Customer Development
Your team hops into your time machine
Frank H. Robinson & Co. 1995 Copyright – used by permission - Adapted
Surprises
13. Setting Up Meetings
Proper mindset
Adopt a discovery/diagnostic sales approach
Believe prospects are rational
3. Be the puzzle master
A few skills and techniques
1. Simple script
2. Start at the top
3. Batches of Meetings
4. Plan the work and work the plan
16. Setting Up Meetings
Proper mindset
Adopt a discovery/diagnostic sales approach
Believe prospects are rational
Be the puzzle master
A few skills and techniques
1. Simple script
2. Start at the top
3. Batches of Meetings
4. Plan the work and work the plan
17. 1. Simple Script
What THEY are thinking…
Who are you and why are you calling ME?
What do you want from me?
What YOU need to do…
Create interest: focus on problem/benefit (mtg)
Sense of urgency (deadline for meeting)
18. Hello, Frank? My name is David Telleen-Lawton
and I’m part of the founding team at Lastline in
Santa Barbara.
Simple Script
19. We are working to solve the problem that
malware can sneak onto your network,
onto your servers, and onto your computers
…despite the best layered-defense.
Our solution will help you sleep at night, knowing
no malware is lurking on your network.
Simple Script
20. We are in the early stages of product
development
-- we’re still developing the solution –
I am calling YOU to find out who on your team is
the right person to discuss whether an additional
layer of malware defense would be beneficial for
your network security.
<pause to allow to answer>
Simple Script
21. Simple Script
Do you have your calendar close by?
I have my team together next week on Thursday.
We have a slot open at 10:30 in the morning or
3:30 in the afternoon.
Do either of these work for you?
22. 1. Simple Script
What THEY are thinking…
Who are you and why are you calling ME?
What do you want from me?
What YOU need to do…
Create interest: focus on problem/benefit (mtg)
Sense of urgency (deadline for meeting)
23. Setting Up Meetings
Proper mindset
Adopt a discovery/diagnostic sales approach
Believe prospects are rational
Be the puzzle master
A few skills and techniques
Simple script
2. Start at the top
3. Batches of Meetings
4. Plan the work and work the plan
24. 2. Start at the Top
CEO, VPs are often more available
More open and candid
Assistant helpful 95% of time
Referral down (carries weight) vs. referral up
25. Setting Up Meetings
Proper mindset
Adopt a discovery/diagnostic sales approach
Believe prospects are rational
Be the puzzle master
A few skills and techniques
Simple script
Start at the top
3. Batches of Meetings
4. Plan the work and work the plan
26. 3. Batches of Meetings
Start with friendlies…Just in time priorities
Meet their team with your team
Meet, discuss, re-target, repeat
27. 3-5 < 30
Number of Interviews
C
L
A
R
I
T
Y
When Are You Done?
28. Setting Up Meetings
Proper mindset
Adopt a discovery/diagnostic sales approach
Believe prospects are rational
Be the puzzle master
A few skills and techniques
Simple script
Start at the top
Batches of Meetings
4. Plan the work and work the plan
29. 4. Make It a Priority
Clear your calendar; Clear team’s calendar
Keep track of your calls
Limit the number of open threads (5-8)
30. Setting Up Meetings
Proper mindset
Adopt a discovery/diagnostic sales approach
Believe prospects are rational
Be the puzzle master
A few skills and techniques
Simple script
Start at the top
Batches of Meetings
Plan the work and work the plan
31. Are you
ready and energized
to make 8 – 12 calls and
set up 4 - 6 meetings?
31
33. Calling Pattern
TYPICAL ACCOUNT:
Day One: Call a few times in AM and PM, then VM at
end of day, accompanied with email msg.
(Working two to ? Possibilities)
Day Three: Try again directly, then send follow-up
email message (forwarding original message)
Day Five or Six: Try calling once more, email
showing urgency.
34. Calling Pattern
VERY IMPORTANT ACCOUNT:
Day One: 4-6 times a day (if no gatekeeper), do not
leave voice mail message, two or three days, figure out
if on vacation.
Day Two thru Six: same as Day One. Check whether
vacationing, assistant
Day 7: Leave voice mail message and send email
message as with regular account
35. Simple Script
<getting the DMT>
I’m going to have our founding team…our CEO,
our head of engineering, and our product
manager with me. Who are the right people to
have on your side?
36. <as needed>
This is an opportunity for you to put your
fingerprints on our design to help make sure it’s
a bull’s-eye for your situation.
Are you the right person to for me to contact?
Simple Script
37. Simple Script
<how long will this take?>
Our slides take 20 to 25 minutes, but we find with
discussion that our meetings last about an hour.
<stop talking…you answered the question>
Even though an hour is probably enough, can you
reserve the conference room for two hours? That
way if we’re in the middle of a good discussion,
we do not have to give up the room.
38. Simple Script
<tell me more or what did you have in mind>
I was hoping that when I have my team together
next Thursday, we could come to your offices and
learn about your current network security, tell you
about our new layer of defense, and together
determine if we are building a bull’s-eye for you or
what we need to change to address your unique
network security needs.
40. Market Matrix
Too Expensive
Fighting Malware
Worried About
What Can’t See
Employees/Partner
s Outside Firewall Meeting Regulatory
Requirements
Banks
Under HIPAA
Regulation
Consumer
Product Mfgr.
Other CIO
Solutions
Chumash
Casino
Citrix
Online
California
Svgs & Loan
County
Bank
Cottage
Hospital
Pueblo
Radiology
Walking
Company
East
Bank
Wachovia
Hinweis der Redaktion
Welcome!
My name is David Telleen-Lawton…and if you are here to hear about The Nitty, the Gritty of Setting up Customer Discovery Meetings, then you are in the right place.
When Eric and team invited me to share the most important elements of what has made me successful over the last three decades…yes three decades…well before Lean had been birthed…I was delighted.
Thank you for honoring me with choosing this talk this morning.
This talk is for those who have never set up Customer Discovery Meetings, for those who are stalled or stuck setting up meetings, and for those that are interested in improving their technique or confidence.
I’m going to show you how I do it…what works for me…and I’m confident you will find much of what I say will work for you.
20 minutes allows me to hit the important points in a crisp, fast-paced, presentation…with 10 minutes of Q&A to follow.
May I suggest you listen for several things that are very different than the conventional, book learning guidance. The difference of experience over the decades…
Let’s get started.
Before we go any further…Let’s not forget our doctrine…the founding principal. Why we want meetings.
We all believe or are leaning about the magic of getting out of the building and meeting with prospective customers as early as possible in the product development cycle.
This is the Gateway to Customer Discovery and creating your business model.
It’s used for everything: not just features, but markets, distribution channels, marketing messages
It works because you are climbing into a time machine with your co-pilots and visiting the future, the future a time when you DO have a product in order to understand what you need to deliver in order to HAVE a product others want.
My talk has two main parts…I’m going to talk about the proper mindset…and then about a few skills and techniques that will increase your success…and in turn help that mindset.
My talk today is designed to help you get more of the right meetings with less anxiety and less effort per meeting.
www.ProductDevelopment.com
5.5
Not good enough for me to just know what to do…I want to understand why it works so I know when it works.
One went public, four were purchased (ACC, Cogent, Mindflash, Redspin), one is going in name only (VIMAtech), one can still make me rich (Lastline), and working with MTM can still make me famous
My talk has two main parts…I’m going to talk about the proper mindset…and then about a few skills and techniques that will increase your success…and in turn help that mindset.
My talk today is designed to help you with…how to get more of the right meetings with less anxiety and less effort per meeting.
…and that’s where I’m going to start talking about Proper Mindset.
Number one, adopt a sales approach. Unfortunately, sales often gets a bad rap…and do you know why that is?
Well, it’s because there are a lot of bad apples that have found they can hide in poorly run sales organizations.
Number 2: Know that in nearly 100% of the cases, the people you are talking to are rational and want you to solve their important problems.
Number 3: Recognize this is not a test of your telephone and email skills…this is about detective work and solving simultaneous equations. It’s fun to learn how the world works and how people make decisions.
Let’s look at each one of these in a bit more detail.
Hemorrhaging cash because of malware
Why want to be Beta
Let’s talk about the Proper Mindset and start with believing prospects are rational.
Scott Holt gave this quote back in the mid-1980s when he was part of the team that created what was the fastest growing company to $100 million of revenue of some such metric.
Can you hear the foreshadowing to Lean?
Scott Cook of Intuit was another leader in the 80’s that talked about sitting down with paying users.
Here’s how Frank and I described the process to our prospective clients. I think the message is still strong and clear today.
It’s the pushing through to getting a prospect to
Notice a few things:
* Surprises still happen
Development is not slowed down, in fact it is accelerated if you are measuring when you can ship a product people will buy
My talk has two main parts…I’m going to talk about the proper mindset…and then about a few skills and techniques that will increase your success…and in turn help that mindset.
My talk today is designed to help you with…how to get more of the right meetings with less anxiety and less effort per meeting.
Right Message, Right Target, Right Problem
Sleuthing
My talk has two main parts…I’m going to talk about the proper mindset…and then about a few skills and techniques that will increase your success…and in turn help that mindset.
My talk today is designed to help you with…how to get more of the right meetings with less anxiety and less effort per meeting.
I say script, because it’s written out and you will use it when you call…yes call, your target.
Miraculously, it’s basically the same script as the voice mail message you leave and the followup email message you send…and it’s so simple it will roll off your toungue after using it a few times.
Geography is important
Notice we addressed all of these very succinctly.
My talk has two main parts…I’m going to talk about the proper mindset…and then about a few skills and techniques that will increase your success…and in turn help that mindset.
My talk today is designed to help you with…how to get more of the right meetings with less anxiety and less effort per meeting.
My talk has two main parts…I’m going to talk about the proper mindset…and then about a few skills and techniques that will increase your success…and in turn help that mindset.
My talk today is designed to help you with…how to get more of the right meetings with less anxiety and less effort per meeting.
The real speed bump is not having meetings.
Full dress rehearsal
Just in Time
Be more specific…commonality
Unconscious bias
Targeting
Right church, wrong pew
Right church, right pew
Ripe fruit, lowest branches
Talk
Who else should I talk to?
SHOW WAVES
My talk has two main parts…I’m going to talk about the proper mindset…and then about a few skills and techniques that will increase your success…and in turn help that mindset.
My talk today is designed to help you with…how to get more of the right meetings with less anxiety and less effort per meeting.
Necessity is the mother of all invention
Frustration is the mid-wife
My talk has two main parts…I’m going to talk about the proper mindset…and then about a few skills and techniques that will increase your success…and in turn help that mindset.
My talk today is designed to help you with…how to get more of the right meetings with less anxiety and less effort per meeting.
www.ProductDevelopment.com
5.31
Don’t settle for guess -- be commited to find out
Work the process, easily distracted
Focus on problem and people closest to the problem
Even those with an online product need to engage in Customer Discovery meetings. Perhaps you have gotten “users” with social media, to really understand your business, you need to speak with these users directly. You cannot do this remote control.