The hack
Find your potential customers offline.
Why it works
Meeting people face-to-face was the means of selling anything for thousands of years and it still works today.
How to do it
There is no single way of doing it. The best way to apply it is by reading through success stories and trying to find similarities that can be used in your niche.
Quotes are taken from Lenny’s newsletter and the First 1000 newsletter.
Conferences and trade shows
Etsy
“We did something that works and is often overlooked. We got off the internet and there was a team out there across the U.S. and Canada attending art/craft shows nearly every weekend. Supporting potential sellers (we would buy them lunch, drop off ‘craft show kits,’ pass out handmade promos)—these were artists/crafters that were influential in the handmade world. We knew if they set up shop on Etsy, and were successful, others would follow. The community team went to a different show every single weekend all across the U.S. and Canada. Most sellers I knew did not have any other kind of online presence or activity on other sites.”
Atlassian
Atlassian recognized that a large chunk of potential customers aggregated at tech conferences - like the JavaOne conference in San Fransisco. However, booths cost anywhere between $20-50k - something Atlassian couldn't afford. Being the hacky 22-year-olds they were, Atlassian employed some guerilla tactics ahead of a popular session called “Java posse”. Prior to the event, Scott and Mike trucked in about 15 to 20 cases of beer for attendees and slapped Atlassian labels on them.
Kale
My friends at Kale went to an HR conference in London and started conversations with: “Do you want Kale?”. It was something completely different and helped them interest random strangers walking around the conference and get their first leads.
Meetups
Morning brew
“The model we used in our mind was this hub-and-spoke model. Who are the hubs that have access to all of these spokes—the spokes being the people we want reading our newsletter? What we decided was this was professors of business classes or it was presidents of business clubs. So Austin and I just pounded the pavement to get into every big business class in Michigan, [every] lecture with 75 to 500 people. We got into all the clubs, and we would basically give our spiel at the beginning.... We got a couple thousand people from Michigan.”
Nike
MY SALES STRATEGY was simple, and I thought rather brilliant. After being rejected by a couple of sporting goods stores (“ Kid, what this world does not need is another track shoe!”), I drove all over the Pacific Northwest, to various track meets. Between races I’d chat up the coaches, the runners, the fans, and show them my wares. The response was always the same. I couldn’t write orders fast enough.
Clients office
Lyft
“We asked everyone on our team to give us their list of contacts at startups, and we contacted them to ask their permission to come by with a free Bi-Rite ice cream sundae drop-off for their employees. They basically all said yes, because Bi-Rite is delicious. :) So we arranged a drop-off operation and had teams of staff with insulated bags taking ice cream sundae kits to all of the companies and giving them Lyft credits.”
Bloomberg
Bloomberg would wake up and buy two coffees and 2teas (one with milk and one without) every day. He would roam around the Merrill Offices to find anyone reading the newspaper at 7:00 am. Hi, I am Mike Bloomberg. I brought you a cup of coffee. Can I talk to you? The effort paid off, and he finally got that meeting with Ed Moriarty, the person in the company that would have the ability to pull the trigger on something like Bloomberg terminal.
Hustling
Uber
“There was a very significant use of street teams early on at Uber. They went to places like the Caltrain station and handed out referral codes. There are stories about how Travis [Kalanick] went to Twitter HQ personally and handed out referral codes.”
Pinterest: Changing screens in Apple stores
Hipcamp
“I think our first 100 or so users came from sitting at a fold-up table in front of REI and handing out stickers. We’d have them test the website and make sure they added their email to the newsletter field. Then they told friends!”
Parties and colleges
Tinder
“It all started at a launch party we threw (at my parents house, where I grew up, actually) with about 300 students from USC. In order to get in, you had to download Tinder. I actually stood at the door and told people they were not allowed in if they did not download the app. I think those were the first few hundred faces we had on the app.
Bumble
“I kind of had a little bit of a playbook [from Tinder’s launch]. I had maybe done it once before. I went right back to SMU, this time decked out in yellow. And I went back into all those sororities and I spoke from the heart. Listen, I have lived through the pain points of male-dominated relationships. I have felt it. I know what it feels like. And guess what? Every other woman in that sorority house, chances are she’s felt it too. I’m speaking from the heart, and I’m speaking to them about how they can be empowered and they make the first move and they go after what they want.
Rent the runway
“We held trial trunk shows on college campuses, met with everyone we could talk to in order to gather feedback and suggestions, and adapted along the way.”
Read all → Famous stories.
