(This article is part of the MicroConf 2015 Recap. Want to explore more talks from the event? Go back to the Recap Hub)

Main Concept

Pre-selling lets you immediately move from problem → solution and sell — in one 30-minute conversation

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Three Key Points

• Pick a market
• Interview the market, identify pain
• Pre-sell the solution before you write a line of code

Talk Recap

How to Start a SaaS

• Not a generalized recipe for success
  • May not work for you, your market
  • Will offer practical advice (“from the trenches”)

How to find a profitable business idea

• Select target market
• Contact the market
• Select the problem
• Pre-sell the solution
• Develop the smallest solution

Selecting Your Market

• Create a list of industries
• Criteria
  • At least 2,000 – 5,000 industries
  • Affinity for the industry
  • Ideal markets => niche/obscure
  • Contactable

Contacting Your Market

• Excel list of people to contact
• Send emails to your customers and schedule phone calls to talk to them
• Ask questions to find pain points (and shut up, let them talk)
• Wave the magic wand question (magic question) — ask what they would fix if they could waive a magic wand

Selecting The Problem

• List all problems that people are experiencing
• Focus on the most painful, least complex problem

Pre-sell your solution

• Schedule the call
• Review the pain
• Present the solution
• Make an offer (ask to buy)
• Rinse and repeat (minimum 3-5 people)
• Start developing the product)

Next Level™ Tips

• Use conferences to turbocharge this process
• Incredible pace of learning
• Rapid feedback from people
• Meet early adopters
• Follow up after the conference
• Smaller is better than larger, more intimate settings are better

What Worked

• Recording + reviewing the calls
• Getting specific and personal on the call
• Staying in touch after the fact

My Stats

• 1 Market → 174 emails
• 174 emails →  connected with 32 people
• 32 people → 52 calls
• 52 calls → 8 problems
• 1 problem → $4,200

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Speaker’s Slides

Recommended Resources

1. Thing — Link
2. Thing — Link
3. Thing — Link

Links to Speaker’s Websites

• Twitter: @pawelwb

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(This article is part of the MicroConf 2015 Recap. Want to explore more talks from the event? Go back to the Recap Hub)