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

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

1.
The Challenges of Being a
Lean Startup in B2B

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

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

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…

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Typical Challenge
Solution
Problem
Problem
Problem
Problem
Problem
Problem
Problem
Problem
Problem
Problem

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.

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

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.”

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.

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

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

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.

Creating Value Proposition Hypotheses

6.
Finding & Selecting Early Adopters

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

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.

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

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

“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

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

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

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?

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…

7.
Leveraging Domain
Credibility & Visibility

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

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

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

Examples
Mehdi Ait Oufkir
Ranjith Kumaran
Rich
Aberman
Ben
Yoskovitz

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

Email Script
Good morning Mr. Smith,
Your ex-colleague, Max Scott, strongly suggested that we
seek your advice before going too far.
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

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

14.
What We Try To Find Out
Through Problem Interviews

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.

Problems that matter-Pain+
- Budget +

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

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

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

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

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

16.
How to Conduct Problem
Interviews

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).

Greetings (two minutes)
Thank you for taking the time to meet with us.
 
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?

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?

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?

Closing (ﬁve minutes)
A Followup meeting
B Referrals

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

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

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?

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?

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.

1.
2.
3.
By budget availability – Is this the pain
of a buyer?

1.
2.
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?

19.
Why Solution Interviews
Are Hard

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

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

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.

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

21.
Creating a Minimum Viable
Product

How B2C and B2B Compare
Vision Problem Solution
B2C

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

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

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

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?

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.

“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

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)

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

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

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

Target the Appropriate Budgets

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).

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.”

24.
Conducting Solution Interviews

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).

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…”

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

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?

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?

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.

25.
How to Deal With Your
First Purchase

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

26.
Evaluating Product-Market Fit

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

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

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?

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?

“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

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.

29.
Common Challenges & Solutions

The Curse of “Interesting”

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

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

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?

31.
Techniques to Speed up
Product-Market Validation

Techniques for Speed
1. Finding the watering hole

2. Moving in with customers

Setting up a Customer Dev Panel

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

7. Starting with a free version
8. Multi-tracking the validation process

32.
Process Review & Further
Questions

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

Interested in
the Course?
Étienne Garbugli
www.leanb2bbook.com
#leanb2b
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