I think sharing a bit of the technical side would help attract the people you're looking for. For example, sharing your technology stack would attract the people familiar with that stack.
Also, if you share a block diagram of your process, even without going too much into details in case you're worried to be copied at this stage or something.
Something like a box receiving a message, and another box processing the message and sending it to a "partner", that gives an idea on how this machine works might help. Heck it can help people think more abstractly and propose ideas to generalize that solution to address a different vertical than the one you're addressing right now.
Maybe build an API so that other companies might use your service and you could add to your references on your website. By the way, this could increase your revenue, avoid the "white-label" situation, increase your credibility and attract technical talent.
In other words, treating this request as a product/sale and removing friction to attract people's minds to the idea/concept would be beneficial.
> I think sharing a bit of the technical side would help attract the people you're looking for. For example, sharing your technology stack would attract the people familiar with that stack.
Mostly React and NodeJS.
- Web app is MySQL, React, Redux and NodeJS
- Multiple micro services (REST) built on NodeJS and Spring Boot
- Other tech: RabbitMQ, WebSockets
> Also, if you share a block diagram of your process, even without going too much into details in case you're worried to be copied at this stage or something. Something like a box receiving a message, and another box processing the message and sending it to a "partner", that gives an idea on how this machine works might help. Heck it can help people think more abstractly and propose ideas to generalize that solution to address a different vertical than the one you're addressing right now.
Not at all worried about getting copied (lesson learned from YC Videos). A video is show here - https://www.zoko.io/zoko-sales . Question is what's the right business strategy/tactic to get to $100K a month? Continue to sell the product shown in the video or make an API that will enable partners to make the product show in the video.
Thank you for the pointers. Good point about "Zoko not using Zoko" :-) Will change that before teh end of the month.
>Where is that from? I found a Medium post with dubious "stats". Maybe include testimonials in text and video?
The stat is from a widely quoted Forrester study.
Interestingly the website was built in a day using a free service called WIX. We dont have much difficulty convincing clients. Our paying clients may have actually seen our website in passing. Most of the selling is by getting clients via facebok and linkedin ads and demos scheduled via Skype/hangouts/anydesk/zoom etc.
Probably had 4 people reach out to us by the website in 4 months. its been kind of ignored till now.
> The stat is from a widely quoted Forrester study.
Then I think properly quoting that with a reference link to the report. People might not read it, but they'd at least know they could. As much as I don't like the 50 billion IoT by 2020 figure, a link would help me.
> Probably had 4 people reach out to us by the website in 4 months. its been kind of ignored till now.
The site is ignored because it hasn't been converting or is it not converting because it has been ignored?
I'd like videos that explain different ways I could use the products. Say I'm a shop owner, what exactly can it do for me. What's the problem it solves and how? You can get such a video for a few hundred bucks.
Resources on how to set things up.
An example application for developers.
One of the things we insist on in our own product: a dev must be able to extend the application in less than 5 minutes, a user can go through an example in one minute. All the products we shipped where we ignored this sold because they solved but sucked. We're shooting for self discoverable functionality next. It's painful to see a user struggle to accomplish something. Have you shown the site to shop owners and devs and observed them?
EDIT:
How would you take me from now to paying customer? How do I give you money?
Also, a counter on your front page on the amount of sales that went through your products would speak volumes and give you a nice KPI to track. Total dollar value, number of customers served, number of clients, average per client, average purchase amount.
A nice dashboard that tells you things, and help you guide this turning knobs (optimize for number of customers or average purchase price?)
If you can add endpoints for such stats for clients to tap into, generate reports, use with other BI tools, to help them steer their business.
Something to help them get an idea on their Net Promoter Score and then the backend to run language processing on messages and display what customers liked and disliked in a tree map. I.e: 60 percent of your customers are detractors, 40 % of these disliked the interface, etc.
Thanks for the pointers on the shortcomings of the website. Have added them to my long list of to-do improvements to the website.
> How would you take me from now to paying customer? How do I give you money?
- Customers start an an incoming lead from linkedin ads or facebook ads.
- Then a phone call letting them talk and me asking a lot of questions about the problems they face using WhatsApp for business today.
- Then I show them a screen share demo and touch on their problems and how the product solves it.
- Followed by a signing an order form (word file)
- We then setup their accounts and send a precomposed email with links to the API, API key and access details to the web app.
- Also start a whatsapp group so they can ask and get immideate help in integration.
- Billing starts 7 days after API key receipt. All fees paid upfront and all usage through upfront purchase of credits. We have setup stripe in the billing section of the web app.
Maybe you can flesh out that scenario on the website to explain the process to a prospect. Putting a video out there so you don't have to do the operation with each client (one video that shows how the product can solve the problem).
What's the need for signing the word file? Why do they need to sign it?
Can I as a prospect directly click on an icon on your website or scan a QR Code and start a WhatsApp/FB messenger with you?
Not sure where the icons are showing up. I had removed all such links. (forgot to mention its a 3 person team. me, cto and an entry level coder)
>Maybe you can flesh out that scenario on the website to explain the process to a prospect. Putting a video out there so you don't have to do the operation with each client (one video that shows how the product can solve the problem).
Maybe its an Indian thing but folks dont seem to read anything. They prefer to call me directly and then see a demo. I also like the call first, because I can quickly decide who will convert and who will not.
> What's the need for signing the word file? Why do they need to sign it?
Thats the contract. If there's no ink on paper we dont setup dedicated accounts. Most of the work is manual for setting up accounts, linking numbers, setting up template messages etc. So unless its a customer who is ready to commit for a year, the coders dont even hear about them.
> Can I as a prospect directly click on an icon on your website or scan a QR Code and start a WhatsApp/FB messenger with you?
Not self serve right now. Once you sign a contract, you get a demo account (still shared with other clients). you get an email with access information so that you can start playing with a shared demo account and also play with the API, while we setup the accounts.
>Not sure where the icons are showing up. I had removed all such links. (forgot to mention its a 3 person team. me, cto and an entry level coder)
They don't appear on mobile, only on desktop. Must be a media queries issue.
>Maybe its an Indian thing but folks dont seem to read anything. They prefer to call me directly and then see a demo. I also like the call first, because I can quickly decide who will convert and who will not.
A prospect who has to call you cannot buy when you sleep.
I'd treat prospects calls not as a preference, but as a symptom of the product's ambiguity. This is problematic.
I do not understand your product because there's no real clear, concise, complete, and correct description of your product. In that case, there's a choice to make between complete ambiguity on one hand, and calling you on the other. We shouldn't conclude that I'm calling you because I prefer to call. I'm calling you because the product's description is not doing the job it's supposed to do, you are doing its job.
Instead of having customers call you and conclude that they prefer calling you, can we ask ourselves about what their alternatives to calling you are? Reading? They don't. Why? "People don't read". Maybe, but do they not read because it's an intrinsic human behavior, or because the product's copy and description sucks? We don't know until we fix the copy.
In this case, you have become the bottleneck because there's only so many calls you can answer, and so many hours you can work and describe the product.
I'd say you have a hypothesis about people not reading. Can you test your hypothesis by fixing the links of the icons to point to your facebook and twitter pages, and add a product description.
Did you have users open your website and observe them and talked to them while they're trying to make sense of what you're selling. Did they understand what your product does from your website or did they look puzzled? What can be done to fix that and put a ton of lubricant to the pipeline.
>If there's no ink on paper we dont setup dedicated accounts.
Why not?
>Most of the work is manual for setting up accounts, linking numbers, setting up template messages etc.
Why is the work manual? Why do you have to set up template messages? Can the customers set up their own template messages? Can you propose the most common template messages and offer them so a customer can have their basic needs met by default? What exactly is the manual part of the work?
>So unless its a customer who is ready to commit for a year, the coders dont even hear about them.
Why are the "coders" involved when a new customer is signed? What are they doing when a customer is signed? What can be automated? How are you spinning up new accounts? What inefficiencies have made it like that?
Prospect lands on your website. Prospect reads your product's description, or watches a video. Prospect can click on the pricing page. Maybe you offer a free-tier or a trial period. Prospect signs up for a free-tier account with limited functionality and is now a user. User likes product and induced demand kicks in. User can click to upgrade their account in exchange for a monthly fee or per interaction simply by going to billing and pulling out a credit card or something. User can set recurrent billing.
Anytime you or the "coders" have to intervene, I'd see that as an inefficiency that has to be cleared.
Also, if you share a block diagram of your process, even without going too much into details in case you're worried to be copied at this stage or something.
Something like a box receiving a message, and another box processing the message and sending it to a "partner", that gives an idea on how this machine works might help. Heck it can help people think more abstractly and propose ideas to generalize that solution to address a different vertical than the one you're addressing right now.
Maybe build an API so that other companies might use your service and you could add to your references on your website. By the way, this could increase your revenue, avoid the "white-label" situation, increase your credibility and attract technical talent.
In other words, treating this request as a product/sale and removing friction to attract people's minds to the idea/concept would be beneficial.