Bring Your Persona to Life by Finding Your First 10 Customers

Most entrepreneurs in their initial journey are seen talking about customer persona and working diligently to make one. But the question is what should one do to bring it to life? How do you find the initial customers that match your persona?

Scribbling notes on a paper is not enough to give you the confidence that you are headed towards a scalable solution and won’t be limited to just one customer. Remember, the persona is to be used as a frame of reference. Following the persona blindfolded may lead you to be too focused on a very specific customer without being able to sell to those who fall in within the same of reference. 

Your first task at hand should be to work on finding those initial 10 customers who will not only fit your end-user profile but also sync with your persona. This exercise will also help you test your hypothesis of whether your product/service is sellable and appeals to the audience. 

When you go out with what you have developed so far, do not worry about the negative feedback. In fact, what is worrisome and misleading is if most people tell you “all is well”. At this stage, you know in your mind there are things to improve. It may mean the customer is not keen on understanding more about your product/service. Constructive criticism should always be more welcome than praise. 

Doing the Fieldwork

Here are the steps to follow to narrow down to your first 10 customers:

1. Make a list of 20, 30, 40 customers- as many as you can manage to meet/speak to. Don’t choose random people here, keep in mind your persona at all times and find those that are a close match.

2. Get in touch with each of those potential customers and pitch your use-case, product details and quantifiable value proposition. Do not push your opinions on them, rather, ask things with the genuine interest of learning. Qualify whether they are excited by your use case, value proposition and TAM.

3. If they validate your hypothesis and find value in your offerings, ask them in a subtly if they would buy your product/service whenever it’s available. If some of them reply in the affirmative, you will get the indication that you’re on the right track and will identify more such people.

4. If they are not as responsive or don’t show buying intent, take your notes and go back to the drawing board. Reflect upon any assumptions you made and what feedback you can incorporate next time. Do not quit or feel that you won’t get there. This is the best time to learn. If many point out similar flaws, you’ll know what to change.

5. Hit the road again and test out your new assumptions with the same people or new customers. You have to zero down on a 10 customer list who are really interested in your product, see the value in it and will be willing to buy it.

6. If making a 10 customer list is not happening and you aren’t able to get enough people on board, then again, nothing to worry about. Go back to your team, think about your beachhead market again- you may need to make a pivot.

Getting negative/constructive feedback in the initial stages is critical in validating your assumptions and seeing if some of them don’t make sense any longer. If there’s any time to get things wrong, it is this stage. You don’t want to enter the market only to realise that you may have jumped the gun.

The startup journey is all about making assumptions and testing them to get the validation you seek, so stay at it. Never lose your heart because there are so many unseen variables and a lot can work in your favour just with minor pivots.