Another common question we get from entrepreneurs during Office Hours is how do I get my first customers to pay? This question actually has multiple components: who is my ideal customer, how do I deliver value so they would pay something, and how do I price? There is also the simple answer: ask them to pay.

Ideal customer

Before getting too far down the path, you should use customer discovery to really help you define your ideal customer profile (ICP). From there, you can do a much better job finding them and building a go-to-market strategy to bring them into the funnel and ultimately become a customer.

Delivering value

In order for someone to pay, they need to believe there is value in the solution. Understand their problem, how your solution solves that problem, and what the ROI will be from your solution. Hard value (revenue lift or cost savings) is easier to sell than soft value (time savings, efficiency). Once you define the value, you have to make the ask to get your first paying customers. Be careful avoiding that difficult conversation now, only to realize later (after more time and money spent on the business) that nobody would ever buy the solution.

Pricing

For pricing your first customers I just care if they pay something reasonable and greater than zero. Most important is to get them using the product, seeing value, and loving your solution. As you start to scale up, you can focus on pricing on value, choosing the right construct, and iterating on the right price point. Remember most startups generally underprice out of fear nobody will buy it.

In summary, use customer discovery to determine your ICP and value proposition, get your first customers to pay something to prove they believe in that value, and then quantify the ROI to help you in selling to future customers.