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kedoucao

zhuo [ 摘记 ] 2013-12-23 11:47 对所有人可见

in 个人笔记本创业笔记对所有人可见

初创小公司如何拿下第一批客户

How does a new business get their first clients?

很多初创公司有了靠谱的人、靠谱的技术或是靠谱的产品，却没有销售经验，苦于无法获得第一批客户。在Quora上，Web 设计优化公司 Silktide 的创始人 Oliver Emberton 分享了他的经验。

当我第一次开公司时，我 21 岁，秃顶，胆小如鼠。

When I first started a business, I was 21, bald, and had the social confidence of an asthmatic fieldmouse.

幸运的是，我有个信心爆棚的销售总监跟我一同从零开始，不幸的是，后来我发现他这人又烂又神经，我们第二次开董事会议的时候他居然往我脸上砸了一拳。

Fortunately I started my business with an ultra-confident Sales Director, who unfortunately turned out to be both hopeless and completely mental. He punched me in the face during our second board meeting.

我们头一次跟潜在客户开会时，他在那边使劲吹嘘他“不怎么懂技术”“都不知道怎么用 email。”拜托，你扛的可是前沿 Web 设计公司的名号啊。

At one of our first pitches to a prospective client he bragged how he “wasn’t much of a techie” and “didn’t know how to use email”. These were not inspiring words from a cutting edge web design company.

所以，我只好自立自强了，我迅速学了不少销售技巧。第一年我就拿下了一些政府合同和财富 500 强客户。我那会儿一分钱都没有，办公室的大小跟个冰箱差不多。所以我是怎么搞定这些单子的呢?

So in order to feed myself, I rapidly learnt how to sell. In our first year I secured government contracts and FORTUNE 500 clients, all with no money and an office the size of a refrigerator. Let me tell you how.

提前积累可信度

Credibility comes ahead of time

默默无名的新公司如何立足?一开始都指望你呢，你这个创始人能有多少可信度，公司就有多少可信度，一分也不会多。

A new business has no reputation. So at the start, all credibility is on you, the founder.

就我的情况而言，我当学生时就在建网站。其中有一个是我大学的社交网站，积累了数千个活跃用户，在校园里喧嚣了一阵的。

For my part, I built websites as a student. One in particular – a social network for my university – had grown to thousands of active users, and was raising a lot of controversy on campus.

我做这些就是因为我喜欢，对工作的热爱会从活计上体现出来的。如果你找不到有薪工作，那就免费做点东西出来。免费工作能帮你铺路，自己替自己建立起可信度来，而且不需要其他任何人的许可。

I made stuff like this simply because I wanted to, and the passion showed. When you can’t find paid work, create stuff for free. Free work is your way of bootstrapping credibility, and you don’t need anyone’s permission to earn it.

热情+知识

Enthusiasm + knowledge

我不是那种传统的销售人员，穿挺刮的西装，梳个大背头。但我相当热情而且知识渊博。结果说明，热情和知识比你的行头重要得多。

I was not a conventional salesman, with slicked back hair and fancy suits. I was however, fiercely enthusiastic and highly knowledgeable. And it turns out that matters more.

最终人们买单是向人买单。你也许会对此不爽，可惜人们对你的宣传册子或是产品特点什么的不那么容易心动。他们更看重你这个人，所以这个人最好有点说服力。如果你本人无比兴奋叭啦叭啦讲你能帮他们做什么什么很棒的东西出来，你的热情会感染他们。然后你的可信度(见第一条)会帮你搞定剩下的活儿。

People buy from people. You may resent this, but they’re far less moved by your brochure or your features. They evaluate you as a person, and that person had better be convincing. If you are sincerely bubbling over with excitement at all the wonderful things you could do for them, your enthusiasm will win many people over. Your credibility (above) should do the rest.

自信会随时间积累。但最好的积累自信的办法是你先掌握一门本事然后在懂得欣赏的人面前展示。

Confidence will come with time. But the best way to build confidence is to become good at something and get yourself in front of people who will appreciate it.

熟人生意一个都不能少

Get in front of everyone you know

我第一个单子还是在学生时候帮我住的公寓做的一个网站，3000 英镑。

My first sale – a £3,000 ($5,000) website – was to the residence where I had lived as a student.

我认识这些人。我帮自己争取到一个开会的机会，说明我能做什么，说服他们让我来做。我认识他们而且清楚他们想要什么;他们之所以交给我，也是因为之前我免费做的那个社交网站不错，以及他们认识我这个人。

These were people I knew. I blagged myself a meeting and sold them on what I could do. I already knew them and what they wanted; they were sold on the basis of my free social network and the fact that they knew me.

这就是关键。人们习惯从认识的人那里买东西。你也许不爱听但这是事实。基本上，只要你目标客户有熟人好像听说过你，就足够让他们来听听你的说法了。

This is the key. People buy from who they know. You probably don’t want to hear that, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. Just being vaguely known by that guy who knows that guy is enough to get you in the door of most places.

我帮自己所在的学院做了一单生意，我朋友公司那里我也都去试过。每一个我认识的人，不管他们看上去级别有多低，都可能是通往一单生意的潜在窗口。光靠这个认知，我就在第一年拿到了 3M 这家 500 强公司的单子。

I sold to the school where I’d studied at university. I pitched to the companies where my friends were working. Every single person I knew, however low-level they might seem, was a potential inroad to another opportunity. This alone got me a sale to a FORTUNE 500 company (3M) in our first year.

我后来才了解还有“交流活动”这么一说。做生意头六年里我一次都没去过。最好的销售机会总是来自你已经认识的人，而最大的误区就是人们以为他们谁也不认识。

Later I would learn about ‘networking events’, but I didn’t use any for the first 6 years of my business. The best lead is always from someone you already know, and the biggest mistake people make is assuming that they don’t know anyone.

搭上巨头名号的顺风车

Get in at the ground floor on big names

我第一笔小生意是帮学校某个部门做的，这让我有了资本可以说“我帮这所大学做了一个网站”。不用介意这个项目有多小，免费的也没关系。人家看你可信度有多少其实头一个不是看你的活儿，而是看你帮哪些大名鼎鼎的人干过活。

My first tiny sale to a department of a university suddenly gave me the ability to say “I did a website for this university”. Nevermind that it was a small project; it could have been free. The most powerful indicator of credibility is not your work, it’s the names you can associate with.

帮有名人家还有个连带的好处：他们一般有不少员工，这些员工流动到别的机构也可能想到推荐你。我那学校的一个员工后来去本地议会做了，于是很快我有了一个政府客户。议会那边有人离职去别处了，我又多了一笔生意。名流之间名片就是通行证。

One great side effect of big names is they tend to have lots of staff, who move on to other organisations and recommend you. Someone from that university started working for a local council, and soon I had my first government client. Someone there moved on and I had another. Big names attract big names.

还有个好处我漏了：你可以顺藤摸瓜。做了那个学院部门网站后，5 年里边，我们接触了他们的上级部门，上上级，最终是做了整个大学的网站——2 万多页面，报酬多多了。十年来，这单合同我们一直握在手里。

Another great thing about big names – you can grow within them. Over the next 5 years that small school website let us pitch for their parent department, and ultimately the whole university – over 20,000 webpages and a lot more money. We never lost that contract in 10 years.

至关重要的建议：服务到位。如果你没法让客户高兴，那么这一切都没谱。

Crucially: deliver on service. If you don’t make your clients happy, none of this will happen.

能说会写

Write and sound the part

当然，你想让自己仪表鲜亮，不过别把希望都放在这上头。你的仪容不会帮你搞定很多单子，但要是外表邋遢肯定会让你损失单子。别以为自己聪明无敌就不需要剪下头发、洗洗干净、喷个除臭剂了。

You want to look presentable, of course, but don’t invest your hopes into this. Your appearance won’t win many sales, but a bad appearance will certainly cost you some. Don’t be the smartarse kid who doesn’t realise he needs a haircut, shower or deodorant.

要提高讲话和写作水平。你的沟通能力是人们评价你这个人时最重要的看点之一，口舌笨拙，聪明小孩也显得呆，能说会道，傻子也能听上去聪明三分。如果你不知道引号和大写字母该怎么用，那你做好准备吧知道书写规则的人是不会看高你的。而且他们打了差评还不会告诉你。

Master speaking and writing clearly. The quality of your communication is one of the strongest indicators people will use when judging you; it can make a smart kid sound stupid, or an idiot sound vaguely intelligent. If you don’t know how to use apostrophes or capital letters, you’d best believe people who do will not judge you kindly. And they will never tell you.

别把专业沟通理解成堆砌华丽辞藻和长句。如果你能够言简意赅，你的话被听进去的几率更大。

Don’t mistake professional communication for fancy words and long sentences. If you can say a lot with a little, you’ve a much better chance of being heard and respected.

有用(但对你没用)的东西

Things that work (but not for you)

如果你的销售策略是靠 SEO 或“社会化营销”，那你再想想吧。问问看用这些东西的人，这些对大公司管用，要靠长期投入，才会有锦上添花的效果。你不是可口可乐。量力而行。

If your sales strategy involves SEO or ‘Social marketing’, get a new strategy. Ask people who use those things – they work in the long term, and mostly as embellishment for established businesses. You are not Coca-Cola. Plan accordingly.

广告烧起来是个无底洞。参考下跟你一样同行业的初创公司是怎么处理广告营销这件事的，他们成不成功。如果你真要投广告，别花太多。

Advertising is almost always a fiery pit where your money goes to die. Look for what other companies like yourself (early stage, same industry) are doing with their advertising, and whether they appear to be successful. If you do advertise, spend lightly.

别花钱在招摇的东西上。在手表啊车啊漂亮办公室上面花钱没啥回报，只能让你自我感觉好一下，对你销售成功率几乎没影响。我开公司头五年里连辆车都没有，而那会儿我每年都已经能拿下 10 万镑的合同了。

Don’t waste money on premature status symbols. Dropping cash on a fancy watch / car / office has terrible ROI – it might make you feel good, but it barely touches your odds of selling. I didn’t even have a car for my first 5 years of business and I was able to win contracts worth £100k ($160k) / year .