Pitching Your Business- Start Conversations That Drive Growth

Welcome to Building Better Developers, the developer podcast where we work on getting better step by step professionally and personally. Let's get started. Well, hello and welcome back. We are here. We are building better businesses. We are building better developers. We are developing new of the podcast as seen on TV. If you're watching it on YouTube. I am Rob Brodhead, one of the founders of developer and on my second cup of tea at this point. So a little bit like pumped with the caffeine that's in there. I am not only a founder of developing arm, also a founder of RB consulting where we sit down, have a conversation about your business, your customers, your goals and your technology sprawl or your technology. Not at all. So what happens to be we've discussed things like simplification, automation, integration, innovation and how to leverage technology to meet the needs of you and your customer. So you have a custom recipe for success for you that is not only going to help you today, but six months and hopefully even six years or more down the road because we're going to help you build something that is not just solving the problem, but also that roadmap or the processes and procedures and the team or the things that you need in place to actually grow with your business. Now good thing and bad thing. Wow. Again, this has been a week full of good thing and bad things. A bad thing is this is it is not April 15th yet as we record this, but it is getting close to that date and I still have to do one of my taxes at least. And that is probably going to be the good thing is I think I have the bandwidth today to sit down and have a fun old doing my taxes session. I may end up drinking a lot at the end of it because I'm just sick of it. But that's I guess the good thing is I do have an opportunity to get it done. So I will I will try to put a little silver lining around that dark cloud. Another silver lining is that I get to have some time doing a podcast with Michael and he's going to introduce him and his silver surfer self. Hey everyone. My name is Mike Malosh. I'm one of the co-founders of developer NUR building better developers in this season, building better businesses. I'm also the founder of a company called Envision QA, where if you're a passionate entrepreneur or business looking for help with a software solution, be it a problem you already have or something you need built, we recognize your desire for reliable, high performing solutions that set you apart from your competitors. We offer tailored software and quality assurance solutions to optimize the performance and reliability of your e-commerce platform. You know, picture a flawless user experience, increased sales and a competitive edge in the market. That's what Envision QA will bring to you. Highs and lows. Well, still in the lows of we are still getting storms. I'm getting tired of spring. We are actually getting a spring again this year. And with that comes a lot of water on the positive side of that spring is almost done. My allergies are almost over, so I'm starting to feel better. I can start getting off of that drug induced medication high from too much Benadryl. But medicine head is a real thing and a real pain in the butt when you're trying to focus on work. So this episode, I want to talk about some ways to talk to your customers, some ways to work with them to get ideas of how you can help them. This is starting the conversation. The idea that sort of was the germ for this topic was the idea of like pitch parties. And there are there are definitely situations, there are events out there and things like that that are effectively that it may be like, you know, it may be something local. It may be like a venture capital group or something like that, where it's basically a hey, we're going to have a day or an event where you bring your ideas out, much like, you know, the the sharks on TV or something like that, where it's basically like, hey, you know, talk to us. What is it you need? And then we will, you know, we can help. Now, usually that's done from a venture capital kind of approach or, you know, maybe signing up for some sort of a program or something like that, like the co-starters that Michael has mentioned. But you can do that as part of your company. And I want to throw some ideas out there and we can sort of talk through a little bit of these on this episode. Now, one of the things is you could actually create a podcast or a blog that is an interview kind of format where you go and talk to either an existing or a prospective customer and just talk about what are their challenges. And you don't really have to do much in those other than just say, hey, here's some of the challenges. And maybe you wrap up that thing with a little five minute, like, here's some things that we could do or how we can work to move you forward. You could even make it like you could have a theme like I'm stuck podcast or something like that. That is you help somebody over. You're helping them over the hump. You're helping them through some barrier or some blocking thing with them. The other thing you can do is make it part of a meetup. It could be we've talked about meetups before and things like that, but it may be something where the whole point is that the meetup is almost like a support group of some sort where people come in and say, hey, I'm going to do this. Where people come in and they just say, hey, here's some things that we are struggling with because the elevator pitch that we've talked about is great for you to say, hey, I do this. What is more valuable is when your customers say, hey, I need this. If you can get that, then you can look at whether you're going to be able to solve that problem for you, for them, whether that makes sense. And it also may allow you to help them not directly, but by saying, hey, I know somebody that does this, that solves that problem. And then you get a little karma or whatever it is that you want to think of. You get a little bit of positive feedback because you helped somebody. Even if you didn't directly, you did help point them in the right direction, which is not a bad person to be. If you're a company, a person where people say, hey, if you go to this person or this company, they will either help you or they're also very good at helping you. Even if it's not directly of a benefit to them, then that makes you an expert in a field or something like that. That is definitely useful. It also allows you to show what working with you looks like. You sort of get to show off a little bit what your skills are, what you bring to the table. Now, this could be very specific. So it could be, and you can look out there, there are YouTube channels that are developers recording themselves writing code. That may sound like the most boring thing in the face of the earth to you, but to some people that is very valuable. And it does allow, particularly for that developer, it allows somebody that's a potential employer could say, oh, well, this is how this person thinks. This is how they solve this problem. Wow. They have solved this problem before. This happens to be a problem that we need to solve. There are a lot of opportunities now, particularly when you think of all of the, the YouTube's and blogs and podcasts and all the different things are out there. There are a lot of different forums for you to have those conversations. And so that's where I want you to like, you know, start thinking about instead of waiting for them to come to you is provide an opportunity for them to do so. And this could be things like, which are, some of them could be great charity events where it's things like, Hey, you get, you know, the best business idea wins, you know, 10 free hours of consulting or something like that. Or, you know, you can do things where you can make it more than just a meetup. You can make it an event. You can work with somebody like work with a small business group in your area and say, Hey, we want to, we're going to help small businesses move forward. We're going to help them get unstuck with the thing that they're working on. We want to help them get over the hump, or we want to help them, you know, take the first step, whatever your, your specialty is and have like something that's maybe it's a little contest and work with that local small business group and say, Hey, we're going to take, you know, the number one, the winner. We're going to, you know, as many people want to apply and then they're going to have this contest. And then the winner gets a free week of consultation or a free website or whatever your thing is that you, you know, a free product, whatever, or licenses for their company, whatever it is that you sell. Think about the idea of giving away stuff as more than just giving it away, but instead being something where it's like, you're not just, it's not just that one company that's receiving what you're giving. It's actually all of the other people in attendance. And now you're not, you're like, it's a little bit bragging about saying, Hey, look, I'm giving this something to this person and look how good I am. But it really is more about like, this is how we work with people and we are willing to give back. We are willing to work. And that allows other people to see it. It'll be like, wow, I like how you guys think. I like how Michael thinks. I want to hear your thoughts on this one. So I'm going to pivot. So you've touched on the podcast, the blogs, doing the elevator pitch, you know, talking to customers, giving them incentives to kind of pitch to them. I kind of want to tap into some other avenues that you could use to kind of perfect your pitch or do these pitch parties. And one of the things that I recently ran into a couple of years ago was my local, uh, the Co or it's like a, we work. It's a great place to go work, but also meet other business people, other business owners in your area and kind of get introduced yourself to them. You kind of get a feel for what type of businesses are in your area, who's running them. And they kind of already have established businesses. So sometimes that's a great way to figure out, okay, what is in my area that will, I can kind of tap into for my idea for the pitch. Am I going to be able to find customers in my area? The other thing is to go to your standard basics. You know, you've got the better business bureau, which is in almost every single state, city, whatever. They have a lot of networking meetings and things you can go to, can sign up for other things too, like your local chambers, your local small business ventures. A lot of them have these networking groups where it's good to go out and talk to people. It's not necessarily always the great way to pitch, but what's interesting is a lot of them give you the opportunity, give you the resources you need to create these pitch parties. So what you can do is through like the better business bureau, through the chamber, you host a small Ted talk or some talk on the topic that the problem you're trying to solve. Get the ideal people in front of you that you're trying to solve their problem. Walk through the problem, you know, how, you know, it affects your target customer. Walk through it and then get to how the problem is solved and get the feedback from your audience to say, Hey, is this what you're looking for? You know, you have hopefully the customer base in front of you that you can kind of do a Q&A session with them and figure out, you know, is your idea the right idea or are you off track? So that's another good way to kind of tweak your pitch there. Other things which you have to be a little more cautious of is social events, be it like Java, user groups, networking groups, things of that nature. Yes, those are great for networking and meeting, but be careful to go into a non or basically a new environment and just expect everyone to want to hear your idea. It takes a little bit of skill and patience to first introduce yourself, get a rapport with the person and then slowly bring in your what it is you do. Don't just start right off the top because you're going to basically freeze the room out and they're going to ask you to leave or by the end of the day, you'll be standing in the corner and being the only one drinking ginger ale. That being said, you just have to kind of read the room and be careful with that. Same goes with online social media. You know, TED Talks, Facebook, all those things are fine. But if you don't take the time to introduce yourself and get embedded in the channel first, you're going to come in as a spammer and people aren't going to listen to you and they're going to ask you to leave. So talking to people is what we need and what we want to do to figure out if our idea works. But you need to make sure that you're one, hitting the right target audience. Two, you're in the right situation. And three, are you reading the room? Are you really with people that you need to be talking about your ideas with? Or are you in a situation where maybe you pivot instead of talking about your pitch, you talk about, hey, how did you get your business going? You know, maybe turn it into a information gathering on how to grow my business or how to build up my idea without actually pitching your idea. What are your thoughts on that? I really think it does go down to it comes back to people buy from those that they know, they trust and you know, that that hear them that and that they like basically. And so it's not none of those three things, no trust and like have anything to do really with your pitch or the problem. No trust and like are all relationship words. Now, you may be unlikable, in which case you're out of luck. You better find a way to be likable. But the knowing and the trusting, as Michael said, like, you're not going to have somebody bust into a room and be like, hey, look at me. I'm awesome. It doesn't matter how awesome they are. You're not going to trust them. Like if the rock walks into a room, there is a presence and everybody knows that he's walked into the room, but you're not necessarily going to trust them right there because you don't know. You're just like, okay, he makes a, you know, I know who he is, but I may not even like that, but I, you know, I'm definitely not to the trust stage. So that's, I think where you want to go with these things is what, what really is, you know, the goal? What is it besides solving the problem is how can you as part of solving the problem, make that an enjoyable experience for them and then share that experience with them? And I think that's a great way to show that off to other people to be sort of like, Hey, look, this is, this is not scary or intimidating or, or anything like that. This is actually, we're going to make this maybe even a fun process solving your problem, but if not fun, but at least something where they're like, okay, I trust that approach. Sometimes that's it. I've definitely had customers that have said, you know, I don't know if this is in your wheelhouse, but I like working with you. So here's something else I want to, on a pitch. The other thing to do is you have to understand how to read the room. You know, it's, yes, it is about trust, but the other thing is you're trying to pitch your idea, but in the same token, you need to have the ability to switch that off and listen. To your customer because your solution to their problem may not be the solution and they're trying to tell you how to fix their problem. And you're not listening because you're so focused on how your solution will fix their problem. So there are times where you do need to step back and listen, not just pitch. And I think that's it is it's. It goes back to an ob. It goes back to there was, and I forget who it was, is there was somebody that was interviewed a couple of great people back almost a hundred years ago, probably. And they said there was one person when they talked to him that they felt like they were talking to the smartest person in the world. And the other person that they talked to made them feel like the listener was the smartest person in the world. And so I think that's those are two little nuggets of wisdom, basically. And something to consider is that. You know, you, you need to this goes back to the trust. It's like you can solve the problem, but you can solve it in such a over the top way that they're really just like, I love that you saw my problem, but I really just don't like working with you because it's uncomfortable in some way, form or fashion. So it does come back to it goes back to the relationship side of things is finding a way to make this. Like I said, if nothing else enjoyable, I mean, I do think that's a good thing. Like I said, if nothing else enjoyable, I mean, ideally enjoyable, but if nothing else, something that they're like, okay, this is worth the time. Thoughts? Yeah, I mean, we've covered kind of both sides of this, but at the end of the day, you need to get comfortable in your own skin, talking about your product, your solution to a problem. Pitching to people is the number one easiest way free advertisement, free information gathering to talk to people to get what you need or get the information you need. Other than just mining online useless websites or maybe not useless, but mining websites and static information that does not give you the emotion of how this problem impacts your end user or your customer. So. You're going to have to break out of your shell a little bit and get a little more social and go talk to people. And the last thing I'll note on this is. If you are just if you're not a company yet and you're just building an idea, be careful about the. Is this something you will buy versus buy now? Because if you're not talking to the right people, you may hear, oh, that's a wonderful idea, but they won't buy it. They'll tell you all day long that yeah, go for it, go build it, but they won't buy it. So make sure that your audience that you're talking to. Is the people that will buy the product to give you the feedback to their problems. I think I'm going to leave it at that and we'll move into the challenge. So the challenge this episode is to come up with an idea. Just sit there and kick back for a bit. Like what would be you do a little spend a little time brainstorming, whether it's just you, your team, your whoever it is, your drinking buddies, your poker people. I don't care. It's just like, you know, sit there and brainstorm a little bit ideas like how could we get some people together to talk about the business process? That are in the line of our ideal customers. Because I think just the exercise, even if you don't come up with a real good solution, I think it's a start. I think it's one of those things that we don't. I think most of us don't leverage that option often enough, and I think it's a really valuable challenge. So I know what the challenge would be. Send us an email at info at developer.com, because we would love to hear from you. This is we do this for you. I mean, we have a good time, but we also do this for you guys. And as always, you can reach us at an X. 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