Step-by-Step Instructions

Click worksheet to print it out.

In this exercise we're going to talk about how you ask customers for interviews, and you'll put together an action plan for conducting yours!

Problems it Solves

• Unsure how to ask?

If you're unsure how to ask for an interview, this exercise will teach you exactly how to do it.

• Increase your conversion rate

This exercise will teach you how to increase the number of people who actually say "yes" when you ask for an interview.

• Give yourself a timeline

In this exercise, you will outline a timeline that will help you keep yourself accountable and make sure that you get them done.

How to Ask

You're going to learn two different ways to reach out to your customers:

1. Cold Contacts
2. In-Person

Before we move on, I want to mention why I would not recommend using "introductions" from friends and colleagues to get interviews.

While interviews via introduction are low hanging fruit and easy to access, it's very rare that the person you are being introduced to is actually in your channel - in other words, it's unlikely they're an Early Adopter.

Let's say you wanted to sell something to AT&T, and you have a friend that could introduce you to a friend who works at AT&T. What are the chances that the person they are introducing you to also just happens to be the person with the problem you are trying to solve. Very, very slim.

Don't be tempted by the warm intro. Make sure your interviews are with your real Early Adopters.

An interview with someone who is not in your segment is worse than no interview at all, because it is likely to lead you down the wrong path.

The second reason not to pursue an introduction is that a person's willingness to have a discussion with you about the problem, is a very good indicator of whether this is a real problem or not.

If it's a real problem, even a complete stranger will be eager to tell you about it.

If someone is giving you an interview as a favor to someone else (e.g. the person who introduced the two of you), you'll be talking to people who aren't "paying" to solve the problem - it's not a good use of your time.

Even if you can get an interview more easily through a warm intro, you won't have the benefit of being able to use these interview requests to collect data on the weight of the problem, or gauge how eager your customers are to solve it.

Caveat: if you can get an introduction to a person that is "paying" to solve the problem, go for it. Just be honest with yourself.

Cold Contacts

Now that you understand the downsides of warm intros, let's talk about cold contacts.

Cold contacts usually mean reaching out through such forums as:

• Email
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Phone calls
• Etc.

When reaching out through these avenues, it is important that you follow 3 Rules:

Rule #1: Your message has to be personal.

Let's look at an example of an email I received recently.

At first, it got my attention because it has the name of my website in the subject. He introduced himself which is nice. However, by the time I reach the second sentence, "Your website is perfect for posting my client's Sponsor post." I know that this is a generic email and he has lost my interest.

However, it would have been so easy for "Duane" to capture and keep my interest. All he would have had to do is mention something personal; for example:

"Hi my name is Duane. I found your website and I particularly liked your post about How to Interview Customers."

This would have told me that he was reaching out to me specifically and would have been much more likely to illicit a response.

Something as simple as including a personal detail will highly increase your conversion rate. In poor Duane's case, I marked him as SPAM. Don't be a Duane.

When you're asking for interviews, there's a very fine line between unsolicited emails (SPAM) and reaching out to your future customers.

By including something personal to show why you are reaching out to them specifically, you are much less likely to be pegged as an unwanted solicitor and much more likely to get a response.

Rule #2: Keep your email short.

We've all received the epic email explaining every last detail about someone's next endeavor...and we've all not read them. Here's a 5 Sentence Cold Email formula I use to keep my emails short and to the point:

1. A sentence about them that shows you've taken the time to learn something about them
2. A sentence about both of you that shows how you are tied together
3. A sentence about what you're doing that vaguely explains the problem you're trying to solve
4. A sentence about what you're offering to them; not a tangible goodie, but rather a hint that you can solve their problem
5. Make the ask for their time for an interview

Let's look at an example:

In my example I did a few things that I recommend you imitate. First, I linked to a specific article that I liked from Sam's website. Second, I let her know that I was inspired by what I read and it got me thinking, showing a connection between us.

I mentioned my software company and that I am trying to solve the problem of "remote coding" but I did not delve into how.

Most importantly, I made sure to say "I'm not looking to sell anything", but I do want to learn from her expertise. The idea here is that I want to be clear, the phone call I'm asking for a sales call - because it's not. The call I'm asking for is simply to better understand her problems.

Finally, I made a very specific ask for time, including some possible dates to get the ball rolling.

"I'm not looking to sell anything, but I would love to get your advice."

Rule #3: Be valuable.

You will be most successful if you can be valuable to the person you are contacting. How might their life improve if they take the time to talk to you?

In my example, there are two ways that I am proposing my value.

First, I am offering to make Sam's job easier. Presumably, I have contacted this person because it is their job to do remote medical coding. In my email, I specifically mention "trying to improve remote medical coding". If this is a problem Sam has, our conversation could be very valuable.

Second, I pointing out Sam's expertise and experience. Not only does it feel good to be recognized as an expert, but many people enjoy talking about their expertise and experience to help others. In this email, I am giving Sam an opportunity to use what she knows to help others, and prevent me from building something that would not be helpful to people like her.

Notice, I have not offered money or gifts for talking to me. I am offering a chance to talk about her problems and share her expertise.

I have used a very similar email to get a response rate of upwards of 50%. Don't worry if yours does not get that high. Remember from the last exercise, 30% is your goal.

Different Platform? Same Rules.

Cold contacts work similarly no matter how you're contacting someone (e.g. Facebook message, LinkedIn, phone call, Twitter, etc.). Here's an example of a cold contact format in less than 140 characters:

Again, I've mentioned something personal about her tattoo, mentioned I'm trying to help kids on the Autism Spectrum, and asked for her expertise to make sure I'm building something helpful. Different platform, same format.

In-Person Interviews

If instead of getting interviews via cold contacts you plan to meet your customers in person, here are some tips to help you get more productive interviews there.

Rule#1: Go where people are waiting.

You've probably been approached by folks with clipboards on busy street corners. You can see them from 50 feet away and immediately start looking very busy to avoid them.

Don't be like the clipboard people.

Instead, go to where people are bored. When people are waiting, you may actually be a relief to them, some type of entertainment.

Places I go where people are often waiting with nothing else to do:

• Public transit stations (subway stops, bus stops, etc.)
• Airport baggage claims, rental car van pickup lanes
• Long lines (e.g. new iPhone lines, new movie premier lines, etc.)
• Sporting events parking lots

Again, go to where people are waiting, not where they are walking or trying to get somewhere.

For example, I had a friend who was working on a startup related to indie films. We were talking about doing customer development and he mentioned the San Francisco Film Festival was in town. When we realized the opportunity, we immediately dropped what we were doing, got into the car and went to down to the festival and literally interviewed the people waiting in line to get into the Film Festival. We did more than 100 interviews that day.

Rule #2: Bring props.

The right prop can make you just a little more trustworthy than the random person on the street.

Meet Josh:

Josh might freak you out if he approached you on the street. He looks a little like the Joker.

Then Josh bought half a dozen roses.

Now, walking around with a bouquet of flowers, he looks a lot more friendly. Not only did Josh have more success approaching people for interviews, he actually had a few women call out to him asking if the flowers were for them.

In another example, I was once targeting frequent travelers, so I took the subway to the airport. As I rode the train and walked the baggage claim area interviewing customers, I rolled a suitcase behind me. Since I looked like any normal traveler, I had more confidence talking to people, and they had more confidence talking to me.

Care to guess what was in my confidence-building suitcase?  That's right...not a thing.

Let's Ask for Interviews

Start with your worksheet from the Interview Channel Costing exercise.

You should have identified your primary interview channel, as well as one or two backups, just in case the first does not pan out.

Now get out your 5-Interview Timeline worksheet.

Step 1

Write in your Early Adopter Segment and your Hypothesized Problem in the spaces provided.

Step 2

Here, you will write in your Primary Interview Channel. If you're just starting out, I recommend focusing on just one channel at a time. If you're feeling hardcore, add a second channel to acquire interviews.

In my example, I've plugged in my top two winners from the previous exercise: my blog readers and Lean Startup Machine Facebook group members.

Now, this time you will write in the date by which you will:

• Request 30 interviews
• Schedule 10 interviews
• Conduct 5 interviews

You can use your previous worksheet to help you estimate your timelines.

In my example, I am actually making a commitment to go pursue both channels simultaneously. While I wait for my blog readers to reply to my request for interviews, I'll be doing the work to ask the LSM Facebook group members for interviews.

Step 3

From this point forward, we will always have a backup plan. This is very important to help you know exactly what to do in case one of your primary options fails or turns out to be different than you expected.

In my case, I'm putting in Lean Startup LinkedIn group members. Here, I'm saying that if I can't meet my goals of getting 5 interviews with my blog readers by 8/19 or I can't get 5 interviews from Lean Startup Machine Facebook group members by 8/22, I'm going to move on to my backup plan and start contacting Lean Startup LinkedIn group owners.

What's Next

There you have it!

Now you have a timeline to request your interviews, schedule them and conduct them.

Let's recap what we did in this exercise:

• You now know all the rules for asking for an interview.
• You now know how to increase your conversion rate by making your cold contacts personal, short and valuable.
• You've identified 2 - 4 channels to get your interviews.
• And you have a timeline to hold yourself accountable and get those interviews done.

Next up, you'll learn what to actually ask during your interviews!