7. Alcohol and the telephone are
great tools to test your value
proposition.
You will learn whether your value
prop is shareable and can be
memorable.
4
8. VCs, industry bloggers,
journalists and market
analysts are fast-tracks to
understanding markets.
They have an horizontal -
broad - view of the market.
5
9. Annual reports can tell you if a
company has an early adopter
mindset.
What can you
learn from a ļ¬nancial ?
6
10. Your story - or the story of
your founding team - can help
get you through the doors of
enterprises.
Britelynx founder, Pete Lalancette, was a military
helicopter pilot for 21 years before starting up.
Wouldnāt you be curious to meet him?
7
12. The early adopters that get the
new iPhones are not the same
people that go and try the new
coffee shop. - Brant Cooper, Lean Author
Being an early adopter is not
a personality type.
9
ā
13. Meeting people in their work
environment can sometimes
lead to great insights.
Interviewing IT professionals, Jason Cohen noticed certain
magazines on the desk of his prospects. When his product
was ready, he advertised in that magazine to great success.
10
14. Finding where your prospects
gather for pleasure or for work
can signiļ¬cantly increase your
odds of success.
Where do IT executives
go to network?
11
15. Proximity to customers is key. Moving
in with them can be a great idea.
Having development teams at client ofļ¬ces,
helps you discover customer pains, context of
use, stakeholders, underlying needs and
enterprise reality.
12
16. In the long run, the people that
seek problems out-perform
the people that seek solutions.
Drs. Jacob Getzels and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
proved this theory by following the career of
professional artists for over 2 decades.
13
17. To win, your solution must be
at least 2 times faster, 2 times
better and 2 times cheaper
than the known alternatives.
14
ā
Value (Actual
or Perception
of)
=
Risk
(Perception of)
Implementation
Score
18. ... though rarely perceived as a
competitor, Excel is almost
always an actual competitor
for software startups.
ā
- Joshua Porter, HubSpot Director of UX
If you can't beat the Excel solution,
your product will never be a success.
15
19. Frequency is about the worst way
to pick a problem to address.
Cables have been getting tangled up all over the world for
decades ā itās a very common problem ā but very few people
would pay to have that pain removed.
16
20. To keep your focus, sometimes
itās best to turn down paying
customers.
You wonāt convince large enterprises to sign with
you if all your customers are tech startups.
17
21. You can generate revenue and
still fail. If revenue is the ļ¬rst form of
validation in B2B, (user)
engagement is the ultimate form.
18
22. 93% of products that ultimately
became successful started off in
the wrong direction.
ā
- Clayton Christensen, Innovation Author
Company pivots are a lot more
common than people would think.
19
23. The average age of successful
B2B founders is 40.
20
Not 19, 25, 28 or 32
(Source: Vivek Wadhwa).
24. The average number of attempts
needed to make a sale is eight to ten.
If youāre trying to reach C-level
executives it's 12 to 14.
21
Persistence is key.
26. Nobody ever got ļ¬red for
buying IBM...
ā
...said the IBM marketing team
22
27. The CIA has its own
investment fund.
In-Q-Tel is slowly becoming the stamp
of approval for technologies secure
enough for government agencies.
23
28. You should never optimize
before product-market ļ¬t.
With time on your side,
everything can be improved.
24
29. Ā«This is a must read for every B2B entrepreneur, SaaS creator or
consultant and business school student. It's the kind of book you
don't read once, you go back to it on a regular basis. Ā» - Carmen
Gerea, CEO & Co-founder, UsabilityChefs
Ā«Treat this book like a map to show you where you are and a
compass to show you the direction. I wish I could have read it 2
or 3 years ago. Ā» ā Jonathan Gebauer, Founder, exploreB2B
Ā« Lean B2B is ļ¬lled with rock-solid advice for technology
entrepreneurs who want a rapid-growth trajectory. Read it to
increase your certainty and your success rate. Ā» - Jill Konrath,
Author of AGILE SELLING and Selling to Big Companies
Ā«The book I read of which I have learned the most. Ā» - Etienne
Thouin, Founder and CTO, SQLNext Software
Ā«This book is essential reading for would-be entrepreneurs who
face the daunting task of entering B2B markets. Ā» ā Paul Gillin,
Co-Author, Social Marketing to the Business Customer
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