Asking for commitments once you have a product finished can be a good way to cut through [[bad data]] and [[false positives]] - at the end of the day, actions speak louder than words when it comes to money. Moving the relationship to this stage is called “advancement”. They’ll either move forward or make it clear that they’re not a customer. Both are good learning data points. Failure to push for advancement ends up with “zombie leads” - potential customers/investors who keep taking meetings and saying nice things, but never take any real action. The startup friend zone. Especially in enterprise, you can get really accurate signals from prospect clients like this. It’s harder with consumer products since customer conversations don’t imitate the purchase process as much ## Symptoms being in the startup friend zone - Lots of zombie leads - [[Post Product Meetings]] that end with compliments - Product meetings that end with no clear next step - Meetings which “went well” - They haven’t given anything of value ## Definitions Commitment They’re showing they’re serious by giving up something they value like time reputation or money Advancement They’re moving to the next step of your real-world funnel and getting closer to purchasing. **Customers who keep being friendly but aren’t ever going to buy are a particularly dangerous source of mixed signals** **The more they give up, the more seriously you can take their validation** ## The types of commitments Commitments show that they’re giving something up in order to pursue your product. That’s valuable. A compliment costs nothing and therefore is worthless. ### Time commitment - Clear next meeting with known goals - Sitting down to give feedback on wireframes - Using a trial of the product for a non trivial period ### Reputation risk - Intro to peers or team - Intro to a decision maker (boss, spouse, lawyer) - Giving a public testimonial or case study ### Financial commitments - Letter of intent - Pre-order - Deposit Strong commitments will be a combination of these things. **The more they’re giving up, the more seriously you can take what they’re saying.** ## Good commitment statements - What are the next steps? - Usually a good sign - signals it’s time to move on to [[Asking for commitments]] - Thinking or checking with the team are not good next steps on their end, and can be bad signs of a [[false positives|False positive]] - When can we start the trial? - Maybe a good meeting - More like a “when can we start” which is good, but you need to nail down what they’re willing to give up to actually try it, if they pay or spend nothing to try it, you don’t know the [[Truth]] of whether or not it’s something they’re really interested in - Ask them for more commitmen - A case study after 2 weeks of using it - Use it with their entire team for at least a week - Can take their credit card # and charge them nothing if they cancel within 30 days - Can I buy the prototype? - Great! One of the best conclusions but only rarely heard. - When can you come back to talk to the rest of the team? - Good! If they won’t introduce you to their team which risks their reputation, chances are it’s a dead end ## Bad commitment statements - That’s so cool. I love it! - Compliment and obvious fluff, a clear [[false positives|False positive]] - Looks great. Let me know when it launches - Compliment + stalling tactic. Basically “Don’t call me I’ll call you”. - Does NOT count as a pre order. - Try to fish for something to ask that they’ll think twice about giving you, i.e an intro to his team, boss, or shareholder - - I would definitely buy that - While there’s possibly some good signal here, it’s a huge [[false positives|False positive]] signal - Try and convert fuzzy future promises into actionable commitments - I.e asking for a letter of intent, a pre purchase, or deposit - There are a couple of people I can introduce you to when you’re ready - Good eventually, bad in its bare form - Fluffy offer unless it works - it’s a worthless signal - To fix, try to convert it into something concrete - Why can’t they make the intro right now? What does “Ready” mean? -