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  2. Direct approach or Recommendation?

Direct approach or Recommendation?

Shalin Doshi
16 replies
Hey guys, I wanted to understand from you'll what would you prefer? Directly approaching the client or going via recommendations/referrals. Because in a recent conversation with a sales team, I found out the biggest hassle was cold calling and approaching customers, if there was a referral system, things would have become easier!

Replies

Ezzat Suhaime
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I’d say it depends on who your main users are (businesses or consumers) and what stage your product is in. If you’re tailoring towards businesses, then approaching the client is probably the more effective method. This is also the case if you’re consumer-facing but also are very early stage. But if you’re product is decently well known and developed, then you can take a more passive referral-based system.
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Shalin Doshi
@ezzat I feel anyway referrals works better than directly approaching, because approaching directly is a time consuming process. People are shy to ask for help or referrals when it comes to business. What's your take?
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Ezzat Suhaime
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@shalin_doshi Choosing your approach should be based on data. Reaching out to customers is not and shouldn’t be a one size fits all process. Hey, an approach might be time consuming but that’s part of the hustle :]
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Shalin Doshi
@ezzat But if there is a solution to make the hustle easy, what's the harm? I believe in working smart
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Kazimieras Melaika
The referral system is the go-to to bring users/customers! Reaching out straight to a possible user might seem to desperate and probably would just make them never try your product. Btw, we’re launching in the mid of June. Check out our upcoming PH page: www.producthunt.com/upcoming/eff... Our project is called: Effecto. It’s an app for detailed habits, health, symptoms, and meds tracking. Pretty much for everything that is related to your physical or mental health and every daily factor that can affect you.
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Shalin Doshi
@kmelaika hey, nice concept. We have created a group on slack which allows you to find the contact details of any person in a particular company by just asking in the group. Also, this is the product we are working on currently https://www.producthunt.com/post...
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Sergio Zaciu
in my experience, referrals work far more effectively for literally everything (from sales, to hiring, to investor relations, and much more)
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Shalin Doshi
@szaciu That's true, would you be interested in joining a group where you can find a contact of any person in a particular company?
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Shruti
It all comes to personal preferences at the end of the day, but in my opinion recommendations are more effective
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Shalin Doshi
@shruti_s what’s the personal personal preference in this case?
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Shruti
@shalin_doshi as I said depends person to person, I prefer recommendations, sounds genuine and more trustable
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