Building before validating is how SaaS products fail – don’t be that person!
Proper validation is crucial because it can give you paying customers even before you have a final product.
You should learn to validate your idea to ensure you create something customers actually want.
This prevents wasting months or years building a product no one needs.
Unfortunately, many founders skip validating and rush straight into building, which leads to failure down the road.
The #1 reason is they get too attached to their initial idea and make dangerous assumptions about customer demand.
Other common reasons founders fail to validate effectively:
- Only getting surface level feedback from friends/family
- Not directly asking about willingness to pay
- No clear methodology for interviewing and synthesizing insights
- Fear that sharing ideas may lead to competitors stealing them
But I’m going to walk you through how to overcome these pitfalls so you can validate your SaaS idea the right way.
Through validation, you’ll gain certainty around who your customers are, what they want, and how much they’ll pay.
This will set you up for success when the time comes to build and launch your product.
Let’s go
Step 1: Identify your target customers
Identifying your target customers is crucial for validating product-market fit before you even build your SaaS.
You need to get crystal clear on
➡️ who your ideal customers are,
➡️ what challenges they face, and
➡️ what goals they’re trying to achieve.
This will ensure you build a product that actually solves real problems for real people.
Start by creating a few potential customer personas – give them a name, job title, responsibilities, pain points, and goals.
For example, you may create a persona like “Jenny the Finance Manager” who struggles with manual invoice processing and wants to optimize spending.
Then, use tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator to find people who match those personas and roles at companies you want to target.
You can filter by job title, company, industry, and more to build a list of your ideal customers.
Step 2: Reach out and Interview them
Many founders go wrong here by failing to actually reach out and interview potential users.
Some find it tedious,
Some consider it unimportant, and
Others are just shy to reach out to an unknown person
It’s easy to make assumptions from afar, but you need to directly engage with your customers.
The most effective way to validate your B2B SaaS idea is to conduct at least 20-30 interviews with people who match your target customer personas.
Start by crafting personalized outreach messages. Explain you’re working on a new product idea and would love their insights.
If you have a connection in common, ask for an introduction to increase response rates.
You can also leverage communities your targets belong to on platforms like Reddit, Facebook Groups, or Slack.
Join the groups, provide value, and then post requesting user interviews.
The key is tapping into networks and communities your ideal customers already spend time in.
Step 3: Ask about their pains and willingness to pay
The goal of your customer interviews is to truly uncover their challenges and problems.
Ask probing questions to understand frustrations they face in their day-to-day roles.
Then, get specific data around how much they’d be willing to pay for a solution.
For example, ask how much time or money a solution could save them or their company.
Probe on what return on investment would justify a purchase.
This way you can calculate potential revenue and model unit economics before you invest heavily in building your SaaS.
Asking the right questions will reveal if your business model is viable or if you need to rethink your idea entirely.
Don’t leave this crucial step until after you’ve built your solution.
Step 4: Develop your first paying customer
Getting your first paying customer is huge, let me tell you why.
When you’re just starting out, having an actual user who pays for your SaaS is like striking gold. It shows you’ve built something people want.
Here’s how to make it happen:
Use what you learned talking to potential users to build something simple that solves a real pain point for one of them.
Don’t overload it with features, just nail the most important stuff.
Offer your first user a sweet deal if needed, you want them on board as your design partner. Move fast to close them so you’ve got revenue coming in.
Ask them for a case study and testimonial in return for a gift card or something.
People love to talk about themselves so they’ll be glad to help.
Plaster their story everywhere – your website, sales materials, etc. Social proof is everything in building trust and credibility.
Now you can tell other potential users “Hey, Company XYZ uses us and loves it, just read their story!” Way more powerful than just saying you have a great idea.
One Last Thing: This is the exact method VendorSage used to grow their SaaS Procurement & Optimization tool into $12K ARR in only 3 months by doing their B2B SaaS validation properly.
Wrapping Up
Talking to real potential users is crucial when it comes to building a B2B SaaS.
Create customer personas so you know who to target. Reach out and set up interviews – over 20 is best.
In interviews, dig into their pains and problems. Ask if they’d pay for a solution – get specifics on pricing.
Use insights to build a simple MVP that kills their biggest pain point. Offer a sweet deal to close your first customer fast.
Get a case study and testimonial from them in exchange for a gift card or something.
Blast their success story everywhere to attract more users with social proof.
Boom!
Validated idea, happy reference customer, and credibility to land more deals.
Now you can build something people actually want and make that $$$!
That’s it for today.
See you next week.