Where To Start When You Are Building A Customer Pipeline

While building your customer pipeline for product conversations, start with your current customers. You can also start with companies considering your products. Existing customers, who have already invested in your product portfolio, might be more inclined to give you time compared to a prospect. It might also be easier to get a legal non-disclosure agreement signed from a current customer. Some of your current customers may already have a non-disclosure agreement with you. But do not rely only on current customers.

In order to get around 10-15 customers you will need to start with a much bigger list of customers. Aim for about two hundred target customers. As your product hypothesis evolves, the list of potential customers will shrink considerably. Also, customers are normally busy running their own businesses. Not everyone is going to agree to share their time. Customers may decline the engagement for any number of reasons. So start with a long list of customers and expect the list to shrink rapidly.

Talk to experienced product managers in your team. Normally product managers have good working relationships with many customers. Rely on that relationship to build your customer pipeline. Another good approach is  to team up with colleagues from the sales or pre-sales teams. Sales teams sometimes will have a need to showcase future innovation to customers and prospects. These are good opportunities to extend an invitation to customers to participate in product conversations. Mastering your network is necessary to develop a healthy customer pipeline.

You cannot afford to be picky in the beginning. Starting with a mind set of “any customer is a valid customer” is good. Adjust the target customer description as your hypothesis and product evolves. You need to explain this approach to your colleagues in the product team to avoid a disconnect.