Ask HN: Did your Potential Customers ghost out on you?

[ammaramehdghani]

Hi,

Seeking your expert opinion on a situation where you built a product after performing market research on 6 potential customers and once you complete the MVP and go back to them for feedback, they love the product but it's very hard to convert them into customers only because they don't have the authority to use the software on their own? Let me tell you it's a B2B SaaS tool for enterprises. They are also reluctant to introduce you to the management. My head spins on such situation. Please share your experiences and advice.

Thank You.

[elmerfud]

And this is the situation when you talk to people about what they need but they're not actually in the power to make any decisions. I'm not sure what your product is but often times asking potential customers about what they want it's not a great way to make a product because people tend to only think in the terms that they already know. The best products are ones that reimagine a situation. The even better products learn from someone else's reimagination and do it better.

So in this situation I would say you wildly misjudged who your customer actually was. Because the people you're talking to aren't your customer and they aren't even potential customers. We can know this fact because they don't have any decision making power and they are also not in a position where they believe they could even recommend a product to their management.

If you believe that you have a viable product that solves a problem in the industry and it is good enough to present to someone you presented to the management directly. The key thing is getting your thing in front of decision makers and having it be something the decision makers can understand. This may mean you need a bit more polish or you may need to collaborate with someone who is better at sales and marketing. That's really your next step if you have something that you believe will solve a problem. Alternatively you could reach out to more technical people who are comfortable bringing this up to their management chain and getting it in front of real decision makers.

[ammaramehdghani]

For most part, you completely understood my situation. As far as product is concerned, I spoke with those people who would be actually using it not the decision makers. Implementing the product is in the hands of management. I had an idea before reaching out to the customers but I took a pivot considering their needs as they are the ones using it. The management would take the product if it gives them business.

The product I created is a tool for recruiters to speed up their recruitment process by automating all the manual work done by them. The ones I spoke with before making the MVP loved the product and recommended more features that would help them. But selling it to them is hard as they are not the decision makers. May be I suck at sales or the way I am approaching them is not right.

[talldayo]

> Let me tell you it's a B2B SaaS tool for enterprises.

Do you have any security compliance certifications? If you're not at least SOC2-certified, you're not going to get "enterprise" market penetration in the first place.

[ammaramehdghani]

Not Yet. Its an MVP right now. Even to get a demo call with enterprise, do I need that certification?

[talldayo]

Do you want to pitch demos, or do you want to sell software? I'll repeat myself, enterprises don't buy stuff unless it's certified to the standard they promise to their customers. SOC2 isn't the only compliance you'll need but it's definitely not the last. Enterprises have much higher standards than the small-time customers you might have imagined dealing with. If you're not already thinking about getting a security audit, you're not prepared for enterprise customers.

[ammaramehdghani]

Actually I would go into that thing once I demo it to enterprises and they want the software. If I am able to lock one deal, I would get into this certification thingy as it is costly and time consuming. Do you have an enterprise software or did you go through the same path as I am right now? If yes, I would really want to know how you landed your first customer as it would be super helpful for me. Appreciate your insights.

[craxdevil7]

SOC2 is not a certification, it is a report. Here's soc2 explained in simple terms: https://medium.com/@confusedcyberwarrior/what-is-soc2-how-to...

[gnabgib]

There are several parts of that article that are wrong.. that's not what the acronym SOC[0] stands for, for example. And while, the result of a SOC2 audit is a report, and it's primarily from the financial industry (not the security industry) - SOC2 is an audit and not a report.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_and_Organization_Contro...

[craxdevil7]

The link you provided for Wikipedia, even that says SOC means System and Organization, and also in brackets it is also known as Service Organization.

Regarding the rest of your comment:

- SOC2 Report: While it is true that SOC2 audits result in a report, it's important to clarify that the SOC2 framework was indeed developed by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and is primarily focused on the security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of a service organization’s systems. This makes it highly relevant to the security industry, even if it has roots in the financial industry.

- Audit vs. Report: The SOC2 process involves an audit where an external auditor assesses the controls in place. The outcome of this audit is a detailed report that evaluates how well an organization meets the trust service criteria. So, saying "SOC2 is an audit and not a report" is somewhat misleading, as the audit process culminates in the generation of the SOC2 report.

I hope this clarifies any confusion.

[ammaramehdghani]

Could you please guide if I need SOC 2 audit before I lock a customer? Right now I don't have any. It doesn't feel right to spend this much money and time on something without having the surety that someone one would become a customer after it is SOC 2 compliant. Thanks

[ammaramehdghani]

Thank You for sharing this. Appreciate it.