B2B Founders Can't Reach Their Buyers
Founders building B2B products struggle significantly with customer acquisition and market validation. Reaching target users, particularly Heads of Departments and engineering teams, proves exceptionally difficult, resulting in low response rates and hindering the ability to validate product-market fit. This challenge spans various industries and necessitates exploring alternative outreach strategies.
SOURCES (60)
“The "nothing to sell" line is smart, people can usually smell a pitch coming even when it's dressed up as a question. What's your reply rate actually like with this?”
“Okay here is the problem. I tricked you a little bit. You are under the impression that messaging customers is about explaining what's in your head about how your product works. SaaS customers do not want to buy products. They do not enjoy collecting them like Pokemon cards. Products are necessary evils that solve problems. Explaining your product only pops up more questions. And now I'm stuck examining you trying to sell me something instead of going on about my business. I'm a cust”
“B2B SaaS, ~5 years in, competing against an entrenched incumbent. We spent about a year building to their feature matrix because that's what procurement kept handing us. Went back through our win/loss notes recently. Three things: Parity removes an objection. It doesn't create a reason to switch. We kept treating "we're no longer disqualified" as progress. It gets you to the next call and nothing more. Every deal we won, we won on something not on the matrix. Buyers who fel”
“I'm the CEO of a B2B DaaS startup (first time founder). We just demoed our product in its beta state (the beta is more the platform than the data itself) for the first time to a lead, and he's been really engaged with it. It feels like he would be willing to pay for the product after the demo, but I'm scared of having the pricing conversation. I have a price in my head based on what I know of the business I'm pitching to, and I plan to give offers to the lead given they're su”
“I'm the CEO of a B2B DaaS startup (first time founder). We just demoed our product in its beta state (the beta is more the platform than the data itself) for the first time to a lead, and he's been really engaged with it. It feels like he would be willing to pay for the product after the demo, but I'm scared of having the pricing conversation. I have a price in my head based on what I know of the business I'm pitching to, and I plan to give offers to the lead given they're su”
“The original agency proved that the workflow exists, but not yet that other agencies feel enough urgency to switch. Before finding a salesperson, I would interview several agency owners about how they currently manage the same process and what it costs them. Where do your cold conversations fail: getting a response, earning a demo, or converting after they see it?”
“What's the right balance between building vs. marketing/sales? I'm trying to build a b2b ai tool (like most people these days), but I can't figure out how to balance the build vs. market/talking to customers? And is there any tool that helps manage that (not just one aspect, but combined)? submitted by /u/gosolozero [link] [comments]”
“The B2B version of this mostly breaks on who holds the card. The high-intent moments are real in deep-domain products, year-end close, a migration, an audit deadline, but the person feeling the urgency usually can't authorise a purchase, and a surprise line item lands on procurement weeks later. Closest thing I've seen is intent showing up as expansion inside the contract: extra environments, priority attention during a rollout. Same spike, except it turns into a negotiation instead of a”
I engage people in conversations, business flows quite naturally
“I’m a UK founder building a healthcare privacy workflow product for US healthcare organisations. The product is built and working, and I’m now focused on getting the first paying customers and developing a repeatable sales process. I’m looking to connect with someone who has genuine experience selling healthcare SaaS in the US, particularly into physician groups, practices, health systems or similar healthcare providers. Ideally, I’m looking for someone who can own the full sales cycle, includin”
Having emailed and contacted numerous “buyers” or people “in charge” without much response, I wonder how people connect to eg the right people at fashion retail stores (Popcorn / IT / J01…
“I took me 2 years from process mapping through launching low code mvp to full code development. For co text I met some extras casting agency (film industry) owner through my friend I got to talk to him about his problems with excel tracking and other stuff. I sent some time convincing him that the problem could be solved end to end. I developed AppSheet mvp and sold it to him for cash. Not a lot but I was happy and convinced that it works. I don't charge him for maintenance he just payed me”
“Hey guys, I’m doing cold outreach. What should my first text be? Should I use a “foot-in-the-door” message that asks about their problems with no pitch, or should I directly pitch the product with a structured problem statement followed by the solution? Which approach should I go with? Edit: adding how both of them are structured: is it same for Both cold email and LinkedIn dm ? Hey Kevin, I genuinely want to know is it really true that an X can take 4+ hours to get it done, between finding the”
“Yes excellent addition. Agility and filling gaps that large enterprises don't care about is a great way to penetrate markets and then expand later.”
“In B2B marketing the best option also depends on your resources, expertise, product category, and goals. For example if you are a team based in India and you want to sell your product to the US market because it is bigger it's going to be harder because you don't have the same understanding of the audience nor do you have the same level of resources that your competitors based in the US have. Another example of you could be going after a market because it is bigger and has more competito”
“the competitor copying thing is scary real. even if you dont post numbers, just showing your positioning and messaging teaches them what resonates. people underestimate how much of marketing is just watching what already works for someone else. the audience mismatch is also underdiscussed. followers from founder twitter are great for encouragement but terrible for revenue. they are there to learn, not to buy.”
“Neither is strong enough as written. “Save your teams more than 100 hours” is an unproven spreadsheet promise, while “£3,000 to £6,000” makes the buyer do the math and invites skepticism. Lead with the decision your tool improves: “Know which competitor moves deserve a response before your next planning cycle.” Then make the quantified saving supporting proof, not the headline. I’d test two versions against the same narrow ICP, but measure qualified conversations or paid trials, not clicks. Also”
“Ask them to send you the actual file they work off. A planner's timeline spreadsheet or their client checklist tells you more in ten minutes than an interview does, because you can see which columns get filled in properly and which ones they gave up on halfway through the season. I collected four of those before building anything for restaurants and two had the same hand made column for the same problem.”
“I work for a company that relies heavily on govt funding, and 90% of my initial communication with them is via email. If you were me and wanted to stand out and do something differently, how would you engage them? submitted by /u/jmshdsth88 [link] [comments]”
“Start small. One ICP, ~50 verified emails, one real reason to reply. Scale after the first conversations, not before.”
“in a ~100k uk town this is more door-knocking than twitter. the clients are trades/cafes/clinics sitting on a 2014 wordpress or just a facebook page. lead with "youre losing calls because X" (slow site, no booking button, not on maps) plus a screenshot mock of THEIR page. if you open with AI + supabase + row level security they bounce. the 100k/mo agency numbers youre seeing are almost never local web work. local is a handful of 800-2500 pound jobs, and a retainer only if you also hand”
“Pick partners for the accounts they already sell into rather than their size. Credibility transfers at the account level and not at the brand level. If you need visible presence to back the sales motion AdQuick makes buying a few boards near those accounts simple. One reference customer who takes a call still beats all of it.”
“Ask the school for its vendor-security questionnaire before the next demo. Complete it against the current system. Map what data enters and leaves. State how long it is kept and who owns support. Add the incident contact. That turns a vague trust concern into a list of controls the buyer can review. Run the first demonstration with synthetic or teacher-created records. Move to student data only after the school has approved the written handling process and knows who responds when something goes”
“I have a product, security review approved. I’m not here to plug but am looking for folks who have gone down this path before. What have you done from a direct/co-sell point of view; what marketing is useful; how have you maintained a product focus without being bogged down in implementation? Greatly appreciate various perspectives on the above and any other insight you wish you had day zero. Happy to tell anyone the product but, again, this is not a plug. Just looking for others’ thoughts and e”
“Whats been your most effective channel for getting the word out about your business? Ive found that for industrial services, old-school methods like trade shows and industry magazines still outperform digital by a mile. Its just a different world.”
“I learned alot from the clients who pulled away and it's made me very wary of dedicating too much time to building b2b again. This project was pitched as a partnership by the first client who then brought the second client in....then it went sour. But, I learned and move on”
“I've pivoted to a completely different market where the client leads just would not follow. I'm most comfortable in b2c and whilst it doesn't have the recurring revenue, reputation and trust count. I built my first business largely on this”
“So right. I never had any real success with b2b as it's just so hard to get the clients to get the cash out. Maybe there is a way, I just never managed to figure it out.”
“I read a lot of posts here from people who shipped something and got nothing back. The advice in the comments is nearly always some version of "market it harder". I'm interested in what people actually did next, not what they were advised to do. Just drop the number. If none of the six fit, say what you did in the comments. I pushed harder on marketing or distribution I wrote it out properly for myself (ie user stories, requirements, a spec) I moved on to a different project I went”
“Building a B2B service can indeed feel like a repetitive grind, especially when you're trying to establish those crucial initial connections. It sounds like your process for Tolvra was thorough, but don't let the initial outreach hurdles discourage you. Stealth Agents can assist by taking on some of the legwork, like CRM management or client follow-ups, freeing you up to refine your approach and handle more strategic tasks. With over 10–15 years of expertise, we tailor support to your sp”
“Im also operating in a country and niche within that country where we now dominate, but Im limited by the ultimate market size. We unsuccessfully tried to sidestep into some other markets and business es. We will, we just haven’t succeeded yet.. Right now we have a new one up and running and it looking very strong so far. We have 100 plus waitlist on a $3k plus service at the end of week two. This one can go international eventually. Im confident I can 10x but we just haven’t achieved the step c”
“Key is to make it easy for people to buy from you. Give them a price they can’t say no to and then deliver something awesome.”
I'm legit trapped, I've built a pretty good B2B product (in my opinion of course :DD ) And now since I have literal -10 experience in this type of sales, I need…
“So I'm curious, where did you decide to focus on to get more traffic for your tool?”
“Hi r/IndianEntrepreneur , I'm a developer from Salem, Tamil Nadu, and I've been talking to electrical distributors and small manufacturers in my area about their biggest operational challenges. What I've learned: - Most distributors have ₹1-3 crore outstanding across 200+ customers - Average payment delay: 60-90 days (vs 30-45 day credit terms) - They're using Tally + Excel + WhatsApp to track everything - No visibility into which customers are high-risk until it's too late T”
I'm legit trapped, I've built a pretty good B2B product (in my opinion of course :DD ) And now since I have literal -10 experience in any type of marketing or sales…
“The trust problem here isn't your age, it's the size of the commitment you're asking for. nobody signs a contract handling student data with a solo college founder, but plenty of admins will let you run a free trial with an opt-out clause and zero PII until it's proven. Shrink the ask before you try to fix trust. One classroom, no student data touching the system yet, a written line saying they can kill it anytime.This is a low enough risk that the "who is this kid" que”
“Since the tool tracks specific accounts (target prospect lists, current customers, and competitors), doing a concierge run for 20 founders and handing them ready-to-use intent triggers on their top prospects makes total sense. Going to run a batch of custom account reports this week. Thanks for the advice!”
“do not try to build a marketing funnel for the first 10 users; run your scrapers manually for 20 specific founders and deliver the intelligence directly to their inbox as a free gift. take a negative review spike or pricing change from their exact top competitor, identify 3 accounts actively complaining, and hand those leads over with zero pitch. once they see a lead convert within 48 hours from a trigger they completely missed, they will ask you where to swipe their card for a monthly feed. dog”
“Our sales cycle is usually around 60-90 days, and there’s a dead zone after someone takes a demo or downloads something. Sales follows up with emails and linkedin ads, but it starts feeling repetitive. Has anyone used CTV advertising for B2B retargeting? Not expecting instant demo bookings, more interested in keeping the brand familiar while other stakeholders weigh in. What are other SaaS teams doing during that gap? submitted by /u/Routine-Tear1630 [link] [comments]”
“I've started my app, but I'm having a hard time figuring out the how works marketing. I've got a plan to learn and understand each technique one step at a time. My first step is ASO. I sign up at AppRadar. I tried searching for popular and less difficult keywords. Do you think ASO is still working? I'm not really sure which parameters I should be watching in App Radar. It seems like all the popular keywords have a high difficulty level, and the ones with a low difficulty level ar”
“My challenge is: how do I get more agencies to sign up with us? We don't even know the right GTM for it.”
“nah dont change your model, the problem isnt the price its that people need hand holding before they buy. thats super common in B2B even at low price points. I had the same issue where nobody would convert without talking to someone first. been running Demoloop on my site for a couple months now so visitors can get their questions answered instantly without me jumping on a call. still do calls for bigger deals but the $49/mo people mostly just convert on their own now. removing pricing and going”
“One of the best ways to build trust as a B2B company is posting on LinkedIn. Now I know it sounds cringe, and you’re probably gonna be like no, I don’t wanna do that and most founders say the same thing. But one of my B2B founder client literally grew to 18000 followers and generated 20 leads in 6 month just through LinkedIn. So trust me it works, here’s how you can achieve similar results. You’ll build a profile. A strong profile that tells people who you are and what you do, and who you help.”
“Schools aren't strictly speaking B2B in so far as they're more commonly part of local government and don't always have the flexibility to trial, much less sign up for products. But for B2B generally: - treat the relationship as a partnership , not vendor/client like in B2C. - you need to be able to demonstrate scale and resources ... Meaning they need to know that you've got a big support team ready to resolve many simultaneous issues 24/7 ... If it's just you, it simply won&”
“His second sentence answers that indirectly, but it should be apparent. The problem is it's essential a two sided marketplace.”
“So I am a founder helping industries improve their energy, basically working on the new ToD tariff and the demand management part. I am actually confused as to how I should approach people to try my product since it is both hardware and software. I want to know how I can approach industries without different levels of management. Please advise on this since the product is ready (I did market research before building the product). submitted by /u/Primus_0609 [link] [comments]”
“Existing pipeline didn't change much, but we started getting unsolicited offers from MUCH bigger fish (we market and deliver on bespoke solutions to 'individuals and small businesses') and avoid mimetic imitation wherever possible. First client was half the work, 20% of the average client friction during the deal, and 10X average deal value.”
“Exactly. Getting the “yes” is only the beginning, especially in a recurring-revenue business. A lot of businesses put most of their systems and attention into acquiring customers, but customer retention often depends on what happens after the sale: onboarding, communication, delivery, follow-ups, and resolving issues before they become reasons to leave. That’s where good processes can make a huge difference.”
“Outbound (cold call, events, email, linkedin) for short-term market feedback, and SEO/GEO (blog articles on my landing, founder-led linkedin posts, reddit) for long-term leads. Honestly, cold call and events (exhibitions) have been the best ways to get feedback and demos for me. But always investing time on SEO/GEO during the week because I know it will pay off someday (I hope so...)”
“I originally built a workflow for myself when I was working as an SDR in tech selling investor management software. I was spending a ridiculous amount of time researching prospects, finding something relevant to mention, and trying to make emails feel personalized without spending 20 minutes on every lead. Over a few months, that workflow eventually turned into SimpleSend . I originally built it just for myself, but after talking with various SaaS sales managers and reps that were either running”
“I've been consulting for a few years now and I just want to talk. Omfg am I sick of people and companies who "built this amazing product" no one is buying because they're not selling it and also the product is shit 😂 I should be grateful because if they knew how to sell I wouldn't have any business, but it's exhausting. I just rolled off a project with a small IT company, they built 2 stupid ass products. I did the research, set up the messaging, got cold callers and s”
“I am considering going to a couple. But my product is a b2b solution for businesses that need to incentivize their distributors and partners to sell their products and services. Will I find potential leads?”
“Interest confirmed on a call is cheap agreement, nobody's gonna tell you to your face that their problem is minor. The real signal is a calendar block: offer a 30 min setup call where you load their real data with them, count who shows. Out of 15 that usually filters to 3-4, and those are the ones you want. The rest weren't gonna log in next week either.”