HACKER Q&A
📣 yoouareperfect

How to start doing LinkedIn outreach to validate SaaS ideas?


As the title says I want to follow the advice of talking to potential customers to see if there's a market and to better understand their needs.

I would like to know which specific steps should one take in the actual sending of a linkedin message.

1) Do you advice just searching in linkedin sales navigator for the persona? Or would you advice using a specific tool for the prospecting? (please don't sell me snake oil, I just want to start and get at least 10 conversations)

2) Do you connect first? Send a "special message"? Or just a regular message (I have literally no idea of how the dynamics of linkedin work and what are the best practices)

So there's that, I've read founding sales, but I believe email outreach is very hard and reply rates are abysmal, so maybe linkedin outreach is better. But the book doesn't go into detail on how to do that.

  👤 sandruso Accepted Answer ✓
You have to have at least one contact you can start with. One person you actually know but not your childhood friend. Start there and then ask them if they know somebody else.

Casually ask for help. You will make them look important and that's what we humans strive for.

This is how you can get manually to the first 10 conversations. No tools are needed just your current network.

AFAIK there are no special messages nor best practices. Ask for help and be specific.

Good luck!