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SaaS - Enterprise & SMB B2B: Any tips on validating an idea aimed at SMB market?
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Tom Williams, Clarity's top expert on all things startup answered:

I've done a lot of customer development in this market.

Here's what's worked for me well. Find your potential customer (actual decision maker) on Linkedin.

Send them a "friend" connection request with something like:

"I acknowledge we don't know each other yet but I am the Founder of a new company solving <insert problem>. I'm not trying to sell you anything just would like to ask a few questions to determine if we're on the right path. Would that be ok?"

That might be a bit too verbose for LinkedIn's character count but you get the gist. In the times I've used this approach, I've received about a 35% success rate.

I've done a lot of ideation around SMB-based ideas so happy to talk in a call about how to get the most out of your early conversations and experiments.

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