How do I get my first customers?

Start with direct contact. Learn what buyers need, make the offer clear and test what leads to a sale.

The selection and reasons are the library’s guidance. Founder connections and examples have separate source links.

Three books to consider

  1. Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

    Phil Knight

    Study how direct contact with early buyers helped Knight sell shoes.

    Bill Gates · Positive review

    Gates reviewed the book on December 5, 2016.

    Source

  2. Scientific Advertising

    Claude C. Hopkins

    Learn to test a message against a customer response you can measure.

    David Ogilvy · Reading recommendation

    In Ogilvy on Advertising, Ogilvy credits Scientific Advertising with changing the course of his life and urges repeated reading.

    Source

  3. Ogilvy on Advertising

    David Ogilvy

    Make the product benefit and the offer clear before spending more to reach people.

    David Ogilvy · Author

    Ogilvy wrote this practical guide to advertising. The publisher identifies him as its author.

    Source

Short writing

A founder example

Phil Knight

Finding the first customers

An account from Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike, as discussed in the source below.

Decision
How to find buyers for Japanese running shoes.
Action
Knight drove to track meets and showed the shoes directly to runners and coaches.
Outcome
Demand was strong. Knight recalls taking orders faster than he could write them down.
Source

28:17–28:44