The higher up a customer is in the pyramid, the more they feel the pain of this problem. Those that feel the pain the most, are the best candidates for your early adopters, and those who you should engage with for initial feedback and sales. Do not go after all the candidates, only go for candidates which resonate most with the problem.&nbsp; “If you chase two rabbits, you will catch neither one”- Russian Proverb

Early Evangelist Characteristics Model

<ul><li>Leverage your network - Do you already have investors? Get them to work and be relentless! Ask who they can connect you with. Scour their LinkedIn connections to be more proactive in getting that list. Offer equity and/or advisor roles to valuable people and key opinion leaders who can open doors for your.</li><li>Find the virtual “Roman Baths : Virtual “Roman Baths” are the online places and people your prospects go to when they need to find solutions to their problems.Places like Reddit, Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, public slack groups, key influencers on twitter. If you can find people writing about the problems you are trying to solve, they might lead you to your early adopters.</li></ul>

6 ways to acquire early adopters

Finding the “right” customers is a challenge on its own not to mention getting their attention amidst the sea of competitors. This is a game of numbers, similar to a typical sales funnel, and YOU are the sales person; be prepared to invest a lot of effort in this stage, with the key being persistence.

Why is it so hard to acquire early adopters?

If you give up on acquiring early adopters, and build the product hoping that they will come. You are wrong. You should realise early on that not being able to acquire early adopters is a red flag, and actually means you shouldn't pursue this project.

What happens if you give up ?

<ul><li>Events: Focus on small conferences that allow you to have 1x1s with attendees. This will both allow you to get early feedback and test your ideas and messaging, as well as generate interest with the right people who may want to continue working with you. Grab a central location and bring an iPad with a survey or a prototype and incentives for filling it in with contact details (such as chocolates, gift cards, etc.)</li></ul>

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&nbsp;You have to be persistent and creative. Skipping it will lead to exponential costs later on, and essentially means you are operating in a waterfall manner. Use proven marketing lead generation strategies not just for marketing a product you are trying to sell, but also for acquiring early adopters and learning.

Acquiring early adopters is hard!

AIDA Model Awareness: Try different phrasings of the problem which you think will resonate more, the more people responded, the more it resonated. Interest: Generate an interest, quantify the losses the user had by not adopting the platform. Try multiple pitches.&nbsp; Desire: It is important to communicate the long term vision. Show them the product is aligned with their needs. Action: Once you have a few interested candidates, get them onboard and see who's feedback will matter to you the most based on your target market.

How can you Acquire Early Adopters?

<ul><li>Paid Advertising : Leverage segmentation capabilities of social media tools and creative campaigns based on the <a href="https://steveblank.com/2010/03/04/perfection-by-subtraction-the-minimum-feature-set/">early evangelist model</a> to find the buyers or users you are trying to reach. Use general surveys to go through an initial qualification for engaging and then gauge their level of interest/collect feedback. Offer relevant people an incentive for leaving contact details to do a more detailed interview.</li><li>Experiment using BDR: A type of sales rep, who prospects outbound leads, using cold email, cold calling, social selling, and networking.</li></ul>

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Practical tips for implementing lean principles:
Why is it so hard to acquire early adopters? 
What are the top ways to acquire early adopters?