Posted on (timestamp (:type inactive :raw-value [2024-03-03 Sun 21:03] :year-start 2024 :month-start 3 :day-start 3 :hour-start 21 :minute-start 3 :year-end 2024 :month-end 3 :day-end 3 :hour-end 21 :minute-end 3 :begin 1 :end 23 :post-blank 0 :parent (#0)))

** Introduction
This is the time to establish credibility, and empathy. Here is an example introduction.[fn:1]
#+BEGIN_QUOTE
I'm working on an NIH project (*credibility*) to track and stop overdoses. We're talking to treatment centers all over the country to understand them better. Is there anyone I can talk to for 10 minutes to learn more about your program?
#+END_QUOTE
** Target
Who is involved in decision process, and getting an understanding of the org chart. We've started understanding the market, now it's time to understand the inside of each organization as well.
- When it comes to decisions to purchase, who is involved in the decision process?
- Who has the final say in purchase decisions? Is there anyone else who influences the decision? Do the final users make or influence the decision?
- How does the decision process work? How long does it usually take for a purchase decision to be made?
- What do you see your role being within that decision process?
- When you or your team are researching solutions, how do you find information to make a decision? Where do you hang out?
- How are they funded?
- Where does funding come from?
- Target Segmentation: Volume, Frequency, Probability, Recurring
  We're essentially trying to understand who, financially are our best customers:
|             | low freq | high freq |
|-------------+----------+-----------|
| high volume |          |           |
| low  volume |          |           |
** Value
What they value in our offering?
- What are the priorities of the organization?
- What keeps you up at night (3-5)?
- What is the best thing we could do to address one or more of the things that keeps you up at night?
- what are 3 qualities of a business that enables addressing issues, for example, if they write grants to get naloxone, will they need help writing grants for our product? Do we need to provide copy that they can insert into those grant proposals? When they write grants, are they just for naloxone or is there a suite a services they are trying to fund?
- how important is each quality?
- what would you tell us to stop doing? start doing? How can we change the product to better fit their circumstances?
- who would you say are our competitors for your business?
- How do we differ from those competitors, in your view?
** Offer
If we were eventually to try to sell, how do we find companies like this one? When would be the best time to contact them in the year based on funding cycles, etc.
- Where do they hang out?
- What messaging resonates with them?
- When would be the best time to get the product into their hands? What are the funding cycles and what resources to do they use to secure funding?
- What is the Burning Platform[fn:2]?
** Wrap Up
This is the time to repeat what you heard, ask clarifying questions to make sure you understand what was said, and to leave with some takeaways and a happy feeling at the end.
- Clarifying Questions
- Is there anyone else I should talk to so that I can better understand the space?
- Thank you so much for your time, we're going to be working on this for the next year, and we'd love to get more feedback as we move towards production, would you like to be kept up to date about our progress?

* Footnotes
[fn:1] /Burning Platform/. Even if our product is better, there will be some effort to make a switch. What's the criteria needed to make that switch? A Burning Platform is a concept from B2B sales where the potential customer is standing on a platform that is literally on fire... what does it take to make them jump? In our situation, it might be something like "our funding requires us to have a recovery rate of 25 percent. Currently we're losing 40 percent to ODs and if this continues, we're going to have to shut down".
[fn:2] Testing this with a few hurried people, I've shortened this as much as possible, and have removed any notion of empathy.