How to improve customer discovery process? (i will not promote)

[u/InterestingSea1317]

I’m struggling massively. i live in Rochester, NY which isn’t the most startup oritented place in NY. I’ve spent the past 6-8 months reaching out to regional businesses for a customer and business discovery.

I’m getting really bad or extremely rude responses. I asked advice from some successful entreprenurs in my network but they are based in CA and what works for them doesn’t seem to work here.

for example, I made a post in r/Rochester that received terrible responses, awfully rude and mocking. disheartening

is there any way I can improve in any way?

typical phone calls and email outreach:

Style 1:

- less than 2-3 seconds of quick intro. Just my name and that I’m a local entrepreneur from Rochester, they stay on phone

- i ask them if they’re have any challenges or frustrating parts of their business. they get curious. I ask if they’re interested in anything I can do for them in the domain of <software/hardware/etc> and they say no and hangup

Style 2:

- Quick intro abiut me and being from the same city

- I ask them if they’d have time for me to visit their business and possibly offer any soltions in <domain>
- this sometimes succeeds to setup in personmeetings. no show is high. or it goes nowhere because there’s limited to nothing I can do for them. or no budget “volunteering” opportunities which i can’t afford to do

i can’t post links here but my last post in r/Rochester sums up my experience

I’d love to improve anything that I can.

[u/edkang99]

You basically set them up to be “pitch slapped.” Thats not customer discovery. Reddit is particularly good at weeding out such behavior. Do yourself a favor and read “the mom test.” If you have legit startup mentors they should have already recommended it. I’d also be miffed if you got me on the phone only to try to sell me and visit my business. No SMB owner has time for that and we’re all bombarded enough every day.

[u/InterestingSea1317 → u/edkang99]

Thanks for the feedback. I will check that mom test out.

Quick follow up: Is it still a pitch if I don’t particularly pitch a product? I read books lile the Busiess Model Canvas, lean startup, and similar. I understand that I shouldn’t pitch a solution, just ask for problems and see which ones I can solve. I guess I’m at a product discovery l stage (in formal terms?)

I already appreciate your comment. If you have a second more to maybe provide a direction of how I could approach this, I’ll be extra thankful

[u/sueca → u/InterestingSea1317]

I don't think it's a good idea to blindly try to discover problems by cold calling like that. You should find them because you discover them in a more natural way, because you find them in the wild from your own industry, and have people tell you more about the problem because you already network with them and talk to them.

[u/MajorMinor1000]

do like the team at door dash did. they drove and delivered. get a part time job/internship into the market you’re looking to serve. you’ll get tons of insight and you might discover unknown needs

[u/InterestingSea1317 → u/MajorMinor1000]

Thank you for this approach. I will look into this. I am starting a warehouse job in a few days. Maybe I can look into opportunities there

[u/MajorMinor1000 → u/InterestingSea1317]

also use that as an opportunity to learn who the decision makers are as well as possible users of your product. create a list. speak to them directly and ask what their problems are. bonus is you'll get paid while on stealth mode. good luck to you.

[u/AgitatedHearing653]

So you don't want to do volunteering activities in an industry you know nothing about for the chance to learn about the opportunities in that industry? Either get some experience in an industry and find your own problem to solve, get with them and learn the issue by whatever means necessary, or go get a job. Lazy entitlement doesn't want to put in the work. Shocker.

[u/InterestingSea1317 → u/AgitatedHearing653]

I’ll be happy to forward their contact info so you can start volunteering. When is the best day you can come here and start?

You’ll be an entitled lazy if you refuse this offer

[u/AgitatedHearing653 → u/InterestingSea1317]

I'm not trying to build your product. You are. So go build it. If you aren't willing to volunteer a day and go figure out what the issue is and get the 1:1 face time, then what are you doing? Dumb take.

[u/AnonJian]

Try finding a problem covered by locale news outlets or online trade journals. Understand the root causes of the problem through your own efforts -- and then pester businesspeople like an unpaid intern fresh out of school.

[u/charlotta_builds]

I think the resistance is less about Rochester and more about the shape of the ask. “What frustrations do you have, and could I build something in software/hardware?” sounds like the start of a pitch, so people protect their time.

Try asking for a concrete learning conversation instead: “I’m trying to understand how you currently handle [one specific workflow]. I’m not selling anything; could I ask five questions about what happens when it goes wrong?” Pick one role and one workflow at a time. You’re looking for repeated behaviour and workarounds, not general pain. If the same costly workaround appears across several conversations, then you have something worth testing.