3 months into this startup world has taught me a lot of things – the way I work, the way I talk to people, the way I send e-mails and most importantly the value of money. I haven’t taken any salary (yet) till now, and I travel mostly by buses however long the destination might be [even to Bangalore ].

As I see the odd sticker on the bus which says “Rs.6K/month work just for 4 hrs/day” makes me realize the value of earning 6K/month. If I was so fussy about money, why am I spending hundreds on getting LFY, DARE, Entrepreneur magazines, buying geeky t-shirts at tshirts.in,getting my iPod replaced [not free!] – there is clearly an alternative to all the above I mentioned.

This has made me believe ‘Not having money‘ is a myth unless your bank balance is an absolute zero and the world is doomed with none around you! There are 2 important things I believe to acquire a customer

1. Pitch

I think a lot of people take this for granted. The pitch about your product is a key aspect on how far/deep you reach your potential customer. If you didn’t know, I have started a startup – interviewstreet.com where students can attend mock interviews conducted by working professionals on different domains.

It is generally not easy to make students understand the value of a service. Lot of people discouraged [and still] me saying ‘Abey, students don’t have money!’. A dinner with friends would cost them around Rs.250, a movie at a Multiplex with popcorn, etc would cost them around Rs.300, a night at the Wild West bar would cost them over Rs.400, 10 cigar packets cost Rs. 350 – clearly I won’t agree students don’t have money!

For certain confidential reasons, I can’t list down how my pitch improved, but I slowly realized that you need to put yourself into a student’s shoes and think if the offer is really compelling! My dream job pays me 6lpa, would I like to pay just Rs.350 to attend a mock interview improving my chances of striking the job? – this is not a pitch , I am just trying to analyze!

For eg: if I were to tell you ‘Hey, I saw this headphones which were amazing,costs close to 20K‘, you would probably brush me away. But no, it’s true. The headphones you see below is the BOSE QC3 comfort [pitch: acoustic noise-cancellation, rechargable batteries, almost all the external sound is suppressed, etc..] headphones which costs Rs.21K in India! . Well if you are really thinking these are for the CXO’s, pause, I know two of my friends who have already bought this which is almost half their earnings per month (or) even more!

2. Quality of service

The 2nd important thing is the quality of your service. If your pitch is impressive but lacks quality when users try it out, it’s a bad sign! If not surprising your customers, at least remain true to what you pitched.

So, if people are ready to buy those BOSE headphones (or) take mock interviews , it means that the pitch and the quality of service are both in sync and impressive.

Once you are able to achieve this, I think money would occupy the back seat and people would probably even save up money to consume your product/service. Put yourself in his shoes and see if the pitch, price and the quality-of-service/product is worthy enough. With this, I go back to surprise a few more of my customers who are in the queue! . Bye!