If my startup was live but nobody buys my stuff, I'd only do these 3 things

If my startup was live but nobody was buying my stuff, I would not run ads.
I wouldn't start posting content every day. And I would definitely not spend the next three months building more features.

I would focus on only three things.

Because when your product is live and nobody's buying - you don't have a scaling problem. You have a "Does anyone actually want this?" - problem.

So, if I woke up tomorrow, had my product up and running but zero sales - these are the only three things I would focus on. And the third one is where I'd probably spend most of my time.

The first thing I would do is figure out whether people actually care about the problem I was solving - enough to pay for it.

Because there's a huge difference between "Cool idea" and "Where can I buy this?”

The problem is - when you've already spent months building your product, it's incredibly easy to confuse those two.

I built my first product for 6 months. People told me they loved the idea. Nobody bought it. You know that feeling - everyone loves the idea, and somehow still nobody buys.

So knowing that now, I wouldn’t redesign the website, change the logo, start running ads or ask my friends "Do you like my startup?"

Because none of that tells me why nobody's buying my stuff.

Instead, I'd talk to the exact people I built this for.
5 people. That’s enough. And I would get them on a short call.

But I wouldn’t show them my product.
I first want to understand if they really have this problem I am solving.

I would ask ...

• How are you dealing with this problem right now?
• What's the most annoying part about it?
• How often does it happen?
• What happens if you never solve it?

And all I do on this call is to listen to the exact words they use.
My only goal is to find out if they really have this problem.

And once they have told me everything about how they handle it, I would show them my product. Not before. And now comes the important part - and this is what so many founders do wrong - because here’s the thing:

Even if you solve this one big problem, you can still make zero sales.
Because people don't just buy your product because they have this problem.

They need a reason to buy YOUR solution.

I've had calls where someone described the problem I was solving perfectly. They nodded along and then when I showed the product, they just went quiet.

I remember sitting there, watching them not say anything, thinking - "Uhhh … that's not a good sign".

So, we need to create an offer someone will actually pay for.
And this is where I see founders get confused all the time.

Your product and your offer are not the same thing.

Your product might have dashboards, automations, integrations and fifty different features.

But your customers don’t care about any of that.
They care about how their life changes after they use it.

If nobody buys my stuff, I'd make the offer stupid simple.
I'd define who it's for, the problem it solves, and the price they pay.
Then I'd cut everything that doesn't help me say those three things clearly.

And that’s the important part:

When you talk to people, you don't need to sell the entire version of your startup - sell the smallest version that solves this one big problem.
And most importantly: Ask for money.

Wait a minute - what?
Ask for money on the call right away?

Yes - because this shows you how people really think.

They can tell you all day “I would totally use it” or “I would pay for it” - but then just ditch you. You need someone to take out their credit card.

I'd say something like:

“I think this could really help you solve (problem). I would like for you to try it. I am happy to give you a discount for the first month. Would you be interested in trying it?"

And then I would shut up.
I would stop talking.
Let them answer.

Here's a pro tip because many founders tell me - I can’t do this because the product is not perfect yet:

Early on, I would not be scared to do everything manually. Like, if your software eventually automates something, but if it's not automated yet, do it by hand for your first customer. A founder I once coached - he built a reporting tool - and instead of waiting to build the automated export feature, he just pulled the report manually and emailed it to his early customers every week.

The customers didn't care.
They only cared about the report.

And whether a script did it or a human copy-pasted it at midnight didn't matter to them at all.

Now - when you are on the call and everyone says "Thanks, but no" - that’s good. Because you can ask right away "Why not?"

This is the biggest advantage of those calls.
You don’t have to wonder if you are talking to the wrong people, if it’s too expensive or if they just don’t have this problem.

And once somebody finally says yes - this is where I'd spend most of my time. Because we just found out that we have something going on here. Somebody is willing to pay.

And now the question changes. It’s not anymore:

"Are people paying to solve this problem?"
It’s "
How can I make that happen again?"

What I don’t want at this stage is to try five new marketing channels.
I don't want LinkedIn, TikTok, cold email.

No no no no.

I do exactly the same what I did to get those first sales.

→ Same outreach message
→ Same pitch
→ Same price

I do exactly the same things that already worked once.
The only thing I would change is - if someone asked the same question twice in the previous calls, I'd just answer it right away.

And if all of this works - you'll have 3 customers in no time.
3 times €24,99.

That's not luck anymore.
That's proof that your startup can really work.

So, build a boring, repeatable loop: Find someone, reach out, talk to them on a call, show them your product, make the offer, and repeat.

Now, ok - all of this looks easy in theory.
But in reality, people often don’t reply when you reach out, they tell you they don’t have time for a call or they say "No" all the time.

So here is how to fix the 3 biggest issues.
‍
If nobody replies
You are either reaching out to the wrong people or your messaging is off. I've seen this mostly with founders who use a generic pitch on LinkedIn. So instead of using a generic pitch ChatGPT writes for you - make it personal. Tell them why you are reaching out to them specifically and why it matters to them.
‍
If nobody wants to hop on a call
If many people reply but nobody wants to hop on a call, the problem your solving is just not big enough. You can still follow up and ask why they don’t want to hop on a call but if they tell you they really don’t care about it too much, then they will never buy.
‍
If nobody buys
And if you’re getting lots of calls but nobody’s buying, ask them right on the call why not. Then you get your answer.

If my startup was live but nobody buys my stuff, I wouldn’t create content, run ads or build more features. I would keep everything stupid simple.

I want to better understand the big problem, build one stupid simple offer, and build a repeatable way to get that offer in front of the right people.

Once you have such a system in place, the next question is how do you get 100 and 1000 customers? Because you cannot jump on 100 calls yourself.

Now, if you want help with all of that - check out my startup mastermind.

You’ll get a clear roadmap so you know exactly what to focus on in your startup, personal coaching from me, and you can talk to other founders to see what worked for them.

You can join here: