How to sell to an industry that has never heard of you

When Chad Stephens and Chris Koch launched 1Form in 2006, the product was a rental application tenants could fill out once and send to any agency. It was free for everyone. They had no marketing budget, no reputation in real estate, and a lot of personal debt.

Tenants were the obvious users, and they were almost impossible to reach. There was no money for advertising, and handing out flyers at a rental inspection with the property manager standing right there was never going to work. The few tenants who found 1Form on their own ran into a second problem. Their applications landed with agencies that ignored them or replied that they didn't use the system. Every one of those was a bad first experience for a tenant, so the property managers had to come first.

Find the person the industry already listens to

Chad and Chris started going to real estate conferences. At each one there was a property manager on stage, well known and well liked, talking about the latest best practice. Their thinking was that if one of those people used 1Form and mentioned it, the rest of the industry would pay attention.

So they found one of the most successful property managers in Melbourne and asked her for feedback. They showed her what they had built and asked what she would want to see in a product like this, and what it was missing. She was generous with her time and gave them detailed, constructive criticism.

Build every single thing they ask for

They went away and changed the product to match all of it. About a month later they rang and asked if they could come back and show her. Chad suspects she was wondering how to get rid of them, but she agreed.

When they walked her through the new version, she told them they had actually listened and done everything she said. Chad's view is that at that point she couldn't not use it. The product had been built around her feedback, and she had a stake in it. They asked whether she would use it now, and she said yes.

Repeat it, one city at a time

From there it became a system. They went to other well-known property managers with big rent rolls and told them who was already using 1Form. That name did most of the persuading. Once Melbourne was moving they found the equivalent people in Sydney, then Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Chad says it worked amazingly well. By his figures, 1Form held at least 95 per cent of the market by the time REA Group acquired it in 2014, on a team that never grew past five people.

Why it works on no budget

A feedback meeting is an easy thing for a busy, respected person to agree to. It asks for their expertise, which most people are happy to share, and it commits them to nothing. The second meeting is where the relationship changes. Coming back with every suggestion built turns an adviser into someone with a personal interest in the product succeeding.

The approach depends on the follow-through. The return visit only works because the changes are real, and a Founder who asks for feedback and ships a fraction of it has simply taken up someone's afternoon. Stephen Wools describes a similar dynamic with investors in Ask for advice, and you might get money.