How to Get Your First SaaS Customers: A B2B Playbook for Meetings, Email + LinkedIn
We shipped v1, launched on Friday… and on Monday nothing happened. The market doesn’t come to you—you go to the market.
If you’ve just finished building your SaaS and expect sign-ups to magically flow in, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. In B2B especially, distribution beats features. The early goal is simple: get qualified people into conversations. Your v1 is not a self-service engine yet; it’s a door-opener.
The real goal in B2B: book the meeting, not the miracle
Your first wins rarely start with a swipe of a credit card. They start with a 10–20 minute discovery call where you verify fit, pitch outcomes, and reduce risk. Every channel you run should be measured by one question: Does it reliably get us meetings with the right people? For early B2B SaaS, a healthy meeting rate per 100 targeted prospects is 2–5 bookings, with show-up rates of 80–90% when you confirm the day before and 2 hours before. Closing from first meeting to paid pilot often lands in the 12–25% range.
PPC is fast—also often painfully expensive
Paid search and paid social can produce immediate traffic, but early CAC can be scary. Expect €180–€600 per qualified booking on competitive keywords if your landing page and offer aren’t battle-tested. Unless you have strong intent terms and airtight conversion paths, PPC works best after you’ve clarified your message and ICP. Use it as a learning tool (test angles, objections, and pricing) rather than the only acquisition pillar.
Cold email + Apollo enrichment: the scrappy workhorse
Cold email still works when it’s relevant, tight, and verified. Combine Apollo for enrichment with a disciplined outbound motion:
- Define a micro-ICP (industry × role × trigger). Example: “Construction SMBs, Operations Managers, 10–70 employees, running Excel scheduling.”
- Build a 300–600 contact list with Apollo. Enrich with role, company size, region, tech stack, and an observable trigger (job post, tool change, compliance deadline).
- Verify deliverability (warm domain, DKIM/SPF/DMARC, ramp slowly from 20 → 50 → 100 emails/day).
- Write like a human:
- Subject: “Quick question about scheduling overruns”
- Body (80–120 words): problem → impact metric → social proof pattern (not named logos) → concrete next step (10-min call).
- Sequence: 1 intro + 2 follow-ups over 10–12 days.
- Target open rate ≥ 45%, reply rate ≥ 6–10%, positive reply ≥ 2–4%, bookings ≥ 2–3/100.
- Triage replies within 2 hours (speed to lead can double conversions). Track all outcomes and rewrite weekly.
Mini use-case: A team running generic outreach (reply 2.8%) switched to micro-ICP lists and problem-led subject lines; positive replies jumped to 7.6% and bookings to 3.1 per 100 contacts within two weeks.
LinkedIn: from résumé board to content feed (and why that matters)
An experienced B2B rep told me: “Years ago LinkedIn was quiet. People checked profiles, not the feed. It was basically the opposite of Facebook. Now people come for the content.” Even so, very few people actually post—think ~2% of users publishing regularly—so consistent, helpful posts get outsized reach.
Two huge edges on LinkedIn:
- Attention depth: while other feeds skim at ~7 seconds of attention, decision-makers on LinkedIn are prepared to read multi-paragraph posts—especially if you teach them something practical.
- Freemium content magnets: that same rep swears by manuals, checklists, and templates. People happily trade an email for a genuinely useful resource. Perfect first touch: “Did the checklist help? Anything missing for your case?” You’re in a conversation without being pushy.
Posting rhythm to aim for: 2–3x per week with 1 “how-to” post, 1 small case breakdown (metric-driven), and 1 personal POV about the problem space. Expect 1–3 meetings/week after ~4–6 weeks if your ICP is right and you engage in comments.
Remove the hidden friction: measure first, then optimize
Before pouring more leads into the funnel, find out where they drop:
- Install Hotjar or Cavity to watch session recordings and heatmaps.
- Look for rage clicks, mobile keyboard traps, and form fields with >60% abandon.
- Shorten forms (name + work email + one qualifier often beats long surveys).
- Add a primary CTA that books a short call and a secondary CTA to “try a guided demo.” Cutting micro-friction often lifts booking rate by 30–50% with the same traffic.
Partner-led sales: borrow trust
Partnerships are an underrated early lever:
- Tool integrations (appear in marketplaces, co-publish a how-to guide).
- Service partners (agencies/consultants already trusted by your ICP).
- Affiliates with performance-based rewards. Partner channels typically start slower but can deliver lower CAC and higher deal sizes once playbooks stabilize.
Politics of adoption: win reps before you win the account
Another seasoned seller put it bluntly: “You must convince the individual reps first. Many have been burned by tools that overpromised and underdelivered. They won’t risk their reputation unless they can feel the value.” Tactics that help:
- Run team sandboxes with 3–5 real accounts, aiming to show time saved per week or pipeline lift within 14 days.
- Ship quick wins (auto-logging notes, one-click templates, CRM hygiene alerts).
- Offer a no-risk pilot: 30 days, clear success criteria, opt-out if unmet.
Suggested 14-day plan
Days 1–2: Micro-ICP, Apollo list, domain warm-up. Days 3–5: 3 email variants, 2 CTAs, landing page tuned for booking. Days 6–10: First outreach wave (250–400 contacts), daily LinkedIn posts + comments. Days 11–14: Analyze Hotjar/Cavity, rewrite copy, ship a freemium checklist, start 2 partner conversations.
Target metrics: booking rate ≥ 2% of contacted accounts; show-up ≥ 85%; pilot acceptance ≥ 30% of first meetings; conversion to paid ≥ 15% of pilots.
Pro tip for faster meetings: if you need short qualification video calls with relevant buyers without calendar ping-pong, use a speed-dating style scheduler built for B2B. With Meetcatcher you can publish availability, invite qualified prospects, and reward participation via credits—see Meetcatcher to line up your first conversations this week.
Bottom line: your first SaaS customers won’t stumble in by accident. Build conversations on purpose—prioritize meetings, remove friction, leverage email + LinkedIn + partners, and earn the trust of frontline reps. Do this for 4–6 weeks and you’ll feel the pipeline wake up.
