Many founders spend months fine-tuning theoretical models before testing their offerings in the real world. However, a successful go-to-market (GTM) strategy isn’t developed in a lab—it’s developed in the field.
To find your first customers, build momentum, and structure your customer acquisition strategy, you need to take an iterative, data-driven approach. How should you set your pricing? Which lead generation channels should you prioritize? How can you shorten your sales cycles?
Through the concrete, data-driven feedback from Komia and Unico—two startups with very different business models—here are 5 tips for a successful launch.
Adjust the intensity of your prospecting efforts based on the depth of your market
Not all markets respond to the same approach. Before launching your campaigns, it is essential that you assess how quickly your market will be saturated and adjust your efforts accordingly.
In a very large market, you can test and iterate on a massive scale. Komia started out with door-to-door sales, followed by intensive cold calling, but faced with low conversion rates, the team pivoted to social media and inbound marketing.
Conversely, in a niche market (such as GovTech, healthcare, or local government), every prospect counts. Unico’s sales cycles are long (6 to 12 months) and require a highly targeted approach. In particular, they rely on a freelance SDR (Sales Development Representative) who adopts a strategy focused on the quality of lead generation rather than quantity.
Build Your Pricing Strategy Based on Empirical Evidence (and Accept Mistakes)
When setting your prices, the best approach is to combine competitive benchmarking with testing price assumptions in the field with your first prospects.
At Unico, pricing was developed in collaboration with the market. Their recurring monthly rates now amount to several thousand euros, yet they acknowledge that their first customers were signed up at rates that were too low. While this common mistake can sometimes complicate future price increases, it’s not a major issue. These early adopters are essential for establishing your credibility and reassuring future prospects.
Identify the actual payer and focus on reinsurance
In many B2B sectors, the end user of your solution is not the person who signs the contract. This is a fundamental challenge for your go-to-market strategy.
Komia places particular emphasis on this point, especially in the healthcare and public sectors, where the operational user (for example, a doctor or a staff member) is not the economic decision-maker (the ARS, the CPAM, or the local government). To reach these actual payers, Unico has implemented a robust commercial reinsurance strategy. They rely heavily on their existing client references, infiltrate industry associations, and activate their network. Knowing who to sell to is just as important as knowing what to sell.
Drive Your Acquisition with Rigorous Metrics
Once you've gotten the ball rolling, you need to analyze your conversion rates at each stage of your sales funnel to determine where to invest.
At Komia, customer acquisition combines Instagram Ads and cold calling. The ads generate numerous leads each month, and cold calling allows us to proactively secure appointments.
At Unico, the approach is different: the company targets a smaller market, with high-value contracts and longer sales cycles. Their customer acquisition relies in particular on an SDR who generates about a dozen meetings per month, with a closing rate of 20 to 25 percent. The true strength of the model is most evident over the long term: customers stay and gradually increase their usage.
Shorten your sales cycles by setting the pace
Once the first meeting is scheduled, we enter the closing phase, which can vary in length and is often the stage where startups lose the most leads. To avoid procrastination and no-shows, one technique shared by Komia is to create a sense of urgency and capitalize on the time constraints of each market.
This article is brought to you by:
H7 — A responsible accelerator and the digital hub of the Lyon Metropolitan Area, H7 supports startups in their growth and impact.
Unico — The turnkey solution for waste collectors (local governments, businesses, and organizations) to optimize the management of their services.
Komia — Komia is an all-in-one solution that simplifies staff, inventory, and sanitation management for professionals in the restaurant, hospitality, and retail industries.
Evan Chamard
