Rob Walling

Now, this one depends because if you're doing high-touch sales with a high-ticket product and you're only doing a few sales now and again, then you probably don't need a support person. But if you do have a wider funnel, a lower-touch funnel where you have a lot of volume coming through, email support and live chat support, if you offer it, are some of the first things that I look to outsource.

Now, the reason I hear a lot of founders keep doing it for way too long is, well, it's only 30 minutes a day, and I want to be in communication with my customers. This is the way I keep in touch and get their feedback and hear what should develop in the product. Now, both of those are kind of reasonable.

Now, the reason I hear a lot of founders keep doing it for way too long is, well, it's only 30 minutes a day, and I want to be in communication with my customers. This is the way I keep in touch and get their feedback and hear what should develop in the product. Now, both of those are kind of reasonable.

However, I will say that with pretty much every product I've launched, I have hired part-time support help. Sometimes that Part-time support help would swing across multiple products I owned. Sometimes I would just overpay them for the hours they were working to say, look, you get a minimum of 10 hours a week.

However, I will say that with pretty much every product I've launched, I have hired part-time support help. Sometimes that Part-time support help would swing across multiple products I owned. Sometimes I would just overpay them for the hours they were working to say, look, you get a minimum of 10 hours a week.

I know I don't have 10 hours of support yet, but I'm going to bring you in and you can write KB docs or you can help with onboarding or, you know, there's a ton of other stuff that I can find, depending on your skill set, I can find for you to do to kind of fill that time. So even if you don't have a ton of support or it's sporadic, I've always figured out a way around that.

I know I don't have 10 hours of support yet, but I'm going to bring you in and you can write KB docs or you can help with onboarding or, you know, there's a ton of other stuff that I can find, depending on your skill set, I can find for you to do to kind of fill that time. So even if you don't have a ton of support or it's sporadic, I've always figured out a way around that.

So I just don't believe it as an excuse because it's never one that I've used and I've always outsourced support within a few months of taking over or launching an application. The other thing about not being in touch with your customers is that I tend to be known for being in really close contact with my customers.

So I just don't believe it as an excuse because it's never one that I've used and I've always outsourced support within a few months of taking over or launching an application. The other thing about not being in touch with your customers is that I tend to be known for being in really close contact with my customers.

Whether I was running SaaS companies or now it's MicroConf, TinySeed, I'm writing books, I talk with people a lot. And putting a support person between me and all the end users did nothing to curb that. It did nothing to dissuade me from talking to and hearing from my customers.

Whether I was running SaaS companies or now it's MicroConf, TinySeed, I'm writing books, I talk with people a lot. And putting a support person between me and all the end users did nothing to curb that. It did nothing to dissuade me from talking to and hearing from my customers.

Because my support guy, Andy, would say anytime there was new feedback, new input, anything he thought was novel or that I should know, he would either CC me on it or he'd assign it to me once it was resolved. Any of the rote tasks or the rote responses that he could just hammer out, he would get back to him, he would close them because I didn't need to see over and over.

Because my support guy, Andy, would say anytime there was new feedback, new input, anything he thought was novel or that I should know, he would either CC me on it or he'd assign it to me once it was resolved. Any of the rote tasks or the rote responses that he could just hammer out, he would get back to him, he would close them because I didn't need to see over and over.

that someone wanted to reset their password or someone had a question about pricing. Now, if those questions came in a lot, Andy would then say, hey, a lot of people are having questions about pricing. Can we clarify this on this page, right?

that someone wanted to reset their password or someone had a question about pricing. Now, if those questions came in a lot, Andy would then say, hey, a lot of people are having questions about pricing. Can we clarify this on this page, right?

So there is a key factor here of hiring someone in that support role who is good and is willing to escalate things to you or at least pass things along that they think are notable. Another thing that I regretted, I remember regretting this in the days of Drip, was continuing to handle social media for my products. And it's not that I should have hired it out.

So there is a key factor here of hiring someone in that support role who is good and is willing to escalate things to you or at least pass things along that they think are notable. Another thing that I regretted, I remember regretting this in the days of Drip, was continuing to handle social media for my products. And it's not that I should have hired it out.

I just don't think I should have done any of it. I really don't. Social media did so little for us as a SaaS tool. We were not Intercom and HubSpot and Salesforce. We were a tiny bootstrapped product that was growing. And social media was nothing but a headache. if you want to know the truth. And if it drove five customers in the entire history of the company, I'd be shocked.

I just don't think I should have done any of it. I really don't. Social media did so little for us as a SaaS tool. We were not Intercom and HubSpot and Salesforce. We were a tiny bootstrapped product that was growing. And social media was nothing but a headache. if you want to know the truth. And if it drove five customers in the entire history of the company, I'd be shocked.

And so what I would do these days, I would just get off social media. I wouldn't try to hire someone for it. I wouldn't use it as a marketing approach for now. I would focus on blocking and tackling on SEO, on content, on sales. on real inbound marketing, on integration marketing, on attending live events, on going on podcasts, on talking to my customers.