Sell ·
Find People Asking for Your Product Today: A One-Day Exercise
A one-day exercise: write the sentence a buyer types, pick the channel, find one real person, record the evidence and write your first line.
By Digvijay Yadav, Founder, Baljia AI
It is 9 a.m. You have a product or an idea, and nobody to talk to. You could spend today on a lead list, a logo or a new pricing page. Or you could spend it on one stranger who has your problem right now.
If you are a founder using AI for sales, this is the one job to do by hand first. It teaches you to judge what AI hands you later.
What you will have by tonight
One row in a spreadsheet: a real person, a link to what they said, their exact words, why you fit, and one thing you still do not know. Plus a first line written for that person alone.
It takes under four hours and costs nothing. Here is the day.
| Block | Time | You are done when |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Write the buyer's sentence | 30 min | You have three versions in their words |
| 2. Pick the channel | 30 min | You found a recent post within ten minutes |
| 3. Find one person | 90 min | One real person described the problem |
| 4. Record the evidence | 15 min | Four cells are filled, none guessed |
| 5. Write the first line | 30 min | It uses their words and ends in a question |
Every business, person and quote in this post is invented to show the format. Use your own.
Block 1: Write the sentence a buyer types
Picture the moment the problem bites. It is late, something has just gone wrong, and they do not know you exist. What do they type into a search bar, or into a group of people like them?
Three rules:
- No category words. Nobody in trouble types "platform", "software" or "solution".
- Include the moment. Something just happened. Say what.
- Make it sendable. It should sound right in a text to a friend.
| Made-up business | What the owner calls it | What a buyer types |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduling app for house-cleaning crews | Workforce scheduling software | "cleaner didn't show up again, what do I tell the client" |
| Bookkeeper for food trucks | Accounting for mobile vendors | "how do I track cash sales and sales tax from my truck" |
| Mobile dog groomer | Premium mobile pet care | "anyone know a groomer who comes to the house, my dog hates the salon" |
If you have no real words yet, borrow some:
- Old emails from customers or leads.
- Reviews of rival products, especially the middling ones.
- Google's autocomplete as you type the problem.
- An AI assistant. Ask for 20 ways someone might phrase the problem, then keep only the ones you can find a real person saying. AI gives you search terms. It does not give you evidence.
Write three versions. One will usually find far more than the others.
Block 2: Pick the channel where the pain is public
Your buyer picks the channel, not you. A cleaning crew owner may never post on LinkedIn. A chief financial officer may never touch Reddit. Start from where this person goes when the problem happens.
| If your buyer is | Look first at | Try this |
|---|---|---|
| A small trade or service owner | Reddit, Facebook groups, trade forums | "no show" cleaning business site:reddit.com |
| A consumer near you | Nextdoor, local Facebook groups | Search the group for the service |
| Someone inside a company | LinkedIn posts and comments, X | Search posts, sort by latest |
| Already using a rival | Reviews of that rival | Filter to the lower star ratings |
| Hiring someone to fix it | Job boards | Search the job title for that problem |
Google's own operators help on forums. site: limits results to one website. Quotation marks match an exact phrase. A minus sign leaves a word out. So "sales tax" "food truck" site:reddit.com -recipe is a fair first try for the made-up bookkeeper.
The ten-minute test. If ten minutes of searching turns up no recent post from a real person, change the words or the channel. Do not settle on a channel because it is the one you already use.
Block 3: Find one person
Read threads and comments. Do not scrape, and do not buy a list today. On LinkedIn, the User Agreement bars software and add-ons that scrape the site, and this exercise does not need any. You want one person, and you can find one by reading.
The best lead is often in the replies, where someone says "same here" and adds a detail.
Reject anyone who is really one of these:
- A vendor or consultant fishing for clients. Check their profile.
- A student, reporter or researcher asking for someone else.
- An employee of a rival.
- Someone who solved it and says so.
- Someone with a nearby problem that you do not actually fix.
Prefer posts from the last 30 days or so, unless the problem is seasonal. That is a rule of thumb. People move on, and an old post gives you nothing to open with.
Here is your filter: can you write one honest sentence on why this person could buy? If you have to invent a fact to finish it, move on.
Block 4: Record the evidence
Fill four cells. Keep what they said apart from what you think it means.
| Field | Made-up example | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Link | The URL of the post | No link, no row |
| Their words | "third no-show this month and the client knew before I did" | Copy it, do not tidy it |
| Fit | Runs a small crew and schedules by text, so the app's alerts would close this gap | One sentence, mark guesses as guesses |
| Open question | Does she hear about a no-show from the cleaner or from the client? | Something the post does not tell you |
The last cell does the most work. It stops you pitching, and it hands you something real to ask. If you cannot think of an open question, you are assuming too much.
Block 5: Write the first line
The shape is simple: their words, one useful thing, your open question. No product name, no link, no request for a call.
Weak (invented):
Hi! Saw your post. We're the leading scheduling platform for cleaning businesses. Want a demo?
Better (invented):
Third no-show in a month and the client knew first, that is rough. One low-tech fix is having each cleaner text a photo from the driveway before the start time. Do you usually hear about a no-show from the cleaner or from the client?
The better version is longer, and it earns the extra words. It shows you read the post. It leaves her with something useful even if she never answers. And its question comes straight from your row, so you actually want the answer. If she replies, then you can say what you do.
Before you send, run it through the review checklist, which works just as well on your own writing.
Where to send it:
- In the thread, if the group's rules allow it. Answer the question first. If your business comes up, say that it is yours.
- By direct message, if the person is open to them. Use the same line.
- By email, only to a published business address. The sample above is a first line, not a finished email. A cold commercial email must also say it is an ad and carry your postal address and an opt-out, so add all three. The waitlist guide has a footer you can copy.
Send it by hand. The point today is to learn, and one message written with care teaches you more than a batch.
If you found nothing
Finding nothing is a result. Read it this way.
| What you saw | What it may mean | Try this |
|---|---|---|
| No posts at all | Your words are wrong | Go back to reviews and copy their phrasing |
| Only vendors giving advice | This channel is full of sellers | Try smaller groups or review pages |
| Only old posts | The problem is rare or seasonal | Search by season, or expect slower going |
| Many complaints, nobody paying | Annoying, but maybe not worth money | Look for job ads or paid rivals |
| Questions already well answered | The market is real and served | Find the people unhappy with that answer |
Tomorrow: nine more rows
Repeat the exercise until you have ten rows. Then read the "their words" column from top to bottom. If the same complaint keeps showing up, you have found a group of buyers, and those repeated phrases belong on your homepage and in your first messages. If all ten are different, keep narrowing.
One row proves nothing about demand, and neither do ten. Only a conversation and then a payment can do that. But ten honest rows will tell you more than a list of a thousand names you cannot explain. When you are ready to count results, the four-week log in our first sales hire post picks up from here.
Where software fits
Do your first row by hand even if you plan to use a tool. Until you have built a row yourself, you cannot judge one that a tool hands you.
After that, the finding can be delegated. Baljia finds people who need you and prepares email and LinkedIn outreach for your approval. LinkedIn campaigns come with Growth and Scale, not Starter or the free trial. Its outreach runs on those channels, so if your buyers live in a Facebook group or on Nextdoor, that part stays with you. The AI sales outreach page explains what it does and what it costs.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find people who need my product?
Search for the words they use when the problem happens, in the place they go to ask for help. At this stage, one person with a link and real words is worth more than a long list of names.
What if nobody posts about this problem online?
Look at what they leave behind instead: reviews of rival products, job ads and forum replies. If that turns up nothing, talk to people directly. The problem may also be too mild for anyone to write about, which is useful to know.
Is it OK to message someone who posted in public?
Usually yes, if you write by hand, offer something useful and follow the group's rules. Do not message in bulk, do not take over their thread, and stop if they show no interest.
Can I use ChatGPT to find customers?
You can use it to list phrases and places to search, but check every result yourself. AI tools can invent people, posts and links, so a row only counts once you have opened the link.
How many people do I need before I know it is real?
Start with one, then get to ten. One shows you can find someone with the problem. Ten shows whether people keep describing the same problem. Neither proves anyone will pay.
Does this work for a local or consumer business?
Yes, but the channel changes. Local groups and review pages usually matter more than LinkedIn, and a helpful public reply is usually more welcome than a cold private message.
Try handing off the search
Once you know what a good row looks like, you can try a focused search with Baljia's 7-day free trial, no credit card, at https://baljia.ai/. LinkedIn outreach needs the Growth plan or higher.
Sources
- https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433 (checked October 31, 2026)
- https://www.linkedin.com/legal/user-agreement (checked October 31, 2026)
- https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business (checked October 31, 2026)
- https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2023-title15/html/USCODE-2023-title15-chap103-sec7704.htm (checked October 31, 2026)
- https://baljia.ai/llms-full.txt (checked October 31, 2026)