Question Based Selling is a great intro book on how good salespeople approach sales. It has good detail in it as well. Tested Advertising Methods is a must read for learning how people respond to copy (can be applied to ppc ads, direct emails, etc).
I plan on moving to SV and working for a startup, then launching my own venture one day. I feel like this is an easier transition and I'll be able to accumulate some more experience and assets before I develop something on my own.
This is a good preliminary test, but more customer development needs to be done. You need to have problem and then solution interviews. Don't just show them your solution and ask "Will this help?" Of course it will to some extent.
You want to get a really good understanding why these people have this problem and how they've tried going on without your product. Ask them how much they would be willing to pay to get their problem solved. Then ask if your solution is helpful and show them a demo.
Steve Blank is the Godfather of customer development. I highly suggest the Startup Owner's Manual. But if you don't have time to read that all right now, just realize you need some in-depth interviews (preferably in person interviews) and then use the Google Adwords landing page test as a mass scale test.
Motivation to workout. I'm not obese or anything, and I realize the importance of exercise but I still can't seem to find the time to do it more than once a week.
Carwoo sounds interesting and it is similar to what I was thinking. But I think I might be imagining something more aggressive, where the startup sends an e-mail/fax/phone call to dealerships on the customers behalf. Acting as their "agent" almost. Also, it seems CarWoo only includes partnered dealerships. With the method I described a buyer would be able to contact every dealership of their interest. The only issue with this is that since the startup would be more "customer oriented" rather than dealer, it would probably have to charge customers (unlike Carwoo) instead of charging dealers like CarWoo.
Keep in mind I am not a programmer so stick with me:
For this idea I would obviously need a decent landing page and a few pages with information and then a call to action for payment. But how complicated would a backend be if all I needed was a few forms for each customer to fill out to contribute to my database of customer names, addresses and preferences?
What programming language would be necessary for the backend to be built? I go to a technology school so I can most likely find a CS student to build it for the right price and if I am perceived like I know what I'm talking about (thank you HN).
