Get paying customers
Client of mine told me this story. His design agency only relies on referrals to bring in new clients. And that’s not bad at all, but referrals will go down over time.
So fill your pipeline instead.
Identify your ICP as detailed as possible, multiple allowed.
Build a lead list with ExportApollo.
Verify these emails.
Build a workflow that qualifies each lead and extracts important buying signals.
Write email text by hand, in your style. Start with the fact you observed, lead to a problem, your solution, a social proof project, and a CTA like “What do you think?”, not asking for a call.
Build an automation that gives you daily reports, updates, and recommendations, as well as A/B testing variations.
This way I guarantee you will get the first client in 30 days. That’s what we do with our clients. Currently getting between 4 and 16% reply rate. Looking for partners here
This is a solid process — too many founders end up waiting on referrals instead of actively filling the pipeline and qualifying leads with real buying signals. Identifying a very specific ICP, building a verified lead list, and tailoring human-sounding copy around an observed fact → problem → solution → soft CTA is often what moves the needle early.
One thing I’ve seen in early customer acquisition is that pairing outbound workflows with a few targeted community channels (like niche Reddit subs or founders’ Slack groups) gets far better quality replies than cold email alone, because you can reference context they already care about.
Curious — for your ICPs, how do you decide which channels to start with first — industry forums, LinkedIn outreach, or niche communities? That usually shapes the early reply rate as much as the sequence itself.