How to Find Your First Client

When we were getting You Betcha off the ground, we faced lots of perplexing questions. But none even came close to this one – “How do I find my first client?”

It’s a frustrating question for many reasons. First of all, you don’t really have a business if you don’t have any clients. Second, no one really has any good answers.

One glance across the web will lead you to the following responses:

• Start Sending Cold Emails
• Start Making Cold Calls
• Do Both

Don’t want to annoy people with random outreach? Too bad, you’ll never have any clients…or so they say. Thankfully, we found a better way.

The Problem with Cold Outreach

Here’s a confession. When I started my first business, I listened to the people who said cold outreach was worth a shot. Thankfully, I didn’t really feel like annoying people on the phone or getting chewed out on it, so I stuck to email.

Out of all the cold emailing I did, it worked exactly one time. Meanwhile, I trashed my company’s reputation at the 30 or so other places I emailed. The company I was co-running ended up doing some great work for some great people, but I bet there are others out there who sent us straight to the spam folder and never looked back.

At least one probably printed out my email just to burn it. At least, that’s what I would have done if I received one like it.

So yeah, cold outreach works in the same way that the lottery works. You may have a chance at winning, but you have a much better chance at losing…badly.

The Best Alternative: Value-Based Outreach

So yes, we can probably agree that cold outreach is annoying. But some people will tell you it’s absolutely necessary. After all, a new company very rarely has clients lining up and coming to them.

But I’m not suggesting that you do no outreach. What I’m suggesting is that you can find your first client by reaching out and offering instant value.

In You Betcha’s case, it worked like this:

One of our core services is video production. We had industry experience, but absolutely nothing in our portfolio to prove it. There was a brief period of time where we tried the cold outreach method, but thankfully, we shifted focus quickly. Instead of “offering” for people to pay us to do what we do, we made them an offer they actually couldn’t refuse. We worked for free.

We traded our service and our resources for case studies, testimonials, reviews, portfolio pieces, and so much more. What we didn’t expect were the amazing referrals.

As it turns out, if you do quality work for someone and treat them like a paying client, they’ll refer you to people who actually are paying clients.

Depending on what it is you do, you might not have to go to the same lengths to see the same results. Try sending someone a few friends your new product or creating a simple asset for a business you want to work with.

If you don’t ever see any referrals as a result, your offering might need some work.

Maybe you don’t need to actually give away your product or service for free. Another great way to earn referrals is by making a name for youself in your scene.

The Long Game: Being the Anti-Salesperson

One of the best possible ways to get clients is by not trying to do so. When you attend networking events or meet people one on one, you’ll find lots and lots of people who are absolutely itching to sell you on whatever they’re hawking.

Be the opposite. See where you can add value to someone else’s business or venture. Do it enough and people might actually consider that you’re in the game for something more than just selling.

A lot of people will take advantage of you and move on, but others will stop and recognize your efforts to help them along their way. In the end, you might just find that they’re doing their best to re-pay the favor.

This method might not pay off right away, but in the end, having people out there referring you or supporting you proves to be extremely valuable. 

The key is to actually care about the others you encounter. If you’re just pretending to care, people see through it.