How to get your first customers when you've never sold anything
You're good at what you do, not at selling. That's fine. Here's the honest, low-pressure way to get your first customers, whether you run a plumbing business or a consultancy.
AI-generated imageMost advice about getting customers is written by salespeople, for salespeople. If you're a plumber who wants more contracts, an accountant with room for a few more clients, or a consultant who just went solo, that advice tells you to "build a pipeline" and "run a cadence." It doesn't help.
The truth is simpler. Getting your first customers is three questions: who has the problem you solve, how do you reach them, and what do you say. You don't need to become someone else to answer them.
Start with who, not how many
Forget volume. Write down the five kinds of people who most need what you do, and be specific. Not "businesses", but "property managers with buildings older than 20 years" or "small e-commerce shops doing their own books". The narrower you are, the easier everything after this gets.
Reach them where a human would
You don't have to cold-call. A short, specific message to the right person, from your own email, beats a hundred generic ones. The goal isn't to sell in the message. It's to start a conversation.
Say something only you would notice
The message that gets answered shows you actually looked. "Saw you just took over three new buildings" beats "We offer plumbing services." One sentence of real observation is worth more than a paragraph of pitch.
That's it. Who, where, what. Do it by hand for the first ten, learn what lands, and then it's worth scaling.
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