How do you go about acquiring your first clients as a solopreneur with no sales experience? What's the method? (I will not promote)

[u/saj213]

Basically as the title says.

How do you approach potential clients? Whats the strategy? How do you reach the right person? What happens when you get the chance to meet the right person? How does the process typically go?

Do I make a spreadsheet and then just start cold emailing and cold connecting?

What are the best approaches to reaching the right person? Cold email? Cold phone calls? LinkedIn? Any other methods?

Doing everything on my own atm.

[u/ZentryPass]

Honestly the channel most solopreneurs sleep on is just... being around other people who buy what you sell. Cold email works but it's a grind, and your reply rate lives and dies on list quality.

Coworking spaces are weirdly great for this. The people at the hot desks next to you are founders, marketers, tiny teams, basically a room full of potential clients and referral partners. You don't pitch them. You just show up consistently, be helpful, and the work finds you. I've seen this play out over and over.

If there's a space near you, grab a day pass a couple times a week. Zentry Pass is one way to find and book them, but honestly any space works. The point is getting out of the house and into rooms where business happens.

One more thing: pick one niche and one offer and say no to everything else for 90 days. Specialists get referrals. Generalists get ignored.

[u/BabyKai26 → u/ZentryPass]

I kindof hate to say it but...this is true

[u/garma87]

Hate to be that guy, I'd rather give you a real answer, but right now this question is just too big. Maybe share a bit about how far you are?

Do you have a product yet? What market? What is the target audience? Did you talk to potential clients at all yet? Do you have revenue? If all of these questions are new to you, look up Business Model Canvas and fill it in. come back after and share the results.

[u/saj213 → u/garma87]

Yeah that’s fair. Thanks for the reply.

So rn I have an idea and a plan. A simple website, and email. At the moment, I believe there is a real problem that I can solve.

Before investing into creating the product completely. I need to speak to potential clients to gauge whether they would even be interested.

My concern is how do I go about pitching to potential clients of interest to say “hey this is where I see your problem, this is what I’m proposing, would you be interested”, gather information, pick up their pain points etc, so that I can come back to them with my solution/product (in the flesh).

My question is, how do I go about finding the right people/decision-makers at this stage. Many potential clients would be in the government sector but of course, I need private clients first.

It’s really about finding and dealing with the right person. How do I get to them?

I hope that clarifies things.

[u/Disastrous-Use-4955 → u/saj213]

Customers don’t buy “an idea”. Do your market research, confirm there’s a need people will pay to solve, build a minimum viable product, then you can work on selling it.

[u/saj213 → u/Disastrous-Use-4955]

How can you confirm there’s a need that people will be willing to pay to solve? How do you go about outreaching and talking to potential clients?

What would be the best way to get a few minutes of the “right” persons time without being an established brand/business already?

[u/humane_me → u/saj213]

Its the only way as a founder you could do it. Get more outreach, build contact within the industry and people working in the area of expertise in which your solution solves a problem, find if its a real requirement and their willingness to pay.

Once you have a go, on the requirement. Build a prototype. Start pitching for investments. Parelelly sell it. If its something that you could do by yourself with businesses. Operate as a order to buy business.

[u/Disastrous-Use-4955 → u/saj213]

Most successful founders have industry experience and leverage their networks. If you don’t have any experience or network connections, you should be aware that your chances of success are pretty slim- ESPECIALLY since you said you want to sell to the government sector.

[u/garma87 → u/saj213]

Well you didn’t share a lot you didn’t already share. Like I said it depends a lot on the specifics

The market really matters can you share that. B2C, b2b? I’m guessing b2b. What’s the typical size of the customer?

Is the user the same as the one signing off?

Why would you need private sector clients before government?

What is the deal size? Freemium? Tens of euros or 100k deals?

Is it a subscription service, or are you selling one-off deals? Is it software, do you sell consultancy?

All of this matters!

[u/TemporalAmbassador]

I’m building early-access fleet software, so I’m figuring this out too. The approach I’m trying is to pick one role and one workflow, then ask someone to walk me through the last time that problem happened—who was involved, what got delayed, and what they tried—before showing a demo. It helps me test whether the problem matters instead of pitching assumptions. Have you narrowed your customer type and problem yet, or are you still exploring both?

[u/saj213 → u/TemporalAmbassador]

Thanks for your reply.

If you don’t mind me asking, how are you getting in touch with people, or the “right” people in the first place to discuss their problems?

I think I have narrowed down the problem. The customer type is very government-sector heavy so I’m not quite sure how to approach that without many private clients. I still think there are some areas where private clients can find it useful.

It’s just about reaching the right person to discuss, which I’m not too sure how to do.

[u/PifteauVemlan]

what are you selling exactly? the approach for a $50/mo product vs a $5k/mo contract is completely different. the higher the price point the more direct outreach matters, lower price point stuff usually needs inbound or community presence

[u/propelearth]

Since you clarified that you're still testing the idea, I'd look for the person doing the work before the person who approves a purchase. Those may be different people, especially in government.

Ask someone you already know for an introduction to a specific role, not 'any potential clients'. A short note they can forward helps: you're researching how that team handles a particular task, you'd like to understand the current process, and you're not asking them to buy anything. Only say that last part if you actually keep the conversation that way.

At the end, ask who else deals with that task and whether they'd be comfortable introducing you. Keep the spreadsheet, but record what you learned and who owns the problem, not just who replied.

[u/cargocultceo]

Been doing exactly this the last few days, so very fresh. I sent 44 cold emails to founders last week. What I learned: the list matters more than the email. My best replies came from people where the timing made the email obviously relevant, not from the cleverest subject line.

For your situation I'd start with warm intros over cold anything. Government buyers move slowly even when they want it, so private clients first feels right to me. And the spreadsheet idea is good, but I'd track what you learn about the problem per conversation, not just who replied. The replies teach you the pitch better than any strategy post.

[u/socleads]

I’d start with 50-100 good-fit companies and reach out manually.

A spreadsheet is enough. The goal early on is just learning who responds, what they care about, and which message gets conversations.

[u/Strong_Teaching8548]

SEO for the long game, won't do anything for months but compounds after that

Cold outreach and posting where your buyers already hang out for the short term, slower to scale but it's the only thing that pays rent while seo catches up :)

[u/Muted_Maximum6212]

What are you selling and who to? The channel depends a lot on that, for some niches LinkedIn works way better than cold email

By the way, do you already have a list or are you starting from zero?

[u/svr8]

This worked for quite some time. For context, i have a software studio.

This worked well when attending in-person networking events.

1.⁠ ⁠hook: i present 1 canon project I really built and it attracts eye balls.

2.⁠ ⁠⁠value prop: I built the tech from scratch. i know inside out. Ask me anything.

3.⁠ ⁠⁠free value: as the conversation proceeds, they themselves tell me about their problems and i simply advise them or get on gmeets and do some brainstorming and show them this is how you should solve it

they try working with their own team or try to hire freelancers. when it doesn't work, they come back to me usually in 2-3months.

I think getting clients online follows a similar strategy, we need to provide value for free upfront.

[u/Vinniee1507]

Connections are so important. In business, you realise everything is internally connected, you can get into places if you know someone, rather than reaching out to them as a stranger. Build your network, go to seminars and expos and talk to people, not just about your product but you, it helps.

[u/gtm_Ali]

With a government-adjacent audience, cold calls are honestly your friend here, because email deliverability and gatekeepers make cold email slow. The trick is not to pitch on the call. Your only goal on the first call is one question: who owns this problem internally? Ask the front desk or the ops person. They usually tell you, and then you can go direct.

Start with a spreadsheet of 50 target orgs. For each one, call the main line, be upfront that you are doing research before building anything, and ask who handles X. People love telling a researcher how things work; they hate being pitched. Once you have the right name, a short email referencing that conversation converts way better than a blast.

[u/edkang99]

There’s no one method. You have to find the one that works for you based on self awareness and trying things out.

One of the fastest ways is to go ask sales people what they do and how they go about it. Ask to learn from them and if you can, ask them to mentor you.

I learned a lot of sales by watching others do it. YouTube was helpful. I read books but seeing it in practice was the best. Then I could create a proper sales system for me. Then it ls years of tweaking and improving. Then you’ll also know how to scale.

One boom I recommend to help you with the mindset is “To sell is human” by Daniel Pink. It helped me realize I was always selling and I could be natural about it.

[u/garma87 → u/edkang99]

He IS asking sales people... startup people are (should be) sales people

[u/Due_News8015]

I’d start by identifying a specific niche and understanding the problems I can solve for them. Then I’d create a spreadsheet of potential clients, decision-makers, contact details, and outreach status.

To reach the right people, I’d use cold emails, LinkedIn, referrals, and cold calls where appropriate. Once I connect with a decision-maker, I’d focus on understanding their challenges rather than immediately pitching my solution.

If there’s a good fit, I’d demonstrate how I can help, discuss a small pilot project, and move toward closing the deal.

Since I’m doing everything on my own, I’d start small, track responses, refine my approach, and scale what works. I believe targeted outreach and understanding the client’s problem are more effective than simply contacting hundreds of random businesses.