How I find new customers

First you have to know who you are selling to. I go through your current customers and look for the traits that identify the next ones: industry, size, situation and the signs of buying. Those add up to a picture, and I weigh every new company against it.

I build a list of companies that fit the picture, and I check each one before anybody receives a message. I approach them by email, by phone and on LinkedIn, in an agreed order. Every contact goes on the record, so you can see what has been said and what happens next.

A good message is short and asks for one thing. It speaks to the situation the reader is actually in, which is what the targeting work is for. I write the messages myself and test them in real sends, so a weak opening gets dropped early.

I qualify conversations early, so the time goes to companies that have a need, a budget and a timeline. I keep the pipeline current, and every open conversation carries a next step and a date. A meeting in the calendar therefore gets a follow-up.

You see the work moving without having to ask. We agree at the start on what gets tracked, and I report the same things in the same form for as long as we work together. Sends, replies, meetings and deal progress are all visible, and we correct course from them.