How to Close Your First Client With No Portfolio

Read this first

Before you start

I had nothing to show. No past clients, no samples. Just a free sample and a list of people I thought I could help. Here’s what I actually did, step by step.

Two things need to be true before any of this works. Skip these and the rest of the doc won’t save you. There’s a third one below too, worth doing but not required to start.

1. A

   Know what you’re actually offering

   Pick one skill or service you can deliver well, right now. Not five things you’re okay at. One thing you’re confident in.

2. B

   Know your ICP, and where they actually are

   Get specific on who your ideal customer is: founder, coach, sales manager, whatever fits what you offer. Then check where they actually spend time online.

   This whole method is built around LinkedIn. If your ICP isn’t really active there, this won’t work for you. Go find them wherever they actually hang out instead.

3. C

   Have proof ready (recommended, not compulsory)

   This one’s optional, but it makes everything after this doc easier. If your service allows it, build one or two samples ahead of time for a made-up concept brand, so you have something to send the moment someone says yes.

   If your service can’t be sampled like that (coaching, consulting, anything hands-on), have a free trial ready to offer instead. Same idea: let them experience it before they pay for it.

Setup

What you need

• LinkedIn Sales Navigator

  Free for a month. Card required, cancel by day 25 so you’re not charged. Sign up at business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/sales-navigator

• ContactOut

  Browser extension. The free tier is enough to start: contactout.com

• This tutorial

  Watch it once before you touch Sales Nav. It’s not a search bar, it’s a stack of filters: youtube.com/watch?v=Z0b3OUlERJA

The Process

Build the list, then call

1. 1

   Start the trial

   Sign up for Sales Nav’s free month with your LinkedIn account. You’ll need a card. Cancel by day 25 and you won’t get charged.

2. 2

   Learn the filters first

   Watch the tutorial before you search anything. Job title, industry, headcount, location, these stack together and your list gets tight fast. Skip this and you’ll burn your whole trial guessing.

3. 3

   Build your founder list

   Search for your ICP using the filters you just learned. If founders are your target, filter by title (founder, co-founder, CEO), company size, and industry. Keep the filters tight. A list of 40 sharp matches beats a list of 400 random ones.

4. 4

   Filter again, this time by activity

   This is the filter most people skip, and it matters as much as the first one. Sort your list for founders who are actually posting and commenting about their problems, not just the ones with the biggest titles or follower counts.

   Sales Navigator lets you see recent activity, use it. A founder with 2K followers posting three times a week will answer. A founder with 50K followers who hasn’t posted in 8 months won’t.

5. 5

   Find the one gap

   Read their profile, their posts, their business. Look for one thing you could actually fix. Don’t message everyone on the list, only the ones where you can name the exact problem.

   Most people skip this step too. It’s the one that gets you a reply.

6. 6

   Pull their number

   Install ContactOut and sign up. Go back to the profile of everyone on your shortlist and click the extension. It’ll surface a verified phone number and email tied to that person.

   Not every profile will have a number attached, some just aren’t in the database. Don’t waste time trying to force it. Skip that one and move to the next name on your list.

   Save the numbers somewhere you’ll actually use, a simple spreadsheet with name, company, the gap you spotted, and their number is enough. You’ll need that gap note again in the next step, so don’t lose it.

7. 7

   Call, don’t just message

   Call them up. Open with one line about why you’re calling: the specific thing you noticed on their page or business. This is where that gap note pays off, generic openers get hung up on, specific ones get a few more seconds.

   Keep the whole call under two minutes. You are not pitching your full service here, you’re asking for one small yes: permission to send over a free sample or set up a trial. If they say yes, get their WhatsApp or email on the spot before you hang up.

   If they say no or go quiet, don’t argue or over-explain. Thank them and move to the next name. You’ll get a lot more nos than yeses, that’s just the math of cold calling, not a sign you’re doing it wrong.

Before you go

What nobody tells you

• The sample has to be good. If it’s lazy, none of this works.
• You’ll get hung up on. A lot. That’s normal.
• Go after people with an obvious, painful gap. They say yes faster.
• Follow up. Most people don’t say yes on the first touchpoint.