Intro
Look, from experience I can say that there are 2 macro categories for acquiring clients:
Inbound. This is the case where the prospect shows interest in your work. For example you post content → the prospect engages, comments or messages with interest.
Outbound. This is where you outreach to your leads directly using email or DMs on social media like LinkedIn, Substack or any other platform (e.g. I started on X for example). This approach is cheap and pretty straightforward to scale if you’re able to respect the platform limits.
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So what is the best way to acquire clients? Well, the simple answer is: it depends. From what I saw working for most founders and business owners out there emails and DMs are probably the best solutions you can go for in the beginning.
To make the long story short I’d start doing outbound first, either via email or DMs, which for some reason everyone claims to be dead, but strangely enough the big players are still doing them.
Just to give you an insight of how this can look like, here are some results I got on my side. I’m running an outbound system myself using Claude and I’ve reached out to 151 people so far on my latest campaign. 27 of them replied to my first DM, so the reply rate is 18%. 2 booked a call and 1 showed real intent.
This approach also works for the inbound case.
Again, just to mention an example of what it looked like. Not that long ago someone commented on one of my posts, we talked in the DMs for a bit and they signed on our first call.
Whether someone comes from a comment or from a cold list, I treat the whole thing exactly the same way: I just start a conversation.
All of my next messages were not trying to sell anything, but to serve the person coming in. Instead of rushing to the actual pitching part which is probably the most thrilling and exciting one, I first try to understand the person coming in, their problems, what their pain is and whether we’re a fit for each other.
Why the first message never pitches
Now, let’s assume for a second that you started doing outreach, maybe it’s manual or automated, doesn’t matter.
The question now becomes: how do I go from a first message in the prospect’s inbox to a booked call?
I see so many people pitching in the first message by sending 300 words of what they offer. These people just lack patience and don’t let the prospect mature the idea by themself. The prospect rises their guards, ignores you, stops trusting you immediately and you lose a pretty big sales opportunity.
You are texting another human being with their own interests, goals, fears and pains. Don’t think they will want what you’re selling just because you arrived in their inbox.
3 steps that make this stupidly simple
1. Keep the list small and hyper-qualified
Volume is a big trap. Everyone will scream to blast thousands of emails and spend thousands of dollars on domains, inboxes and outreach tools.
It works for some people. I used to follow the crowd when I was just starting out, it didn’t work for me, and since I care more about relationships than a one time offer I switched.
Out of any list only some people are useful contacts, only some of them are leads and only some of those become clients. For me a list of 300 people who fit the offer, and maybe even showed interest in my work, is enough to get conversations I can work with. Small and focused beats mass blast.
2. Let Claude draft the first message
Claude reads each person’s profile and their last few posts and drafts the opener on the fly, so every message is short, reads different and feels personalized. I read each one before it goes out. Here’s the prompt I give it:
Read this person's profile in the browser and their last few posts. Write one opening DM, under 300 characters, that references something real from their content, not a compliment, an actual detail. Ask one genuine question about their work. Do not pitch anything, do not mention what I do, do not use hashtags or emojis. Match my tone: direct, plain, a bit blunt, no corporate phrasing, no "hope you're doing well."
example of good message: "hey [first_name], saw you do [x] at [company], how is this year treating you?" -> something like this or similar short opener3. Keep it human
If someone says it’s not a fit, or not the right time, let it go. Pushing after that makes you look needy and unprofessional, and neither closes a deal.
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In practice
Total time: 25 minutes once to build the list, then about 50 minutes a day.
1. Build the list (25 min, once). Pull 300 people who already fit your offer, straight out of your LinkedIn connections or Sales Navigator. No list yet? My Get 500 Leads for $0 in 25 minutes piece walks through the whole Sales Nav plus Apify setup.
2. Draft and send the openers (40 min a day). Feed each profile to Claude with the prompt above (30 min), read every message before it goes out, then send 5 to 10 spread across the day (10 min). Never one bulk blast in a sitting, otherwise you get blocked.
3. Follow the conversations (10 min a day). Open the thread the same day, answer what they asked and let the call come up when they’re curious.
If you want to try this on your next LinkedIn, Substack or X campaign, send me a DM and I’ll walk you through it.
Talk soon,
Ilya