“How do I get my first clients?”

I see established founders online roll their eyes. This again? We answered this before.

You can keep reading, this isn’t about starting out.

I’m challenging the idea that the advice for someone getting going isn’t useful for an existing agency.

Watch…

Advice for getting clients for an established agency: Build systems, write blog posts, automate something, blah blah blah. That was boring.

Advice for getting your first client: Step out of your comfort zone 😬, invent a new offering 🎁, pitch it 💪, change your life 📈, remember it forever 🎉. That wasNOTboring.

So if you’re looking for that big evolution for your agency, then maybe the way to make it happen is similar to how it happened in the beginning.

Whether it’s your first big opportunity, or the next big shift, you need that energy back.

One of those ‘oh wow it’s happening’ moments.

Let’s look at where they come from.

You got lucky

There were undoubtedly things that were fortunate about how you started. Because starting is hard and you need a break.

Maybe you were already working at an agency, or had an opportunity drop in your lap. Perhaps it was someone you knew, a friend or family member (apologies for the flash-backs if you ever endured one of those projects).

Sure, you got lucky, but you were ready.

Remember: Luck is where preparation meets opportunity Maybe you like quotes from ancient Greek men (always men?). Well that quote is from football manager Alan “Pards” Pardew. (He isn’t ancient, but he most recently managed in Greece, so we’ll allow it).

It’s an overblown version of “You make your own luck”, which, if you like overblown things, means it’s better.

The longer your agency runs, the easier it is to be lucky. What we should look at is what being lucky gave us.

If we understand what advantage we were lucky to get, then we can seek it out again.

It’s about relationships and reputation

People buy from people they know and trust.

That lucky break was likely either:

  • Someone you knew who believed you could deliver
  • An existing job or circumstance where you could demonstrate your capability and reliability

These things build relationships and reputation and having those is fertile ground for opportunity.

So, where are the places your relationships and reputation are strongest?

The answer is simple: your existing network and clients.

Get in touch with these people to let them know that you are looking to be valuable and the ways you’ve been valuable already.

Increase the amount and depth of those relationships.

If this all sounds like networking (and you don’t like networking). The great thing is that this goes hand in hand with other activities that are valuable to you such as client communications and customer research.

That makes these activities high leverage.

How much of your time are you spending on those?

You weren’t trying to scale

Given that we are attempting to “make luck”, it’s tempting to think about this as a numbers game. Surely you can increase your chances by doing things at scale. Cold outreach and systemised processes look appealing.

But I’d advise against it.

They don’t provide the high leverage we just mentioned. You don’t deepen a relationship by sending someone to a landing page.

And they are missing another key ingredient you had when you got your first big opportunity.

You were learning.

You were finding out about the problems people were facing, you were asking follow-up questions and clarifying. You were reading cues and seeing what parts of your pitch were landing.

This is always best done face-to-face.

You learn nothing from a landing page that didn’t convert or a cold email that wasn’t answered.

What changed?

When you started, you were face-to-face with people who already trusted you.

And that created the insight and connection that led to a big opportunity.

The upside of inexperience.

You were moving fast, learning and experimenting, leaning into your relationships and reputation.

You had to because there was no other way.

You didn’t know what you were doing yet.

Now that you do know what you are doing, have you stopped?