Work warm outreach end to end

1. The daily rhythm

One hundred reach-outs every day. By email, phone call, direct message, text, voicemail — whatever gets to that person. Not a hundred people contacted once; a hundred attempts.

Do it in the first four hours of your day, if you are starting out or if your job right now is to advertise.

Contact each person three times. The first attempt, then two more.

You follow up because you have something you think might help them and they do not know that yet, and in the meantime all you are doing is asking them about themselves. So behave the way you would if you actually wanted to reach them. If you needed to get hold of a parent, you would text, and then call, and then text again a couple of hours later — not because you were working them, but because you wanted to talk to them. Do that, and people respond to you like a person instead of like a campaign.

Volume wins.

Two things to hold on to while it is still unpleasant:

• Everything must be hard before it can be easy. You probably waited twenty years to send the first one. You will wait two minutes before the second, and twenty seconds before the third.
• Twenty hours of focused effort is enough to get good enough at almost anything. What stops people is not the twenty hours; it is the years they spend not starting the first one. Start it.

2. Go back to the top

Work a list of one or two thousand people, three attempts each, and you will probably be a couple of months getting to the end of it. Then start again at the top.

The reason is not only that they might have missed it. It is that circumstances change and nothing tells you when. Somebody who felt fine about the problem you solve in January has every reason to care about it in April, and your message happening to be at the top of their inbox on that day is what finds them in the market.

So reach out more times, in more ways: be convenient at the level of months and of that particular afternoon. Somebody may have been exactly in the market, and been getting out of the car with the children, and meant to reply later, and forgotten.

So do not take non-replies personally. A person who did not answer has not rejected you. They have not answered. Ask again.

3. Follow up without being a nuisance

Keep follow-ups simple and natural:

• Replying to something they posted — a story, an update, whatever they put up.
• Sending something funny that is actually relevant to them.
• Up arrows, sent as ^^.

Voice memos break up a thread of text.

4. The checklist

Question	The answer
Who does this	You, at the beginning
What you are giving	Your first five, free
Where	Messaging, phone calls, physical mail, text — wherever they are
Who you contact	The contacts you already have access to
When	The first four hours of every day
Why	To win customers, or introductions to them
How	Personalize the message, then acknowledge, compliment, ask
How much	100 attempts a day
How many follow-ups	Two more after the first
How long	Until you have customers

5. What to expect

Measure	Expect
People who reply	About 20 percent — so expect 80 percent not to
People who buy	Typically 1 to 2 percent
From 100 reach-outs	1 to 2 people who want to buy
From a 2,000-name list	20 to 40 customers

For most people, 20 to 40 customers replaces their job and their income.

Two cautions on those numbers.

The first is a genuine ambiguity in the rates. The 1 to 2 percent is put both as a share of everybody you reach out to and as a share of the 20 percent who reply, a factor of five apart; the table uses the first. Another reading counts in stages: about one in five reply, about one in five of those take the free offer, and about one in four of those later pay, so about one buyer per 100 reach-outs, a share of everyone contacted, at 1 percent rather than 1 to 2. Either way the rates vary with the offer and with trust. This page does not settle which reading is right.

The second is about sample size. At a 1 percent rate, twenty reach-outs produce 0.2 buyers, and there is no such thing as a fifth of a customer. So reaching out to twenty people and selling nothing is not evidence that this does not work.

6. Start by working free

The first offer you make should be the easiest offer anybody has ever received:

I am taking on five people and no more, which is what lets me give each one enough attention to get a result worth bragging about — and I will do it free, provided you promise me three things. Use the product or service. Tell me what you think of it. And leave a good review, if you end up thinking it deserves one. Does that sound fair?

It is made to them, or to the friend they named, and either is fine.

Four reasons this is not giving your work away.

1. You get the reps in. Plenty of people are so nervous about asking for anything that they never ask. Offering something free calms that, because there is nothing to be nervous about.
2. You are probably not good yet. People are far more forgiving of somebody who has not charged them, so the mistakes you are certainly going to make cost you much less now than they will later.
3. You get better by doing more. A few volunteers to get the kinks out is the cheapest version of that there is.
4. Free customers give you more than paying ones, early on. They are far more likely to leave you a review or a testimonial precisely because you did not ask for money — and they are far more likely to tell you honestly what they did not like.

On that last point: thank people the moment they start giving you feedback, while they are still talking. Most people are frightened of giving feedback because they have been punished for it before, and thanking them immediately is what makes them tell you the rest of it. Take it as a curious person rather than a judged one — what else do you think we could do; would it be better if we did this? Admitting that you are new and asking for the chance to do better will get you help from almost anybody.

The trade favors you, and it is worth being honest with yourself about it: they are probably getting mediocre service and you are getting an education, and quite possibly testimonials, reviews and referrals later.

7. Ask at the end, whichever way it goes

When the free engagement finishes, ask whether they want to continue.

If yes, you have a customer.

If they say no, ask the question that makes the no useful: what would I have to do to make it worth your while to continue? Then, when they tell you, ask: so if I did that, would you continue? That second question is the one that matters, because it converts a complaint into a commitment — and if you then do the thing, they generally do continue.

Either way you win: a customer, or the information you needed. And even where neither arrives, you have improved the thing for the next person.

What you are actually digging for is hidden costs. These are everything your offer costs somebody that is not money: a weekly call, giving you feedback, recording material for you, learning your system. They are not in the price and they are absolutely in the decision. Somebody saying free is still not worth it is telling you the hidden costs are too high.

Then remove them, one at a time:

Hidden cost	The fix
They have to record new material for you	Take what they have already published
They have to attend a weekly meeting	Send a written report instead
They have to give feedback on drafts	Send finished work for approval instead

Hidden costs are the inverses of what makes an offer valuable, which is why finding and removing them makes the offer more valuable. Just because something does not cost money does not mean it is free.

8. The price ladder

When to start charging: when people start referring you, or when you run out of capacity. Those are the two signals that you are good enough.

Then walk the ladder. Swap the word "free" in the offer above for a discount, and step it down five customers at a time:

Next five customers	Price
First five	Free
Next five	80 percent off
Next five	60 percent off
Next five	40 percent off
Next five	20 percent off
Next five	Full price
Every five after that	Raise the price 20 percent or more

Keep going until enough people are still saying yes and your roster is full — that is the sweet spot.

The step size is not the point. If you want to step every three customers, step every three. If you want jumps of 25 or 50 percent, take those. What matters is committing to a process and running it, because on a long enough horizon the process wins. The default here is every five customers, 20 percent or more.

One condition on the tail of the ladder: how often you can keep raising depends on what you sell. It might be every ten customers, or every twenty. As long as your capacity is genuinely constrained, you can keep raising over time — potentially indefinitely.

Why this particular shape. Running the ladder to capacity manufactures nothing; it produces real scarcity. Once you are full you feel abundant, so you stop accepting customers you should not accept, and you can say truthfully and without apology that you cannot charge less than this. A sales position you can state honestly converts far better than one you are performing.

Converting the people you worked for free. Once the paying customers are arriving, go back to them: I have people paying me now and I may have to choose between them and you — I would rather keep working with you, so would you be willing to? If yes, you have converted somebody. If no, you already have somebody waiting for the slot.

9. Trade the guarantee for the cash

A guarantee gets more people to buy, because it reverses the risk. There is a way to get the extra yeses and the cash up front at the same time: offer the guarantee only to people who pay up front.

The reason why: people who pay in advance are more committed, and because they are more committed you can actually guarantee their outcome.

The wording comes after they have already agreed to buy:

Would you prefer a smaller payment today, or the chance to get every dollar back?

The smaller payment means a payment plan. Every dollar back means prepaying and taking the guarantee. Worked as a comparison:

Option	Terms
A smaller payment today	$2,000 a month for three months — $6,000 total, no guarantee
Every dollar back	$6,000 up front, with the guarantee

Presented that way, the majority take the up-front option with the guarantee. The condition: only run this if you were going to offer a guarantee anyway — then you may as well use it to pull the cash forward.

10. Keep the list warm

The people you contacted who did not buy are not a failed list. You spent real effort assembling and working it, and they are still there.

Keep them warm by providing value, repeatedly, with nothing attached. Then, occasionally, interrupt the value with one very short question of nine words — asking whether they are still looking to do the thing: buy the house, get the leads, open the store, tone up, start the channel. Small, simple call to action, surrounded by a lot of value.

Keeping a list warm means talking to many people at once, which is the next cell of the grid on SOP 12: posting content.

11. Reference — outline scripts

The following are outlines. Three conditions travel with all of them and none is optional:

• They are rough outlines to build your own from, not scripts to be read out.
• Check with legal counsel in your region for compliance with the laws and regulations that apply to you.
• Two of the three are for a different job. The first and second are for calling somebody who has already responded to an advertisement or an email — inbound, not warm. Only the third is a warm and lukewarm outreach script.

11.1 Setter call, after an inbound response

Beat	What it does
Open by name, state who you are and the company	Establishes the call is expected
Name what they responded to — the email or the message	Reminds them why they are talking to you
Ask whether now is a bad time	If yes, keep it short; if no, continue
State the purpose: learn about them, and share your process to see if you can help	Sets a two-way frame rather than a pitch
Say you have looked at their site, then ask for a 20-to-30-second overview in their own words	Shows work done, and gets them talking
Compliment specifically, then ask what in particular prompted them to respond	Their reason, in their words
Ask what they have done so far toward the goal	Establishes the current position
Zoom out: ask for the big goal, then repeat it back	The destination, confirmed
Ask how soon they want it by; if there is no deadline, ask what it would help with	This is the lever that motivates action
Recap where they are, the goal, the date, and what they are doing now	Proves you listened
Ask permission to give your opinion	Consent before advice
Briefly say why the current approach is not working and hint at what does	The gap, not the solution
Offer a video: watch it on the next call, or between calls — which do they prefer	Choice creates ownership, so more of them watch
Book a time within 36 hours	Speed
Ask their exact title, and who else should be on the call	Gets decision-makers present
Check the invite and the link both arrived, and ask if there is any reason you will not see them	Closes the loop and surfaces doubt

Call notes: smile before you pick up · print it and keep it in front of you · assume you have the right person and open with their name rather than asking whether it is them · do not do anything else while on the call · open with energy and treat every call as a first impression · if they answer, finish the conversation, because the odds of either party calling back drop significantly · if they answer, take their card details on the call if you possibly can · dial twice, so that if it goes to voicemail you hang up and call straight back, which both signals you are not a telemarketer and makes people more likely to pick up.

11.2 Appointment-setting call for a front-end offer

Beat	What it does
Open with their name, never "is this" or "can I speak to"	Assumes the right person
Say you are taking the call for the specialist, and name the company and its standing	Borrowed authority, and sets up the handoff
Say response has been overwhelming so not everyone can be taken, and this call decides fit	Scarcity, and reframes the call as qualification
Ask what motivated them to sign up, offering two or three generic goals	Opens discovery without a blank page
Ask the current situation, the goal, which bothers them most, and how long it has bothered them	Establishes the gap and its age
Ask what habits got them here, offering the common ones	Makes it easy to be honest
Ask what it has cost them — then dig into specific areas of life, and dig again if they claim none	Depth, twice
Ask who they will be in ten years if nothing changes, and whether that is who they want to be	Consequence
Tell them they are just like the people who get the best results, and say why, based on their answers	Perceived likelihood, from their own words
Restate current state and goal, then move to booking	Transition
Offer a narrow choice of times, then find one slot	Constrained choice
Take a card on file to hold the appointment	The commitment device
Text the address, parking, and a photograph of who they will be meeting	Removes friction on the day

Three prepared responses to the card request: it is the same as booking any other appointment, since a specialist is giving up a paying slot · without it only about one in ten people used to show, which wasted the specialist's day · and a joking version, asking whether the worry is that you will go shopping, or that they will not turn up.

Read these two with care. The figures in them — hundreds of results, the count of people helped, a 10 percent show rate — are placeholders and illustrations inside a template, not measurements. Do not carry them into your own version as facts.

11.3 Organic outreach, for lukewarm followers

This one is warm outreach proper: people who follow you or your company but never act on anything you ask them to do.

The sequence: somebody follows an account → a person with a credible profile reaches out → they build value → they move to a call or a booked time → it becomes revenue.

The opener, addressed to them by name and sent as three separate messages: how you found them · a personalized compliment · a question. Then acknowledge, compliment and ask on everything that comes back, which is on SOP 14.

Then move fast. Once they respond, ask whether you can give them a quick call, mentioning that you may have some free resources for them. Speed is the advantage.

Simple scales; fancy fails, and the volume instruction is the same as section 1: a hundred reach-outs a day.

12. What this page does not cover

Building the list is SOP 17, the reply pattern SOP 14, the offer SOP 19, the introduction mechanic SOP 16, and the proof elements SOP 15. The guarantee section 9 trades on is SOP 7 and SOP 8.

Reaching strangers is SOP 27 to SOP 30, and paid ads SOP 35 to SOP 39. Handing this work to somebody you have trained is on SOP 43, and whether to train or hire for it is on SOP 44.