I keep hearing that business has gotten harder. No matter the industry, the audience, the offer, most solopreneurs have a harder time making sales today than they did last year or two years ago.
Everyone I talk to says the same thing. Yet, business is still businessing, even if at a slower pace. The way I see it, this is a time for experimentation — far more than it was one or two years ago.
People still buy but their behaviors and triggers are changing. This is why pivoting quickly is more important than ever.
So I asked Council members to tell me their best ways to attract clients — what works right now?
I wanted to send you this collection of tactics because it’s SO interesting to see how their answers differ even when they are in the same industry. If you feel like what you’re doing right now doesn’t work for you, even if it seems to work for your peers, please don’t give up.
Marketing and sales aren’t exact sciences. You need to keep experimenting. The tactics below are a good place to start.
The answers are 100% theirs, with minimal edits for brevity on a few of them, but no substantial changes.
Before we dig in, I want to show you another client acquisition model, one that works as a corollary to all those below. Because when authority is there, everything becomes easier — outreach, ads, inbound, everything.
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Business is hard at every stage. But what makes it even harder is trying to move forward using tactics that aren’t appropriate for you.
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8 client acquisition tactics by solopreneurs for solopreneurs
Ricardo Brito: strategic consulting in public
Ricardo is a “copilot for solopreneurs”, who helps independent professionals move from improvisation to a structured business that lasts. Connect with Ricardo here.
Most of my client acquisition comes from what I’d call strategic consulting in public.
Instead of creating aspirational content about solopreneurship, I publicly break down the hidden operational, emotional, and structural problems behind solopreneurship: reactive freelancing, unclear offers, overcomplicated systems, positioning confusion, and the gap between wanting freedom and building a business that can actually sustain it.
I also offer free Business Clarity Calls, but they function less like traditional sales calls and more like strategic orientation sessions. By the time people book one, they usually already resonate with the worldview behind my work, so the conversation becomes much more about diagnosis, alignment, and identifying the real bottleneck than “selling.” 4 out of 5 calls turn into long-term paying customers.
Ironically, being less hype-driven has become one of my strongest acquisition advantages. It naturally attracts experienced professionals looking for clarity, structure, and sustainable growth rather than quick fixes.
Laurel Carpenter: outreach to warm referrals and previous clients
Laurel is a brand strategist & writer for coaches, creatives, and consultants who are committed to growing their businesses with integrity in the quick-fix era. Connect with Laurel here.
In January 2026, I did a manual, targeted, personalized outreach campaign to small creative agencies that I’m already connected with on LinkedIn to see if they needed any support with brand strategy and copywriting.
I received a response two days later from the agency founder asking to set up a meeting. It turned out that his client, an architect who needed a new website, had researched branding on ChatGPT – and it told him he needed a branding workshop! (I think that is hilarious.)
The agency owner is primarily a visual creative and did not feel he could execute the branding workshop or messaging, so he hired me for a $5K project. He did build in a fairly hefty referral fee, and I did not need to use my entry-level $500 offer to sell it to the client. And, although it took about three months longer to close, we are now working together, and the client is really perfect for me.
I had been afraid to do LinkedIn outreach even to warm connections since I get pitchslapped a lot myself. But this time, it actually worked.
Lee Densmer: outreach via LinkedIn to local companies
Lee is a content marketing strategist and author of “Content, Simplified”. She builds and runs efficient, revenue-generating content programs for established B2Bs. Connect with Lee here.
My best client acquisition channels have changed a lot over the years. First, all my clients came from my existing network (built across 20 years in one industry).
That is a very friendly network; they knew me, I had an existing good reputation, and it was relatively easy to get conversations and close sales. Once I exhausted that network, it became much harder.
I was looking to referrals (inconsistent), CTAs in my newsletter (not high conversion), cold connection requests DMs to ‘ICPs’ (maddening and difficult), and I almost paid someone $2k to do that for me.
Also, let’s be clear: posting on social is NOT an acquisition channel, though everyone refers to it once I do begin a conversation with them.
But this is what landed me my most recent clients and conversations: using LinkedIn Sales Navigator with a very narrow search to find ICPs in my LOCAL area who had experienced a trigger change (promotion, new product release, round of investing, etc).
It turns out that being local IS a huge differentiator, and once I found those ideal people, it was easy enough to send a connection request and then begin a conversation via direct message.
Then I could move to email and work through curiosity/helpfulness to set up a call to move into selling.
To recap, I think your top client acquisition channel will change over time, and the best one for right now plays to your strengths (i.e., size of current network, local reputation, strength of referral partners, etc).
Stacy Eleczko: in-person speaking engagements
Stacy is a messaging strategist who helps B2B service brands turn buyer insight into strategic marketing messaging. Connect with Stacy here.
Initially, LinkedIn built the foundation of my business–my content generated inbound leads, and the relationships I nurtured turned into referrals and collaborations. The ROI from those relationships continues to compound.
In the past year, about 45% of my clients came directly from keynotes, and I close 85% of the calls that come from those events. The difference is really about attention and trust.
When you’re on stage, you’re not one post in someone’s feed. You have the room, you can read what’s landing and adjust in real time, and the in-person piece (plus the conversations before and after) speeds up trust in a way months of content just can’t.
LinkedIn and my newsletter still do the long-game work, but for short sales cycles and knowing exactly where clients came from? Speaking wins.
Risa Haasbroek: pro bono coaching and building relationships.
Risa is a mindset coach for entrepreneurs. Connect with Risa here.
My best client acquisition didn’t come from a funnel. It came from coaching a fellow coach for free. Right after I started my training, I offered six pro-bono sessions to someone in our Slack community, and then we simply stayed in touch.
About 18 months later, when Russell Brunson was looking for coaches for his mastermind, she remembered me, made the introduction, and I got the role.
The lesson I keep coming back to: build relationships, serve without expectation, and stay open to the serendipity that shows up when you’ve done both.
Catrina Mitchum: borrowed audiences
Catrina is an online education expert helping people build great courses that get sold and get results. Connect with Catrina here.
My most impactful client acquisition strategy right now is audience borrowing: podcast guesting, newsletter swaps, workshop collabs, and just showing up in communities and being genuinely useful.
About 40% of my clients in the last year have come through other people’s audiences. My favorite example: I joined a free group to do market research, I wasn’t pitching at all, and two people followed me back to my newsletter and converted into clients a couple of months later.
Warm beats cold every time, and the fastest way to get warm is to borrow someone else’s trust.
Katelin Tiernan: follow up with your prospects!
Katelin is a content strategist and copywriter for LinkedIn, email, and more. Connect with Katelin here.
Sales for 4-figure+ engagements ultimately come down to relationship building. Referrals and networking are where to start, but the real work lies in the follow-up.
Whether it’s a referral or someone you meet at a network, follow up, follow up, and follow up again (respectfully!).
A non-response doesn’t mean no; it may just mean they are busy. Some of the best clients you’ll ever have will close 6 months after the initial connection.
Alexander Willard: outreach with/without AI automation
Alexander is a business growth coach who works with founders across industries. Connect with Alexander here.
It’s easy to get trapped in the “post and get inbound leads” but the main lead source I’ve seen work every single time across many clients, making up to $500,000 per year, is outbound. This means following one simple process: 1) Be super clear on your ICP 2) Set up automation workflows to max out your daily connection limit to the right prospects (±19 without sales navigator, 25-30 with sales navigator) 3) Get the automation to send the first welcome message and keep it light 4) Follow up from there The main thing to keep in mind is that, depending on your offer and ICP, you want to: A) Sell directly (open with a pitch or permission to pitch).
You can do this if you solve a super-specific problem and offer a very specific service, and your ICP can be identified easily. B) Social sell – focus on relationship building and genuine interest, tracking potential prospects so that at the right time, they may become a lead or client. The important thing is to track everything. No matter how smart you are, you will not be able to remember 100+ conversations a week. Additionally, for some very specific cases with very clear products, complete AI automation might be a good option. What good numbers look like:
- 140 connections a week sent
- 50%+ accept rate (70)
- 10-20% might be qualified or interested (7-15)
- 50% will book a call or demo (4-8)
- Close rate depends on your skills (20% is low, 70% is top tier, 40% is middle)
- 2-3 clients or sales per week (obviously, super high ticket contracts have longer sales cycles, i.e., a £50-150k fractional gig might take 4-6 months to close, rather than a few weeks).
This is the same system I used with all my clients. It works every single time.
Any tactic you want to try for yourself?
My advice is to pick 1-2, NOT ALL at once, and give them a shot — ideally for at least 3 months. Personally, I’m working on doing more outreach this year and getting more speaking engagements, two things that most Council members above said worked for them.
What’s your pick? Reply and let me know.
P.S.: This is the kind of experimentation we do in The Council. We analyze tactics like these, offer feedback, and give ideas on how to improve current processes.
Want to work on your business with smart solopreneurs like the people above? Join us or reply here, and I’ll tell you if The Council is a good fit for you.
