Create baby’s first sales pipeline: a reliable way to turn strangers into customers

In an ideal world, you’d message a prospect, hop on a call, and bada-bing-bada-boom—have a brand new customer on your roster. The real world of sales, unfortunately, is a little more complex.

Deals stall, prospects want more information, budgets are frozen. It’s true that the solopreneur (that’s you!) life is feast or famine, but it doesn’t have to be that much of a wild ride.

Sales pipelines help you maintain a consistent cash flow (and avoid driving yourself crazy with too much work) by tracking which phase deals are in. Not enough work? Go back to prospecting. Lots of deals stuck in negotiation? Try writing a case study of your last successful project and sending it out as a follow-up.

Don't miss a single detail. Get your pipeline checklist and follow along with the worksheet​​​

1 .Prospecting, i.e. “new customer hunting”

Sales prospecting is all about finding the people in your yet untapped market and reaching out.

Don’t expect a lot of responses: 3% is stellar. It’s why a high volume is invaluable, even more so than perfect targeting. The more outreach you do, the more you’ll learn and the better you'll get at it.

Everyone loves a good cold email outbound campaign, but casually shooting over a DM on LinkedIn or the like can be just as effective for the first touch. Whatever you do, be authentic.

Lead with something personal and then get straight to the point: how you can help them get more results. End on a call-to-action so they'll know what to do if they're intrigued.

Our LinkedIn DM template:

(Get the writeable Notion version here)

Hi [Name],Sorry for the cold DM, but I saw your [something relevant the person has done or posted lately] and had to say something.I’m reaching out because I think I could help you [concrete result you can get them] with [what you’re offering]. My customers (mostly [niche] like [biggest customer name drop]) have seen [results you’ve gotten with numbers]. You can learn more at [website].Any chance you have some time to chat about a collaboration next week?

2. Discovery

Of the small number of people who respond, only another fraction will be a good match. Set up a discovery call to find ideal customers. That way both you and the prospect can determine if your services are a good fit for their needs and they’re the type of person you want to work with.

Every call or meeting should end with an outline of the next steps, whether it’s the signing of a formal contract (please don’t do work without a contract) or further sales calls to determine fit. Both parties should understand what's expected and how you'll be moving forward.

Note from Carmen: Don’t ghost. If you don’t think you can help, be upfront about it. You’d be surprised how small the business world actually is.

3. Negotiation

This is where most deals get stuck. Don’t be surprised when a call that ended on “I’m ready to sign,” turns into an email of, “Can I see some more samples?” or “We’re going to need some time to think about this.”

Figure out what kind of documentation and details are needed to craft a comprehensive proposal. How formally or informally will you pose your terms?

You should obviously do your best to address any concerns, send over additional materials and/or formal proposals, or follow-up to check on status. But also know when it’s time to let go and mark a deal “closed lost.”

This will free up valuable brain space for prospecting new potential customers (or catching up on your Masterclasses). There’s no hard and fast rule for when to give up on a deal. Trust your gut, and when in doubt, air on the side of following up more often.

Note from Carmen: Look at your lost deals every few months and reach out to the ones that “needed more time”. Send over some recent client results or new offers, if you have them. If not, it’s perfectly acceptable to send a “Just checking in,” message.

4. Sealing the deal

Congrats, your discovery/sales calls went well and you made it through negotiation. It’s time to get to work! Not so fast. There are logistics to be ironed out.

Gather the work summaries, the contracts, the invoice. Get the legalities straight and be prepared for the necessary transactions. We recommend always taking at least 50% of payment upfront and never starting work without a signed contract that you read cover-to-cover. It doesn’t matter how much you trust the other party—this is business.

Note from Carmen: Oftentimes, customers will ask if you have a contract for them to sign. Do some searching for templates and mix-and-match that fit your offer. At the very least, you want a list of what you’ll do, how much you’ll get paid (and on what schedule), and terms for non-payment.

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5. Beginning the work

Contracts are signed and the kickoff meeting date is set. Assuming it’s all in the near future, turn your focus toward new customer onboarding.

Eventually, you’ll have a formalized process in place for this, but for now, think about what you’ll want to cover during your first meeting. What information can you share beforehand so everyone comes to that kickoff call primed for success?​

Remember: You’re in charge here. You don’t want to look ill-prepared.