Cold outreach means contacting people who do not know you yet, by phone call, email, bulky mail, or LinkedIn, to start a conversation about your services. It is a good idea to make it a habit, to build up awareness about who you are and what you are doing, and even to close clients. You do not need a website to do it.
1. Decide Who You Are Contacting
Start with a clear target audience: one kind of company or person, with one kind of problem you solve. A lead list is a list of people in that audience with their contact information. You can build one yourself or buy one. Whichever you choose, check that you are allowed to contact the people on it (see the rules section below).
2. Set Up Before You Reach Out
A separate business line
I recommend having a separate business line from your main phone number and setting up a custom caller ID with your business’s name. It keeps your personal number out of it, and people are more likely to pick up a call that names a business than an unknown number.
A separate email domain
If you will do emailing, I recommend using a different domain for your email activities than you would use for a website if you ever plan to have one (e.g., instead of “me [at] myconsultingsite [dot] com”, use “me [at] notmyconsultingsite [dot] com”). This will protect your main domain and emailing activities from the risk of being identified as spam.
3. Cold Calling
Keep the first call short. Say who you are, who you help, and why you are calling them in particular. Then ask for something small: a conversation next week, not a contract. If they say no, thank them and move on. If they are busy, ask when to call back.
A simple opening to adapt: “Hi, this is [name]. I help [type of company] with [problem]. I noticed [something specific about them], and I wondered if it would be useful to talk for fifteen minutes next week.”
4. Cold Email
A cold email should be short enough to read on a phone. Use a plain subject line, one sentence on who you help, one sentence on why you are writing to them, and one clear ask. Do not attach anything. Follow up once or twice, and stop.
5. Bulky Mail
Bulky mail is a physical package or oversized envelope that stands out from a stack of ordinary mail.
6. LinkedIn
On LinkedIn, you connect with people in your target audience and start a conversation once they accept. In the connection request and in the conversation that follows, keep the message as short and specific as you would on a call or in an email.
7. Make It a Habit
One batch of calls or emails is not outreach. A recurring block in your week is. Pick a time, a number of contacts, and a place to record who you contacted, what happened, and when to follow up. There are ways to automate some of these activities, which I won’t get into here due to the legal complexities within different geographies, but I may discuss it at a later time.
Rules to Check Before You Start
Cold email and cold calling are regulated, and the rules depend on where the people you contact are. In the United States, commercial email must identify you, include a valid postal address, and give a working way to opt out. Calls can be restricted by do-not-call lists, and other countries have stricter consent rules for email. Check the rules for your recipients’ location before you send or dial, and respect every opt-out. This is general information, not legal advice.
Where to Go From Here
Cold outreach is one of three ways to find clients. The others, and how they fit together, are in how to get consulting clients. If you are deciding whether to build a site as well, read how to run a consulting business without a website.