How to Get Your First Clients Without Reviews or Testimonials

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When I started selling coaching last year, I had zero coaching testimonials of course. Which is not ideal, but my ten years of work behind me were split between employee work, solo freelance work, or work from the studio I co-founded. I had some teaching experience, yes, but no reviews specifically from it, so nothing I could use to promote the coaching 1:1 or the program I created.

Still, I managed to get in some 1:1 clients and 8 people for the founding cohort of the group program.

So if you’re trying to figure out how to get clients without testimonials, because you’re new or you’ve changed direction in your career, believe me I know the feeling. What you’re seeing here, is literally me building through my last pivot.

And when you’re starting something new it doesn’t really matter how good you are when you look at the competition’s pages full of five stars, right? You just think “okay, I can’t sell until I have that.”

The problem is that this is a vicious cycle, because if you believe that you need clients to get reviews, but no one will buy without reviews from clients…

I believe you get the idea of why this is a dog chasing its tail.

So by the end of this video I’ll share with you what I did to find some clients (and reviews), including the things I got wrong so you won’t.

First, stay away from bad advice

Now, you’ve probably heard one of these two pieces of advice:

1. Wait. Build your experience on the side, collect your proof through it, and then sell.
2. Do free work for anyone who’ll take it and collect reviews as fast as you can.

I believe that when we were young freelancers we all went for the second. We all did a couple of free projects for people we barely knew, and you got back a simple “Great job, recommended!” that you still desperately used, but that could’ve been literally wrote by a distant cousin without wasting all that work in return. Or maybe you got nothing at all, because once the work was free, the review was not a priority for them.

If that happened, welcome to the club. 🥲

The problem with this advice is that you assume people buy only because of reviews, and reviews are indeed super important, but it’s also not the whole story.

The other side of the coin

Think about the last time you tried a restaurant that had just opened, no reviews yet. Why did you go anyway?

Probably a few things pushed you:

• Maybe a friend said “go, it’s good!”
• Maybe they had an opening week price, so trying it felt safe
• Maybe you read the menu and thought “oh, this sounds nice!”

Every one of those did the same job a normal review does: they made the yes less risky.

What a testimonial does, is borrowing trust from a stranger, even if your buyer has never met them, and they are guaranteeing for you. When you’re starting out you don’t have those strangers yet, but you have other places to borrow from:

• People who already know you
• A price that makes trying feel safe
• A guarantee you can give
• Content that makes the right person feel understood

I’ll explain one by one how you can leverage these, and you need to understand which one works best for you without jeopardizing your offer. This is part of what I do with people in my group program by the way, so if that’s where you’re stuck, it’s linked below.

But let’s go back to the eight people.

A little background, so you get the idea

Let me give a little context first.

I moved countries a few years ago (that’s why I left my studio in Italy) and after a couple of years in a company to settle, I started to feel that need to have something on my own coming back. So I decided to open my business here and besides the brand design practice, I wanted to start the coaching side because it just made sense and felt like a good idea since I love to help new freelancers, professionals and small business owners.

I still launched with two simple 1:1 tiers first (the program came later) and of course I started planning, producing content and networking a bit, all while doing market research of course, to try and make my offer more appealing (by the way, this is also what I teach in the program).

But as mentioned, my testimonials were not spendable, and since I value a lot transparency, I decided to not use anything from that past experience. At the same time, I also didn’t want to throw away years of experience because that’s what I bring into my coaching and where the value comes from. On top of it, in a different country with zero network, it felt twice as hard to get clients.

So how did I move from there to getting the first reviews and case studies going?

What worked for me that you can apply too

Let’s talk about the things I did, that you can start doing as of today to get some clients and reviews to get your business going. I ordered them from the one where you can get the most back, to the one where you get very little.

And as I always say, this is what worked for me, so feel free to take what feels right and ignore the rest.

1. A founding/opening price:

You can offer a nice discount for the first round of your service or product to people that feel very aligned to your target audience. Just make sure to have everything written down in the contract or agreed via email: you want guaranteed feedback to improve your service, a review, and a full case study if you want to have the client in your portfolio. This is the one that got me the most results. You can say it upfront too: “this is a founding price, and here’s what I’m asking in return”, that’s a deal, and both sides know it. You can have limited spots too to give yourself and to clients a limit.

2. Add a guarantee to remove friction

I offered (and still offer) a 30 day money-back guarantee, no questions asked. Only one person used it (and actually, I was the one who proposed it because I saw they were struggling with keeping up with the program). A guarantee takes the risk off the buyer, and makes the investment feel reversible, so the yes comes easier.

3. Barter

You swap your work for theirs. I’ve done this too a few times, and it’s great honestly. It works when you need what they do of course, and you don’t have to accept just because, but if you were going to pay someone for something anyway it’s a great way to help each other while still getting the review or case you need.

4. Free work, but only for a name that gives you credibility

This is the most controversial and I know not everyone will be okay with it.

I’ll be honest, in most cases I’m against it too, like when the other part could pay but is clearly trying to get advantage of you. I’m saying it louder for the young freelancers on the back!

This works well though, when things feel good and the person or company is one that people recognize, or that aligns perfectly with your scope so the case study will come out super strong. I’m talking about the possibility of showing a huge name after doing something that didn’t cost you too much, or in a setting where you get a lot of connections and visibility in return, besides having the possibility of showcasing their logo and name on your website.

Warning though: check before you start that you’re allowed to do things your way and to say you worked with them. Have a contract that state exactly what you want and need and that you can use and how, what they will give back and have that signed so that they don’t retract later.

5. Free, because you can make a great case study

I’ve done this for friends who were launching a business or a passion project and struggling with money. Or maybe when someone is organizing a small event they have no budget for and you still offer to help in exchange of complete freedom of execution.

Again, I don’t love telling people to work for free, so this one should come from your own choice. And in these cases, be honest with yourself about what you’re okay doing and what not. But if you can get someone to literally agree on giving you complete freedom on the project, this could be a great moment to create a case study that tells exactly how you work, your vision, your style and your method.

Clients buy you also because they like your style or process, this way you get to demonstrate what it is.

6. Free, because you want to help

If not with friends, but you still want to help (and get a review out of it), you can try pro bono. Some websites work with NGOs or Non-profits in general that might need help with something. If you find a project that aligns with your values, it’s also a good test.

NOTE: on the last two, make sure they align with your clients too. It’s pointless to have a butcher’s review if your audience is vegetarians. It’s a bit of an extreme example, but I bet your get it.

7. Start already with content

A few clients found me on Instagram, looked at my content and my website, and booked a call. No reviews needed. Simply, the way I talked about their problems made them feel seen (this is why I stress so much about communication in my content and program!).

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I can’t tell from here which one will work best for you, but feel free to drop your questions in the comments if you have any, or book a virtual coffee and tell me all about it. I’m always happy to meet you.

Now, to the painful part.

What didn’t work

Of course not everything I tried went well.

Marketing is a bit messy in general and in my opinion it’s also the beauty of it. But on top of the mess, none of us is perfect and we have our biases, our flaws and all.

Me, these are the lessons I learned:

1. A few times I was so focused on giving a discount to get the gig that I did it before anyone asked for it. Nobody was really pushing back on the price, I lowered it myself and lost extra money.
2. A couple of people agreed to the review, did the course, and then disappeared. I followed up a couple of times but nothing worked. It happens.
3. When I was younger, a few times I forgot to put the exchange in writing before starting. No need to say I didn’t get anything in return.

Now you get all the warnings I gave you before.

What’s next?

If you’re struggling in finding clients I have a little thing for you!
I’m preparing a free webinar about why your marketing and content is not working. I’ll explain how it looks like running marketing right now and what are the common mistakes most business owners make, that lead to no clients and no visibility.

You can read more and sign up here, again, all free.

And if you’re even earlier in all this, the Marketing basics playlist on Youtube is available too. Start there, then let me know how it’s going.

Hugs,
Chiara