These aren't things we discovered through market validation. These are things I should have been doing and wasn't. Writing them down so we're on the same page about what's changing.
I was pitching broadly — explaining what we do and hoping something landed. The result was vague conversations with people who were mildly interested but had no active problem. I was optimizing for not offending anyone instead of finding the people who actually need this right now.
The ask is now immediate and specific: "Send me the files. I'll run the scan and get you a report in 24 hours." That one line filters everything. People without an active case won't take you up on it. People with one will. Stop trying to please everyone — find the ones who are already on fire.
I let things go warm and then cold. The clearest example: a lawyer paid us $600, submitted our report as court evidence, and I went silent for three weeks. That's our best proof of fit and I let the relationship sit. She's not the only one — she's just the one I can name.
Friday is now a standing 30-minute block to clear every open thread. Anyone who replied or paid gets a follow-up before the weekend.
I've been doing outreach, follow-ups, and everything else all mixed together with no structure. When everything is happening at the same time, nothing gets done properly. The result: not enough connections going out, not enough replies getting followed up on, and no clear sense of what's actually working.
Monday is only for sending — 200 LinkedIn connections, full weekly limit, nothing else. The rest of the week is only for responding to what comes back. No mixing. That separation is what makes both things actually happen.
There's no CRM anyone actually uses. Replies, conversations, warm leads — they're scattered across inboxes with no shared view. I can't tell what's moving, what's stalled, or whether the people I'm reaching out to are even the right ones. Without that, I'm flying blind.
Setting up Apollo for email tracking and a simple shared CRM for LinkedIn. Five columns is enough: name, company, title, last touch, next action. Every touch logged same day.