Guide · Lead Axis
Find your first 20 customers: a two-week plan for a small business that sells to other businesses
Your first 20 customers almost never come from an ad. They come from a short list of businesses you chose on purpose, a first message that is about them and not about you, and the follow-ups you actually send. This guide is that plan, laid out over two weeks, with where each step lives in Lead Axis.
Before you start: be honest about the numbers
You do not know your reply rate yet, and nobody else's number will tell you. Your first 50 messages are how you find out. So plan to reach more businesses than you need, write down what happens to every one, and let your own results set the next round. Twenty customers is the goal. Fifty well-chosen businesses is the first step toward it.
Step 1. Write down what you sell, one line per item
Before you look for anyone, get clear on four things: what you sell, who it is for, the proof you can honestly point to (years in business, licenses, reviews, results you can show), and the one next step you want a business to take, such as a free 15 minute walk-through. Then list your products or services one per line. That list matters more than it looks: it is what you will match each business against, and what you will tick when a business tells you what it wants.
In Lead Axis this is Your pitch. Setup asks what you sell, who buys it, where you work and who your emails come from. If you already use Brand Axis or Pro Axis, empty fields start from what those apps know, each marked with where it came from, and nothing saves until you say so.
Step 2. Pick one kind of business and one area
"Small businesses in Louisiana" is not a list. "Dental offices within 10 miles of Baton Rouge" is. Narrow beats wide for two reasons: every first email can say something specific, and after 20 conversations with the same kind of business you know their problems better than they do. You can widen later. Start with the kind of business you understand best, or the one your best past customer came from.
In Lead Axis you type that sentence on Find. It searches the public business map (OpenStreetMap) for businesses that match, and Axis scores each one from 0 to 100 against your pitch with a one-line reason. Each business found uses 1 credit.
Step 3. Cut the list to 50, then check each one
Sort by fit and keep the top 50. Then look at each business before you write a word. You are looking for two things.
- A reason to reach out today. No website. A website that does not load, is not secure, or is not set up for phones. A footer showing a year long past. No way to book or order online. These are the openings that make a first message relevant instead of random.
- Whether the details are right. A map listing can be years out of date. Check the name, phone, address and email against the business's own website before you rely on them.
In Lead Axis a website check does both, for 1 credit. It lists the reasons to reach out, marks each detail as matching their website, taken from their website, only on the map listing, or different from what their website shows, and checks whether the email address can receive mail. It also reads what the business sells from its own homepage and guesses which of your items it may need, clearly labeled as a guess. If an email address cannot receive mail, do not send to it. Call the business instead.
Step 4. Write a first email that is about them
Under 120 words. One true thing about their business, what you offer in a sentence, and one easy question. No hype, no fake urgency, no "just checking in". Here is the shape, for a made-up business:
Subject: Booking at Cedar Row
Hi, I came across Cedar Row Dental Studio while looking at practices in Columbus. Your site does not have a way to book online, so new patients have to call during office hours. I set up online booking for small practices, usually in a week. Would it help if I showed you what that would look like for Cedar Row?
In Lead Axis, Axis drafts the email from your pitch and what was found about the business, for 2 credits. Axis is told never to invent links, prices, numbers or results, and never to name other companies, but it can still get things wrong, which is why you read before you send. Every email gets a footer with your name, your business, your mailing address, a line saying it is a sales email and an unsubscribe link. You send it from your own email, so you are the sender.
Not sure what the rules are? Read Cold outreach rules in plain English before your first send.
Step 5. Follow up twice, then stop
Most replies come after the first message, not to it. A simple rhythm: the first email on day 0, a short follow-up on day 3 with one new useful reason to reply, and a last one on day 7. Then stop. Never guilt anyone for not answering.
In Lead Axis a campaign holds those steps, with an email or a call on each day you choose. The Today list shows who is due. When you move a lead to Replied, Meeting, Won or Lost, its follow-ups stop on their own. For a call step, Axis writes a short script and you place the call yourself.
Step 6. When someone answers, write down what they want
The reply is where the guessing ends. When a business tells you what it is interested in, record it right away, in their words if you can. The next message should be about that and nothing else.
In Lead Axis you tick the items they asked about on the lead. Axis then leads with those in every draft for that business, and keeps the website guess separate so it is never presented as something they said.
Step 7. Count the money, not the opens
An opened email pays nothing. Track each lead by stage, from new to contacted, replied, meeting, and won or lost, and put a dollar value on every win. After two weeks you will know which kind of business answers, which message worked, and what a customer is worth to you.
In Lead Axis the pipeline board shows every lead by stage, and Results shows what each campaign brought in, from the deal values you enter, or from paid invoices if you also use Pro Axis.
Two places customers come from that are easy to miss
- Buyers who already posted what they need. Government agencies publish what they want to buy. Opportunities in Lead Axis matches open federal notices and Louisiana state bids to your pitch, for free.
- A fresh list every week. Turn on the Monday list and each week starts with new businesses that match your saved search, their websites checked and first emails drafted for the best fits. It uses credits like a search would.
The two-week plan
- Day 1. Write your pitch and your list of products or services. Read the outreach rules.
- Day 2. Search one kind of business in one area. Cut the list to 50.
- Day 3. Check every website. Drop the ones that are closed or clearly a poor fit.
- Days 4 and 5. Send first emails at a pace you can answer the same day.
- Day 7. First follow-ups go out. Call anyone whose email cannot receive mail.
- Day 11. Last follow-ups go out.
- Day 14. Count replies, meetings and wins. Keep what worked, change one thing, and start the next 50.
On credits: finding and checking 50 businesses and drafting a first email and two follow-ups for each comes to about 400 credits, well inside the 1,000 a month on Starter. Writing your own messages is always free.
The checklist
- One kind of business, one area.
- Every lead checked before the first message.
- Every first email says one true thing about them.
- Two follow-ups, then stop.
- Every reply recorded with what they want.
- Every win has a dollar value.
Sources
Lead Axis
Find businesses that fit what you sell, see why each one is worth a call today, and let Axis write the first message and every follow-up.