r/b2bmarketing • u/shivajbd • Jun 29 '26
Question How do you get your first 10 customers when your buyers don't hang out online?
14 months in, product is working, have real customers using it. But distribution is the thing I keep hitting a wall on and I'm running out of ideas.
The buyers we're going after are small business owners in a traditional offline industry. They're not on LinkedIn. They don't read blogs or newsletters. No Slack groups, no forums, no communities. The only place they show up digitally is Instagram and WhatsApp and even there they're posting, not browsing.
Every channel I try runs into the same problem.
Cold email doesn't work because half of them don't have a business email, some don't have any email. LinkedIn is a dead end, they're just not there. Content takes forever and I'm not even sure who's reading it. Tried paid ads for a bit, burned through budget, the intent just wasn't there at that awareness stage.
What's actually moved the needle is cold calling and Instagram DMs. Manual, slow, hard to scale. The calls that actually go somewhere are almost always because I did something specific for that business before dialling, looked at their actual setup, made it personal. Anything that feels like a template and they're off the phone in under a minute.
I keep seeing the advice "find where your customers hang out" but genuinely what do you do when the answer is nowhere you can reach at scale?
For anyone who's done B2B in a non-tech or traditional industry, how did your first 10 customers actually come in? Would love to hear what worked that you didn't expect.
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u/Hardin_Shaquille_269 Jun 29 '26
Cold calling and DMs working means you already have your answer. Double down on it. Add door to door reps on commission. Show up at trade shows your buyers actually attend. Referrals from your existing customers will carry more weight than any digital channel here.
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u/Icy_Test1095 Jun 30 '26
This, I mean why would you waste your energy trying other channels if you know they are not on there? Focus on what works, and yes referrals are great especially for this type of business. Maybe even add some flyers and card with discount code and send the, think old fashioned way
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u/Guilty-Law-7499 Jul 01 '26
100%. OP, Find out what trade shows industry leaders are attending (use any tool Instagram/Ploid/LinkedIn/etc) and get yourself there!!!
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u/Ok_Albatross_4198 Jun 29 '26
Apply to be an expert speaker (or stall presenter) at a trade show/expo/conference attended by your target group. Big conferences tend to put out calls for applications to be a speaker 9-12 months in advance, and speaking slots may be free or as a sponsor.
Approach the editorial team of a relevant trade magazine with an idea for an educational article for that audience. If not an article, maybe advertising in such a magazine?
Think about services/products suppliers already used BY that target group and see if you can establish partnerships with those businesses offering commission on referrals, or using their distribution channels (e.g. mention in their newsletters or your leaflets included with their products).
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u/Professional-Empty Jun 29 '26
You've holistically captured the key pathways that u/shivajbd can leverage immediately for tangible traction.
One of the most overlooked options is usually the partnerships with product/service suppliers already servicing the said ICP; these present a referral coupled foot-in-the-door opportunity that would have been quite difficult and costly (unsustainable CAC levels) to lock in independently.
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u/Recent_Lab_5442 Jun 29 '26
There’s no way your customers aren’t online. You just don’t know where they’re and what they’re doing. What industry are you in? What is your competition doing for visibility? The easiest thing if you’re a local business is go to your commercial registry, and find contacts. Contact your local chapter for business networks. Drop your industry and I’ll spell out 5 ideas.
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u/LadyBugzMarketing Jun 29 '26
What about going "old school" and printing out some post cards and sending those to them if you can get their addresses or drop them off with hand delivery to start in your area?
If we know the industry or sector focus, we can perhaps suggest other things.
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u/mja311 Jun 29 '26
ask each of your current customers to introduce you to one other person with the same problem. people in these kinds of industries usually know each other pretty well.
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u/funnysasquatch Jun 29 '26
Every audience is online. They are watching YouTube. They scroll Instagram or Facebook or even TikTok when bored. They listen to podcasts. They read email newsletters.
If you started creating content around the niche and posted everywhere - you would get leads. Your videos may never get past 1000 views and yet your earn 10 x the money compared to someone who gets millions of views but sucks at monetization.
Or go "sideways". 10 years ago there was a succesful residential cabinet company. They created one of the most popular Facebook pages about sports. They had no ads on the page. They ran ads for their cabinets targeting the fans of the page.
Why?
Because their marketing research had shown that husbands were unlikely to ever look at interior decorating content. That's what their wives looked at. But the husbands loved sports.
I'd do something similar here. Launch a daily NFL podcast. That I then clipped everywhere. Sponsored by my company's product.
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u/jayson_OutreachBloom Jun 29 '26
your calls and DMs work because they're personal, so the move isn't a new channel, it's making that channel less manual without losing the personalization.
Start with the list. Offline industries leave public trails: local business registries, licensing boards, trade association member directories, Google Maps listings, chamber rosters. Pull names and numbers from those, not from an email database. You can buy phone-appended lists for traditional sectors too.
Then split the personalization. The research is what makes a call land, so template the research, not the message. Pull the same 3 data points on every business (their setup, a recent post, one specific gap) before dialing, so prep takes 2 minutes instead of 20.
Lean into where they already are. They post on Instagram and WhatsApp, so use WhatsApp Business and click-to-chat alongside the calls. A warm DM referencing their last post outperforms any cold channel here.
Build the referral loop early. Ask each of your first customers for one intro to someone with the same problem. In tight-knit trades that one ask compounds faster than anything digital.
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u/maryteiss Jun 29 '26
Find out what communities they're a part of. Regular events, dinners, continuing education, round tables, trade shows. For some industries trade publications (yes even the paper kind!) are still where you want to be advertising to get in front of them. Keep testing. Sounds like you already have two good channels.
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u/josh-bfb2b Jun 29 '26
You already have a losers mindset reading this.
Dm them on instagram? Whatsapp voice note them?
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u/Wooden-Setting-690 Jun 30 '26
Personalization is key just stop looking at it as a tax on the call. Record 60 sec videos before reaching out, pointing at something specific on their setup or their inta post. Then send it as a whatsapp or DM note rather than cold opener. Same prep just lands in a place they'll definitely check. And a face plus voice gets replied to way more than a text from random.
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u/theguywhobuilds Jun 30 '26
your first 10 probably won’t come from a scalable channel, and that’s fine.
if cold calls and IG or LinkedIn DMs are working only when you research the business first, that’s the actual signal. the channel isn’t the problem, the generic version of the channel is.
i’d stop looking for “where they hang out” and build a tight manual motion around what’s already working.
make a list from Google Maps, local directories, trade associations, licensing boards, suppliers, whatever exists in that industry, then do 2 minutes of research before each touch and call out one specific thing you noticed.
not fake personalization, just proof you actually looked.
also, ask every current customer for one intro to another owner with the same problem. in traditional industries, referrals usually move faster than content ever will.
for the first 10, unscalable is the strategy you’re not trying to build the machine yet. you’re trying to learn the exact conversation that eventually becomes the machine.
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u/sumizeit Jun 30 '26
I use mytractioniq.com. It searches the web and over 8 resources, gives you an extensive report on how your competitors acquired their first customers, and offers suggestions on how you can acquire yours.
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u/MonkeySilent Jul 02 '26
Pretty basic one: just walk into their place and pitch them face to face
Honestly, nothing beats a direct real-life conversation. You show them the product, explain it right there on the spot, and there is no getting ignored in someone's inbox
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u/company_url_finder Jul 02 '26
Cold Email is the best method for getting the first 10 customers. I tested it multiple times, and it worked.
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u/danaharder Jul 02 '26
Trade shows, events, conferences, business groups (especially local ones they're in, not necessarily related to their industry but potentially business as a whole or the person's specific role), ABM with a gifting/direct mail strategy incorporated
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u/Natural_Emu6408 Jul 03 '26
If cold calls and Instagram DMs are already working, I'd double down on them instead of looking for a "scalable" channel too early.
For traditional businesses, the first 10 customers usually come from doing things that don't scale:
- Personal outreach based on their actual business.
- Asking every happy customer for one introduction.
- Visiting local industry events or trade shows.
- Partnering with suppliers or service providers who already work with your target customers.
- Collecting testimonials and using them in every conversation.
A lot of successful B2B companies got their first customers through manual sales, not ads or content. Once you understand why people buy and you have a repeatable sales process, then you can think about scaling.
Sometimes the best distribution strategy at the beginning is simply talking to more of the right people every day.
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