First 10 Customers

The Ten Sheet

Companion to "Your ten, by name" and "The arithmetic of ten."


Ten lines, each a person or a named, reachable segment, tagged with its channel, sitting above one weekly number. A line you cannot justify is a wish, and wishes do not survive the channel-switch test. Cross off the won and the dead, add new names, keep the ten slots full until the ten are behind you.

The ten

#Name or enumerable segmentChannel (warm / outreach / room)Reason likelyDated next step
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

A category only belongs on the list if you can enumerate its members. "Small business owners" is a market, not a target, and markets do not answer messages.

Line shape, as taught

Priya, former coworker, knows every practice manager at the two hospital campuses. Channel: warm network. Likely because she has referred me work twice before. Ask: one introduction, by Friday.

The eleven storefronts on Mill Street with awning damage from the March storm. Channel: outreach. Likely because the damage is visible and the season for fixing it is open. Action: first five contacts this week, follow-ups per sheet.

The weekly number

Equation: customers = attempts × answer rate × close rate. Back-solve: attempts per week = customers per week ÷ (answer rate × close rate). Rates below are PLACEHOLDERS for first-time use, labeled as such; replace every one of them with numbers from your own lead sheet after a month of real work.

GoalCustomers/weekAttempts/week at placeholder rates
Ten in five weeks (full-time pace)2Roughly 10 warm asks + 35 outreach contacts, roughly one working afternoon (the lesson's worked example)
Ten in ten weeks (build-while-employed pace)1Roughly 5 warm asks + 17-18 outreach contacts (the five-week worked example halved)
My goal: ten in weeks → customers per week: Weekly attempts:
My measured answer rate (after a month on the sheet): My measured close rate:
Weekly number posted (top of the lead sheet, Monday, in ink)☐ Posted, date:

Placeholder channel table (for first-time use only)

ChannelAttempts each weekAnswer rateClose rateCustomers a week
Warm network15 personal asks1 in 31 in 3about 1 and a half
Direct outreach50 contacts1 in 101 in 5about 1
Communitiespresence in 3 roomscompoundscompoundsnot a direct line

The fifty-to-one funnel: fifty contacts produce five conversations produce one customer. On a warm list, ten personal asks land roughly one customer. The rates differ by channel, the funnel never changes shape.