How I Think About Signing Agency Clients Without Case Studies

Yes, you can sign agency clients without case studies. In my experience, the bigger problem for beginners is usually not a lack of proof but a lack of a clear description of what they actually deliver.

When you have no results yet, the buyer is taking a bigger risk on you. A risk reversal moves some of that risk back onto you, and that is what makes a first conversation possible.

Proof is not the first thing to fix

Agency pitches can sound interchangeable: impressive client results, with almost no explanation of the product behind them. I think that misses what a buyer needs to understand.

When I look at it that way, the thing people tend to forget is the product itself. What exactly do you do to get people those results? If a prospect can't answer that, a testimonial won't fix it.

So if you're struggling to sign clients, start by asking whether a buyer could describe what they would receive from you. If they couldn't, the gap is in your offer, not in your portfolio.

The call where I couldn't explain my product

Early on, when I was first starting a cold email agency, I got on a call with a prospect. I told him my offer was something like 10 sales calls guaranteed with cold outreach.

He kept asking me the same question: what do I get? I kept answering that I send cold emails for him. I was angry at the end of that call because we kept going around the same question.

It took me years to understand what he was asking. I was describing the activity, but I wasn't describing the deliverables he would physically receive.

Describe the deliverables in plain terms

Here is the answer I should have given him. You are not selling air. You are selling a service that isn't physical, so you have to make it tangible.

For a cold email offer, that might mean naming the number of domains, the inboxes per domain, the warm-up process, how the lead lists are segmented by product, how many script variations you write, and who books the meetings. Each item is something the buyer can picture.

The point is that a prospect can evaluate a list of deliverables even when you have no case studies yet.

Stack the deliverables

I teach a concept I call deliverable stacking. You list each piece of work the client gets, in order, so the offer feels like a real package.

Here is an illustrative video sales letter funnel pitch. These are examples of deliverables I could present to a prospect, not a report of work completed for a particular client:

• Opt-in page, VSL page and thank you page design

• Automation setup for the funnel

• A 20-email opt-in sequence and a 10-email pre-call sequence

• VSL script and editing, plus thank you page video scripting and editing

• 50 ad scripts with editing and a campaign launch

• Sales page copy

Why a risk reversal matters when you have no proof

A business buying a service expects a return. If they pay you and get nothing back, the purchase has failed at the one job it was meant to do. From their side, you are a risky investment.

That is why a beginner needs to take on some of that risk. A risk reversal is how you do it, and it is how you compensate for the proof you don't have yet.

I describe two ways to do that: a money-back guarantee tied to a defined result, or a performance-based model where the client pays as results occur.

Guarantees and performance pricing

With a money-back guarantee, you promise a specific result, such as a minimum revenue amount, clients signed, calls booked, or leads generated. If you miss it, the client gets their money back. You can pick whatever level of the results ladder fits your offer.

With performance pricing, the client pays as results occur. The structure I describe combines a monthly tech fee to cover campaign costs with a fee for each call. The point is that payment is tied to a defined event.

Either way, the statement itself matters. A specific promise makes a prospect willing to book the call in the first place.

Make the client's responsibilities clear

I would make the dependencies clear before starting: what I agree to deliver, what the client needs to do, and when a refund applies. The stipulations should be reasonable, not a way to avoid responsibility when I fail to deliver.

Say you guarantee 20 booked calls per month, but the client has no open calendar availability. Or your ads work needs a minimum ad spend, and the client refuses to spend it. In both cases the contract should make clear the result depended on their side too.

My cold email example concerns a guarantee of signed clients, rather than just booked calls. If I book the calls but the client closes none, I would have agreed a reasonable close-rate requirement in advance. The promised result and the client's responsibilities have to match.

Use the guarantee to book the call, then present the product

The guarantee's job is not to close the deal on the call. Its job is to get the prospect to book the call at all. You will repeat it once they are on the phone.

On the call itself, I try to keep things logical. I ask about the business and what they sell, so I can judge whether the result is reasonable. Then I walk through exactly what they receive.

After I present the product, I ask for the decision before I go deep on the guarantee. If the product alone isn't enough, I bring up the risk reversal. If the hesitation is about whether it will work, that's when the guarantee does its job.

Trade concessions instead of giving guarantees for free

When I give a concession, I want something back. If I'm taking on more risk or waiving upfront payment, I want us to be clear about what the client agrees to in return.

For performance-based clients, I'd want a trade. If I'm not charging a large amount upfront, I'd ask in return for permission to publish the results, including the client's identity and what they sell, so I can turn that work into a case study.

Be clear about this with the client. It's a deal, and both sides should know what they agreed to. I describe an initial group of clients on stronger risk reversals as a way to build proof, not a guaranteed route or a fixed timetable.

Expect to refund sometimes

Sometimes you will fail a client. You may have to give a refund because the result didn't happen and the failure was yours. That's part of running a business, and the lesson is to do better next time.

Expect iteration. You need to dedicate time, try different approaches, and accept that you will fail sometimes. That's normal, and it's a good reason to keep your guarantee terms clear from the start.

Client Ascension related reading: read Jake's cold email agency story for a separate operator's perspective on growth. His experience does not establish what a beginner should expect or guarantee your first client.

Client Ascension related reading: explore the AI Assisted Agency program for current details about its coaching, AI tools, templates and community. The historical examples in this article do not establish current pricing or refund terms.

Adapted by Client Ascension with AI assistance from Daniel Fazio's lesson. The first-person narrative follows the source speaker’s account. Watch the original video