How I Focused My Upwork and LinkedIn Outreach Agency

I'm Abby. I generate interested replies through LinkedIn and Upwork for businesses, choosing the channel and strategy to fit the client. In my interview with Andre, we discussed 16 clients signed in the previous month. That was a count of clients signed, not revenue or a promise that another agency would do the same.

The useful change was focusing my own acquisition instead of spreading myself across every service and channel. Upwork was bringing me opportunities, so I concentrated on that for my business while continuing to use LinkedIn for clients. Coaching helped me decide what to work on next, including sales and how I priced the service.

I had tested enough channels to know what fitted me

My earlier social-media work exposed me to email, affiliate marketing, SEO, paid ads and partnership outreach. I tried different approaches before finding that LinkedIn partnerships and Upwork fitted the way I wanted to work.

I was already offering LinkedIn outreach and using Upwork to find leads before joining Client Ascension. The problem was knowing how to scale it and what should happen next, rather than having no service or experience at all.

A slowdown showed the risk of relying on one source

Upwork had been working well and then slowed sharply. I was worried about continuing tool costs without enough new business. That was one reason I wanted another acquisition source and better skills in cold outreach and appointment setting.

Invitations on Upwork felt warmer to me because people had come toward me first. Starting the conversation with someone else was harder. I wanted help with that distinction, rather than assume success with invited leads meant I had already mastered cold outreach.

The immediate instruction was to focus the working channel

J’s advice was to focus on one outreach channel at a time, get good at it and then add another. Since Upwork was working, I concentrated there instead of trying to run LinkedIn acquisition for myself at the same time as doing it for clients.

I set a goal of at least three sales calls a day. That was the target I organized around, not a claim that I achieved that number every day indefinitely. The previous-month figure discussed with Andre was 16 signed clients.

Client Ascension related reading: the acquisition guide explains choosing a channel to fit an offer and evaluating cost per client over a full sales cycle.

Interested replies are a delivery measure, not closed sales

I described clients usually receiving about 15–20 positive replies a month. Those were interested replies, not a count of signed customers or a guaranteed number of appointments. Keeping those stages distinct is part of understanding what the service does.

At the end of the interview, I had also just opened an Upwork service aimed at helping clients get more relevant invitations. It was a new offer, not evidence that its long-term performance had already been established.

I needed feedback on sales and pricing, not every class at once

On sales calls, I could overidentify with the prospect’s difficulties and make the offer too cheap or too easy to bend. I wanted help structuring that properly so I could run a business, rather than keep discounting because I felt bad for someone.

J helped me identify the specific classes and coaches I needed. He reviewed the business, gave me priorities and monthly work to complete, and brought me back to those priorities when I got distracted. That was different from trying to attend every available call.

Consistency made the feedback usable

I said consistency mattered because there needs to be enough activity to understand what is going wrong and make an informed change. Looking at the work myself and then taking it to the appropriate coach was a useful combination.

I also had to accept feedback instead of paying for guidance and then resisting every change. The process was to keep doing the work, review what happened and focus the next improvement, rather than keep buying another course when something became difficult.

Client Ascension related reading: Matt’s case study gives a different LinkedIn-service example, covering free founder work, a first paying customer and referrals.

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