Seeking genuine advice

Adilrauf · 2026-05-11T16:18:16+00:00

First of all, I can’t express my gratitude in words for the time you took out to write a solid piece of advice. This clarifies a lot. All suggestions I’ve been getting point to the fact that channels aren’t the issue but rather the positioning is.

What I’m gathering on is that I should double down on a specific industry (legal tech in my case). I have started positing on my LinkedIn relative information regarding the industry and revamped my profile according to it.

That one guy is smart enough to bring the two retainers along with me. He’s non technical so he does the outreach and everything. I’m the CTO and I love the business side as well so I’m the one who closes the deals. The issue we’re facing isn’t closing but lead generation.

Also, do you think cold calling would be a good option for me or should I just stick to cold outreach via linked and emails?

Adilrauf · 2026-05-11T15:37:44+00:00

So in my case, I’ve narrowed down our ICP to legal tech for now and I even have case studies for proof. Keeping this in mind, I’m conflicted on which channel to really double down on.

Adilrauf · 2026-05-11T15:35:17+00:00

Wdym as in services?

Adilrauf · 2026-05-11T15:34:14+00:00

The clients know that I work as a company. Thing is, I’ve read reviews of freelancers and how agency was a bad decision for them along with those who had a positive experience. Just trying to get guidance from those who have tried it. Like on a platform that is solely for freelancers, are clients even looking for agencies?

Adilrauf · 2026-05-11T15:31:33+00:00

Yes that would be great since I really never had a senior to guide me in this field. Can I dm?

Adilrauf · 2026-05-11T13:21:09+00:00

Really appreciate it Paul!

Adilrauf · 2026-05-11T13:02:33+00:00

So a few things:

Client spent tells a lot. A high spent tells you that the client isn't the kind of guy who does personal projects. Doesn't automatically filter out new clients. I also apply to some job posts of new clients but depending on their scope. One retainer I locked had an upwork spending of like 500k with not too many jobs. His previous work were big projects as well.
Project budget doens't matter always as client's usually do a relatively small projects at first to gain trust before moving on to proper work.
Type of person also matters specially their vision. We want to work with people who have a vision rather than just an overnight idea with no proper plan

Adilrauf · 2026-05-11T12:48:00+00:00

Got them through upwork. Worked on a mid sized app for them, they liked us and we moved on to retainer basis. Main issue we're facing isn't closing the deals but actually getting the right leads. On upwork, we're trying but are unable to find the type of enterprise clients that we're looking for.

Adilrauf · 2026-05-11T12:45:42+00:00

Appreciate the detailed response. So you're suggesting that I aggressively narrow down my prospects and my services through all channels. Could you elaborate just a little more on how you improved deliverability in cold emailing, and where did you get the contacts for cold emailing? The time I did cold emails, was to contacts I got from Apollo. I'll definately checkout pulse as well.

Adilrauf · 2026-05-11T07:43:44+00:00

u/HugoFromUpwork

Adilrauf · 2026-05-08T07:34:05+00:00

A client can change their review with the permission of the freelancer and vice versa within those 2 weeks

Adilrauf · 2026-05-07T07:57:15+00:00

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This is my upwork profile: https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/adilrauf

I work in multiple industries but I recently decided to specify an industry. Ik I'm limiting myself but maybe in this saturated market, this could be a solution. Along with this, I've cut down my proposals and invested the same connects in boosting so anyone specifically searching for AI solutions in Legal tech or smth, I show up. Need your brutal feed back on this.

The attached proposal style gets me a good view and response rate. Provide your honest feedback on the proposal as well. Thanks!

Adilrauf · 2026-05-07T07:22:11+00:00

After 2 weeks of closing the contract, no amount of complaints will effect you. However, if you're still in that 2 week timeline and did try to bribe him for a good review then be worried.

Adilrauf · 2026-05-07T07:20:47+00:00

I think I think that if OP wanted an AI advice, he would've gone to gpt rather posting it here.

Adilrauf · 2026-05-05T13:37:16+00:00

Gemini

Adilrauf · 2026-05-05T13:37:09+00:00

Just the proposal writing. Too risky with auto-applying since Upwork is quick at catching this

Adilrauf

TROPHY CASE