Onboarding checklist for a new outbound client (and connecting client LinkedIn accounts safely)

Onboard a new outbound client in five steps: collect the offer, the ideal customer and the do not contact list; have the client connect their own LinkedIn account through a hosted login so you never hold the password; write the persona and the rules; load a small list and read the first messages in approval mode; then launch with limits. Sellinger does not store a LinkedIn password.

Agencies lose clients in the first month more often than later. The reasons are rarely the technology. A client who is unsure what you will say in their name, or who finds out a week later that their account was used in a way they did not expect, loses trust fast. A written checklist protects both sides.

What do you need from the client before you touch a tool?

Collect five things in a short call and a shared document.

1. The offer. What the client sells, to whom, at what price range, and the one thing they want a prospect to do. Not the brochure, the sentence a salesperson would say.
2. The ideal customer. Sector, size, country, titles, and the trigger that makes someone a buyer. The ICP template has ten questions that fit.
3. The exclusion list. Existing customers, partners, competitors, people the client has already spoken to, and anyone they would be embarrassed to write to cold. Load it as a suppression list before the first message.
4. The voice. Three messages the client wrote and liked, and three they would never send. Words they use, words they avoid.
5. The handover rule. Who takes over a warm reply, in what time, and from which calendar.

Do not start until the exclusion list and the handover rule exist. Those two protect the client's relationships.

How does a client connect their LinkedIn account safely?

The client connects their own account through a hosted login in Sellinger. They sign in on a page that belongs to the connection provider, and Sellinger does not store the LinkedIn password. You never need to see it, and you should refuse if a client offers it. The steps are in the connect LinkedIn guide.

Some points to agree in advance:

• The account belongs to the client. It stays theirs, with their name and history. If you leave, they keep it.
• A proxy is possible. The connect flow accepts a proxy configuration, so an account can be connected through your own proxy if you prefer one.
• Limits are set per account. The defaults are 20 invitations a day, varied by a few each day, and 150 a week, with a quiet window of 01:00 to 08:00 account time. These are our defaults, not LinkedIn rules.
• There is no guarantee. No tool can promise that LinkedIn will never restrict an account. Tell the client in writing, and tell them what you will do if it happens. See what to do when a LinkedIn account is restricted.
• Agree who is on the account. If the client logs in on a phone while the agent is active, that is fine, but they should know how to pause the agent.

Do not ask the client to share a session cookie or a screenshot of their login page. If someone asks for that, the tool is not using a hosted login.

Which rules do you write first?

Start with a short rule pack, then add as you learn.

• Facts only from the client's materials. The agent never invents a price, a customer name or a date. Put real facts into the knowledge base.
• What the agent must not say. Discounts, guarantees, legal claims, anything about competitors by name.
• When to stop. An opt out, a refusal or a request to speak to a person ends the sequence. Sellinger puts opt outs on the suppression list and checks it before every send on email, LinkedIn and WhatsApp.
• When to hand over. A price beyond published plans, a complaint, a reference to a legal matter, or a request for a call.
• Language. Reply in the language the prospect writes in.

The templates for rule packs and personas give a starting point. Read them with the client.

How should the first launch go?

Slowly, and in view.

1. Load a list of 50 to 100 people, not the whole database.
2. Start in approval mode, where every message waits for a person to approve it. Read each one aloud. If you would not send it, change the rule, not just the message.
3. Send a sample to the client. Ten messages, with the profiles they went to. Ask for changes in the same document you started with.
4. Switch to automatic only after twenty or thirty messages you would have sent yourself.
5. Check the first replies the same day. The first positive and the first negative reply show what the agent does when it matters.

In our own agency style case, Uberwood Agency, the owners of local service businesses were sceptical of agencies, and the agents asked one question about how they win customers. 196 of 677 owners replied (29%), and 70% of replies came to the first message. Every replied thread was read, because bookings went to the agency's own calendars. A first week like that is only possible when you read what happens.

What does the client see after launch?

A weekly report. Our weekly client report template lists what to put in it: messages sent, replies, meetings booked and held, and what changed. Keep the numbers the same every week so the client can compare.

For the business side, the white label terms are a one time $500 setup fee, then the standard agent prices from the pricing page. Partners set their own client prices, and Sellinger does not invoice their clients. See how white label billing works.

What do you promise the client, and what do you not?

Write three promises and three non promises on the first page of the onboarding document.

• You promise: that every message is read by a person in the first week, that nothing is sent to the exclusion list, that the client sees the numbers weekly.
• You do not promise: a number of meetings, because the audience and the offer decide that more than any setting; that LinkedIn will never restrict an account, because no tool can guarantee it; or that replies will be positive.

Clients who hear this at the start are calmer in week three, when the first list gives fewer meetings than hoped. The Sellinger case study is an honest model: 351 showcase meetings were booked, 33 are confirmed held, and meetings per person messaged drifted below 1% from June 2026 even as replies held near 40%. If we publish a result like that about ourselves, an agency can say the same to its clients.

A checklist

• [ ] I have the offer, the ICP, the exclusion list, the voice and the handover rule in writing.
• [ ] The client connected their own account through a hosted login, and I hold no password.
• [ ] Limits are set and the client knows there is no guarantee against restriction.
• [ ] The rule pack and the knowledge base hold real facts.
• [ ] The first list is under 100 people, in approval mode.
• [ ] The client approved a sample of ten messages.
• [ ] The weekly report is scheduled.