How to Literally Give Value Before You Ask

Good Morning. Today is National Work From Home Day, which is pretty much every day in my household. The best part of working from home is no commute, and no shower until right before my first sales call. The worst part is having no co-workers to talk to besides my dog. He’s a great listener, not great at conversations. Now, let's get into today's Follow Up. (:

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"Give value" is at the top of the list for the most common advice in sales. And it's also the least specific.

But like… what does "giving value" actually look like on a Tuesday morning when you're trying to book a meeting with a VP who doesn't know you exist?

Most reps usually end up attaching some generic whitepaper to a cold email or sharing the company's latest AI slop blog post… but we all know your prospects don’t get value from that stuff.

So here’s 4 things of actual value to give your prospects before you ever make an ask.

(And when you give first, people naturally want to return the favor.)

At my first job, we'd run salary reports on specific roles a prospect was actively hiring for and send them over (btw, we sold salary data to HR departments).

The reports included ranges by area, company size, and experience level. That data normally costs money, so giving it away for free was the best door-opener we had.

If your product generates any kind of data or insight, give a sample away for free.

If you sell a sales data tool, send an example list of prospects for their ICP. If you sell recruiting services, send over a qualified candidate for the role they’re hiring for.

Make it info they’d normally pay for.

If it’s your prospect’s first time buying a tool like yours, show them how to buy it.

List out every feature they should evaluate, the questions they should ask each vendor, and the price ranges they should expect at their company size.

It doesn’t need to advertise your product as the right choice. Because that's the point.

It shows you understand the space well enough to help them make a good decision, and that earns their trust (which will make them buy from you).

A rep from an irrigation company came to my house and told me what type of grass I had, how often it should be watered, and when I should put down fertilizer.

None of that had anything to do with the irrigation system they wanted to sell me. But it showed me they were grass experts. So I trusted them more than any other vendor I talked to.

If you've sold in an industry for years, you have knowledge that’s not directly related to your product, but is valuable to your prospects. Share it openly and without an agenda.

This one isn’t free… but it works.

Industry conferences, networking dinners, sporting events. These carry real costs, so your company needs to fund the play. But they put you in the same room as your prospect for hours instead of begging for 15 minutes on a Zoom.

A BDR from Sigma got the CRO of Datarails a ticket to the World Cup. And of course, it got him the meeting.

A great experience creates a memory attached to you and pretty much guarantees a meeting.

Every one of these works because of the rule of reciprocity. People feel the need to return the favor after receiving something of value.

So give first. Ask second. That's the whole strategy.

Today’s newsletter was written by Nic Conley