2 builders who never spoke to each other · contested
Ask for advice instead of the sale
Being asked to share expertise is flattering, so an advice request gets answered where a pitch does not, and the reply doubles as market research. Whether that still works is disputed by people on the receiving end of it.
Where this splits
One member ignores dozens of brain-picking requests a week and treats any opener that hands the recipient a task as dead on arrival, against members who report high reply rates from exactly that.
3 claims against 1
Austin Church · Harry Dry
Open by asking for advice rather than the sale
- 01Open cold outreach by asking the recipient for advice, because being asked to share expertise is flattering and gets a reply.
- 02Ask for advice instead of asking for work: book a paid interview with someone at a target company and ask how a supplier in your discipline gets hired there, what went badly last time, and whether it is in their plans at all.
Never open with anything that hands them work
Never open with something that hands the recipient a task: a review of your page, a look at your post, a read of your book, or a call to pick their brain.
- 03Close that interview by asking what problem they are trying to solve now and offering help with it, and treat the relationship rather than the sale as the outcome.
What it returned
- 65%
AndCo's advice-style email produced a 65% click-through rate and replies from 55% of recipients
- 30
Welsh ignored more than 30 such requests in a single week. A creator friend of his fielding 10 to 15 DMs a day told him she cannot be an unpaid consultant to everyone who asks.
Sources
- The Ultimate Guide to Building Client Relationships - Double Your FreelancingAustin Church · doubleyourfreelancing.com · Interview the clients you really want. · 2016-09-12
- What's in it for me?Justin Welsh · justinwelsh.me · What We Miss When We Focus on Ourselves · 2025-01-18 · dissenting
- Try writing “advice emails” instead of sales emailsHarry Dry · Marketing Examples · Ask for Advice · undated
the second source
Three plays a week, for the phase you are in
No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.
More in sales
- Charge for it before it exists6 unconnected
- Book the buyer calls before you write any code6 unconnected
- Package more of what you own into sellable slots6 unconnected
- Interview customers when sales stall, not buy traffic5 unconnected
- Borrow credibility from the customers you have5 unconnected
- Keep a named list of dream accounts and work it5 unconnected