Growth Without Chaos
Chris Out
You give away an hour of strategy. The other person leaves the conversation with more clarity. You mainly leave with one hour less.
Sound familiar. You think: I'll give value first, then they'll naturally want more. Sounds logical. Works poorly.
Let me turn it around. Why should you pay to scope someone else's problem? Because that's what a free strategy call is. You do the thinking, you deliver the plan, and the other person walks away with it or never comes back. You pay with your time for their clarity.
Anyone can say yes to free. That means you know very little about someone's buying intent beforehand. As soon as there's a price attached, however small, the conversation changes.
The problem isn't that you're not good enough in those conversations. The problem is who's in those conversations. Someone who pays nothing also has nothing to lose if they drop out. They're there without commitment, and being there without commitment means being interested without commitment. That's a different starting position from someone who paid before walking into the room.
As soon as there's a price attached, even a small one, something happens. The curious people drop out. The people who remain have skin in the game. They're already partly a client before the conversation begins. You're no longer selling to a room full of doubters. You're working with people who have already paid to be there.
At RockBoost, I ran a workshop called 'the seven pillars of growth hacking'. New clients and prospects sat together in one group. The workshop was a small first step. People learned how we worked before buying a larger engagement.
That's the movement: land and expand. The workshop isn't a giveaway and it isn't your main offer either. It's phase one. Easy to step into, clearly defined, with a clear outcome. People start small, experience how you work, and the step towards the real engagement becomes smaller afterwards. They already know you, they've already said yes and they've already paid. This is the A principle in the SHARP framework: Acquire your Clients through a self-selecting first step.
A good entry workshop has three qualities. It's clearly defined: two hours, one concrete problem, one outcome. Not 'we'll discuss your growth strategy,' but 'by the end, you'll know the three biggest leaks in your funnel.' The more specific the promise, the easier the yes.
The price needs to be low enough for a small first step and high enough to remove the lack of commitment. The exact amount depends on the audience and the outcome.
And it ends with a commitment question. Not 'I'll send you some information.' Not 'let's see what might be possible.' But: 'Do you genuinely want to solve this, or did you just enjoy the hour?' Someone who says yes gives you clarity. Someone who hesitates does too. You want a clear yes or a powerful no as quickly as possible.
The commitment question is also the moment when you see who's in front of you. Someone who hesitates on that question would also have hesitated when they received the proposal. Better to know now than after three weeks of silence and two follow-up emails.
Take the problem clients bring to you most often. Not an abstract strategic question, but a concrete problem you can break down in two hours. Turn that into a workshop. Write the promise in one sentence. Put a price on it.
Then the question: which free conversation will you give away for the last time this week?
Want to know where your funnel is leaking before you build anything? That's what we map out in the Standards Assessment.
Should You Charge for a First Conversation or Workshop?
Yes, if you want serious people in the conversation. Free attracts everyone, including the people who were never going to buy. A price, even a low one, filters out the people without commitment. Someone who pays is already partly a client before the conversation begins. That changes the quality of the conversation and the conversion afterwards. It's the core of what the Agency Standards call acquiring the right clients from the start.
What Is a Paid Workshop as an Entry Point?
A clearly defined, paid first step lasting two hours, focused on one concrete problem and one clear outcome. Priced low enough to make it easy to say yes and high enough to filter out people who aren't serious. It always ends with a commitment question: do you genuinely want to solve this, or did you just enjoy the hour? The answer tells you immediately who's ready for the next step.
What Does Land and Expand Mean for an Agency?
Entering through a small, affordable workshop, delivering value and expanding from there into the larger engagement. The workshop isn't the end point. It's the front door. People who enter through the workshop already know you, have already paid and have already said yes. The step towards the main engagement is much smaller afterwards than it is from a cold conversation.
Standards & Structure
Growth Without Chaos
Standards & Structure
Leadership & Enforcement
