When your message is basically "can I get you on a call", most people can already smell the pitch coming, so they go quiet.
So this is not: "I say it's a value trade, but actually my secret intention is to sell them so that they work with me." No. The whole point is to actually understand them.
And really give value. Really give value. Don't do this as a way to just get a sales call.
The job of the call is their current situation, their desired situation and their challenges. Tell them what you would actually do, so they could go and do it themselves.
You check they got value first, and only then ask whether they want to hear about your offer. A sale after that is a bonus.
You want real feedback from real buyers before you build the whole thing out.
Marc ran his when he launched a brand new community platform inside his program.
Not many calls booked this month, and you want a boost of cash coming in.
A Calendly link, and an offer that is ready to present if someone asks to hear about it. That is the whole requirements list.
Pick one thing you can hand someone inside 45 minutes that they would genuinely be glad to receive.
Teach them the thing you would normally teach a paying client.
Coach them live on the problem they are stuck on right now.
Audit the area you are known for, whether that is mindset, marketing or something else.
The specific examples above are Marc's own words, said on the call to someone who works in public relations. Yours will name whatever you actually hand over.
One long post, published where your market already hangs out. Marc's recommendation is Facebook or LinkedIn, and a TikTok video works too.
Because the post is long, Marc does not paste it into messages. The post is the place you send people to.
The announcement, and the line that says it will not cost them anything.
Why you are running it. You launched or upgraded something, and you want beta testers to make it as valuable as possible.
Who it is for, written as one specific person, not a crowd.
Exactly what they get, named part by part, plus free access to test the program itself if they turn out to be a fit.
What you ask back. Feedback, and hopefully a testimonial, with zero obligation to buy anything.
One line of credibility, then the plain line that this is not a sales call.
The cap and the ask. Only 5 to 10 people, first come first served, and one simple call to action.
Marc ran this about a year before the call and it brought in a bunch of clients. The blanks are his, so you can see exactly where your own details go.
Announcement: I am looking for beta testers...and it won't cost you anything (aka free).
I'll keep it short.
As some of you know, I recently launched my XXXXX and I'm looking for brand new beta testers to make sure it's as valuable as possible...
So if you are currently a XXXXX, this is my invitation (at zero cost) to you.
I'll not only personally audit your current XXXX, incl your YYYY, ZZZZ,
Assess your current situation and diagnose your biggest bottlenecks and challenges,
And immediately identify the exact steps to take to grow your xxxx ASAP.
And after you gain clarity and direction of exactly what to do, if you're the right fit, I'll invite you to test out our brand new (program) for free.
This where you'll get to benefit from my entire life's work including accessing our modules and playbooks, attend the live workshops and receive unlimited support from my entire team,
And by the end of the beta test, to simply provide me some feedback (and hopefully a testimonial after).
For context, I've worked with (add credibility), so if you find my experience could be useful for you, #INFO below if you are curious or interested to find out more.
Btw, this is NOT a sales call; it's the exact Kickstart call I conduct for my clients when they first start their journey with me.
Again, I'm doing this because as we're in our next season of upgrading our entire program, XXXXX, I want a fresh set of eyes to make sure we don't leave out anything 🙂
Again, this is completely free, all I ask in return is for feedback and hopefully a testimonial too (there's ZERO obligation to buy anything).
If you're curious or would like more details #INFO below and I'll send you the details ASAP 🙂
Only looking for 5-10 people for this, so it's first come first served too!
Write an actual list of real names, sized to the cap you put in your post. This is the part that fills the calendar.
If they are not people who could actually buy from you, the feedback is worth nothing.
Start with the people who already know you. Cold messages do not work very well.
Go for decision makers, or people close to them, and message them directly.
A client of Marc's does mindset coaching for financial advisers. He wanted to start helping the senior people, the team managers and directors, but he did not know who they were and he had no way in. So instead of messaging strangers, he went back to the advisers he already knew and asked them for the introduction. You will see the exact ask he made in a moment.
Its only job is to point one named person at the post. It does not restate the offer and it does not sell anything.
Hey XXXX! I recently announced something I thought you might be interested in:
(link)
In short it's just to support you for free haha. Let me know if you want more details k! :)
Marc's coaching on the call was that if you sell to businesses, go straight to a direct message, aimed at decision makers or the people close to them.
You only need 5 to 10 people either way, so sending each message yourself is realistic.
You do not know the people you want yet, so you ask a warm contact to connect you. That is the next slide.
He would still post first. In his words, because it's a pretty long post, he likes to just direct them to the actual post itself.
This is how a client of Marc's ran it, told on the call. It is his run, not a script to copy word for word.
Who he was looking for. "Any of you know any directors or managers?"
What he was offering, and why. "I would love to treat them to coffee, just for me to really interview them, to find out what people at their stage really need when it comes to mindset, or to supporting their team."
The promise. "I promise it's not a sales thing, I really genuinely want to find out what they need."
His warm contacts made the introductions, and Marc was one of the people who referred him. Some of them went further and asked him to run a free training or some live coaching for their team, and that is what worked.
Forty five minutes. The stated goal is to clearly understand their current situation, their desired situation and their challenges.
Use an AI notetaker and ask it to help you understand their challenges and their situation in detail, so the notes feed your content later.
"From a scale of one to 10, how important is solving all the problems you just mentioned to you?"
He also says "I'm very curious" around the question. That is an aside, not part of the question itself.
"Great, understand. Where do you think is the missing two or three? I'm just very curious."
That answer tells you whether to invite them now, or to say honestly that this month is probably not their month, and ask if you can come back to them later. Either way you stay warm and they stay respected.
"Hey, did you get value so far? Amazing. Anyway, there's no obligation, and if you're not interested, no problem at all. I do have a beta program that I'm testing out, if you want I can share with you more. Again, if not, no problem at all."
The offer does not have to be your top tier. It can be a workshop, an event you have coming up, or a small paid product, whichever actually fits them.
Their words, their frustrations, and the patterns you keep hearing. Marc names this one as the worst case.
Marc asks for one even when the answer is a clear no.
If they would rather not write a testimonial, he asks them to fill in a feedback form after the call.
Some of the people who did not buy sent other people to him instead.
"There were some people I helped that didn't buy from me, but they referred other people to me. So it's a win-win-win activity."
This is a separate tip Marc shared at the end of the same call. It is not part of the value trade.
When a post does well organically, do not let it die in one place. Paste it into the other groups you are already a member of. Marc did exactly that with one post into an entrepreneurs group in Malaysia, and it got a whole bunch of engagements and views. All he did was copy and paste.
LinkedIn is a little tougher. There, take the post that worked and share it with your own communities and channels with a short lead in. Something like: hope you're having a great week, last week I wrote a piece about this which I thought could be useful for all of you, enjoy.
Across all of the calls you are looking for the patterns that keep repeating. The same challenges, the same frustrations, the same behaviours that keep getting in their way. Those sentences become your content, and they shape your next program.
"My goal of the call is not to get you to buy. My goal of the call is to make you have as clear a decision as possible."
Build your four pieces on one page in the next 48 hours, then publish the post and send your first DM.
valuetrade.marcteo.com