Every week, I advise founders on how to hit $10k MRR. On Tuesdays, I share my consulting notes from those private sessions. Learn from their mistakes so you don't burn your own cash.
Pay your prospect $100 – they'll close themselves
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Hey Reader, A founder I work with was freezing up on every cold call. Not because he didn't know his product. Because every call felt like a performance review – him auditioning, the prospect judging. The pressure was killing his ability to actually listen. So we tried something that felt almost too simple. He started paying prospects $100 for a one-hour research interview. Not a demo. Not a pitch. A conversation where he asked questions, took notes, and genuinely tried to understand their world. Here's what happened: the calls transformed. Because the moment money changes hands, the dynamic flips. He was no longer a founder chasing a customer. He was a researcher granting someone access to a conversation about their own business. The prospect relaxed. He relaxed. And for the first time, he actually listened instead of waiting for his turn to pitch. What he found:
The result? Multiple paid research subjects came back and asked to run trials. They converted themselves. Dmitry called the pitch a master class. But there was no pitch. That was the point. The Clarity Filter Insight
When you remove the pressure to sell, you create the conditions for a buyer to convince themselves. [Share on LinkedIn] [Share on X] If your cold calls feel desperate, the problem is not your pitch deck or your opening line. It's the frame. You've positioned yourself as someone who needs something from them. Flip it. Pay for their time, ask better questions, and let the product earn its place in the conversation naturally. The $100 is not a cost – it's the cheapest sales training you'll ever buy. Speak soon, P.S. Don't write code for a product nobody wants to buy. I built Traction OS to give you the exact 60-day roadmap, sales scripts, and validation templates you need to hit your first $10k MRR without guessing. From complete scratch or with an existing MVP. |
Clarity Filter
Every week, I advise founders on how to hit $10k MRR. On Tuesdays, I share my consulting notes from those private sessions. Learn from their mistakes so you don't burn your own cash.
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