i used to save the pitch for the end

on friday's gtm webinar i admitted something about when to pitch in a discovery call that i'm not proud of.

for a long time i saved the offer for the last stretch of every pre-interview. we'd talk about their company, their story, the episode. good energy. then in the last two minutes... oh by the way, here's what we do for founders on the go to market and fundraising side.

it felt polite. it read like a trap.

my words on the webinar were close to this... i always saved that to the end, but that felt disingenuous because it felt like a gotcha. so now i bring it up forward, and it helps me, because now i have seven minutes.

that's the whole shift. name what you do early, and lightly. one or two sentences. no deck. then go back to them.

if they lean in, you've bought yourself the rest of the call to talk about their needs, not your features. if they don't, nobody got ambushed and you still had a great conversation.

think of a waiter who tells you the specials when you sit down versus one who mentions them after you've ordered. same specials. one feels like service, the other feels like a sales trick.

the second change is about who shows up in the first place.

we added two questions to the booking form, and both work for the same reason. people are proud to answer them.

the first is do you have a podcast or are you thinking about one? about ninety percent say yes. so i don't have to open with cold email at all. i can lead with the podcast, which is the thing they already want to talk about.

the second is whether they've spent a hundred thousand dollars or more on growth. most qualifiers feel like a credit check. this one doesn't. the people who've spent it say so with a bit of pride, because it means they've built something real. the people who haven't filter themselves out, and nobody had to say no to anyone.

a good qualifier should feel like a compliment to the right person.

here's why this matters beyond my own calls. cold email is broken by design. it asks a stranger for their time with nothing in it for them. every founder knows it, and every inbox shows it.

the one anomaly i've found is the podcast invite. it's still outreach to a stranger, but it gives first. you're offering a seat, a story, an episode they'll share. that's why it gets answered when the meeting request doesn't.

and once someone has said yes to that, the worst thing you can do is turn it into a bait and switch in the last two minutes. you earned their trust by giving. don't spend it on a gotcha.

put the offer on the table early. let them pick it up or leave it. then spend the time on them.

there's a quieter benefit too. when you say it early, you stop carrying it. a lot of founders spend the whole call half listening, rehearsing the pivot to the pitch in their head. once it's out of the way, you can be present for the person in front of you.

and they can tell. people feel it when you're waiting for your turn to sell. they also feel it when you're not.

the same goes for the qualifiers. when the right people walk in already proud of where they are, the conversation starts at a higher floor. you're not convincing anyone they have a problem. you're talking about the next one they want to solve.

if you want to see how the show and the offer fit together without feeling like a trick, it's laid out on this page.

so on your next call... how many minutes in do you tell them what you do, and does it feel like a gift or a gotcha?