Give Away What Your Competitors Charge For: How a Free Offer Wins Customers

Scroll through any business page in Nigeria and you will see the same two ways of asking for a sale. The first is "DM for price". The second is a promotion: 10% off this week, free delivery this weekend. Both ask a stranger to spend money with a business they have never tried, and most strangers scroll straight past.

There is a better first move, and it sounds backwards. Before you ask for money, give away something your competitors charge for.

Why strangers do not buy

When someone pays you for the first time, they are not paying for what you have done. They are paying for a prediction: that you will be worth it. They cannot check that prediction before they pay, so every new customer is taking a risk on you.

The cheapest way to make that prediction favourable is to have already delivered something of value. Someone who has used your free assessment, tried your service once or seen a real result from you is no longer guessing. They already know.

There is a second reason it works. A stranger who will not spend money with you will often spend time with you. Time is a cheaper currency for most people. And a person who has paid you with their time is far more likely to pay you with money later.

What a lead magnet actually is

Marketers call this a lead magnet. The investor and author Alex Hormozi gives the clearest definition, in his book $100M Leads: a complete solution to a narrow problem, given away free or at a steep discount, to attract your ideal customers.

Every word in that sentence matters.

• Complete. It solves the problem. It is not a teaser that stops just before the useful part.
• Narrow. It solves one small problem, not everything. The narrower it is, the easier it is to finish and the more useful it feels.
• Ideal customers. It should appeal to the people you want to serve, and put off the ones you do not.

A lead magnet is not a newsletter sign-up, a brochure or a "free consultation" with no clear end. It is a real piece of work with a clear result.

Give away what other people charge for

The best free offers are not things that could be worth money. They are things other businesses in your trade already invoice for.

That matters because your customer already knows the price. When a solar installer offers a free load assessment, the homeowner knows other installers charge for one, so the value is obvious without any explaining.

It also protects your reputation. Most people who see your free offer will never buy from you, and that is fine. But they will form an opinion of you, and they will share it. When a friend sends them a WhatsApp message asking "is this company any good?", the answer depends on whether your free thing was useful or a waste of their time. Weak free material does not just fail to sell. It gives people a reason to tell others not to buy.

The three kinds of free offer

Every business can use any of these. Pick the one that suits what you sell.

1. Reveal a problem

Show the customer a problem they have but cannot see. This works best when the problem gets worse while they wait, because the urgency comes built in.

• A generator or solar business checks what a home actually draws, and shows whether the current setup can carry it.
• A car workshop runs a free diagnostic scan and shows what the warning light means.
• A skin clinic assesses skin type and shows what is causing the problem.

2. Let them try it

Give a real taste of the service, with a clear limit on how much, how many or how long.

• A gym or dance studio offers the first class free.
• A cleaning company cleans one room at no charge.
• A caterer runs a tasting for couples planning a wedding.

3. Do one step of the job

Most services are several steps put together. Take one step out, do it for free, and sell the rest. Owners resist this one, because it feels as if everything they do belongs together. It rarely does.

• A renovation company measures the space and draws the floor plan for free, then quotes the build.
• A painter shows the customer's own room in the colour they are considering.
• A security company maps where the cameras should go, then sells the installation.

Keep it close to what you sell

A free offer should lead naturally into your paid service. A branded T-shirt is a good free gift for a clothing brand and a poor one for an accounting firm, because it attracts people who want T-shirts.

Ask one question of any idea: would someone who wants this free thing also want to pay for my service? If not, it will bring you the wrong people.

Name it well

How good the offer is decides how many people buy afterwards. What you call it decides how many people take it in the first place.

"Free consultation" is the weakest name available, because every business offers one and nobody knows what they will get. "Free generator load check: find out in 20 minutes whether your inverter can carry your home" tells the customer exactly what they receive and why it matters.

A simple way to test a name before you commit: post two versions to your WhatsApp status or Instagram stories and ask which one people would take. When people stop choosing and start asking when it is available, you have found it.

Make the next step obvious

The free offer is not the end. Once it is delivered, the customer should know exactly what to do next and why now is a sensible time to do it.

Say it plainly: "Now that you know the roof can carry 3kW, here is what the full system costs, and here is the link to book the installation." Give a real reason to act, such as limited installation slots this month, if that is true. Never invent urgency. People can tell, and it undoes the trust the free offer just earned.

Where your website fits

A website is the best place to deliver a free offer, because it works when you are not there.

A price calculator, an assessment form or a planner can reveal the problem, run the numbers and give the visitor a result in a minute, at any hour. The visitor gets real value, you get an enquiry from someone who already understands their problem, and nobody had to pick up the phone.

This is how we build the demo sites in our portfolio. The solar site sizes a system from your appliances and your roof. The painters' site shows a room in the colour you pick. The security site plans where the cameras go and shows what is still not covered. Each one gives away the first step of the job.

Mistakes to avoid

• Giving away fluff. A generic PDF of tips anyone could find online damages your reputation instead of building it.
• Making it too broad. "A full business review" is too big to finish and too vague to want.
• Asking for too much. If the form takes ten minutes, most people will leave before they get anything.
• Offering a free consultation and calling it a lead magnet. An open-ended conversation is not a result.
• Forgetting the follow-up. A free offer with no next step is just free work.

Start this week

1. List what your competitors charge for. Assessments, quotes, samples, plans, first sessions.
2. Pick the narrowest one you can deliver well and quickly.
3. Give it a name that says what the customer gets.
4. Put it on your website, with a clear next step once it is delivered.

The point

People do not buy from strangers. They buy from someone who has already helped them. A free offer is the fastest way to stop being a stranger, as long as it is real, narrow and close to what you sell.

Once customers are coming in, the next job is keeping the good ones talking about you. That is what a referral system is for. If you want a website that delivers your free offer for you, price your website in about a minute, or see what each of our services does.