The number is saved and the message is half written. Then the doubts start. “Will they just try to sell me something? Do I need a full plan before I call? What if the business is too small, or too messy?”
A first call with us is closer to a first visit to a good doctor than to a sales meeting. Most of the time goes on questions, and by the end the picture of the business is clearer than it was at the start. This article explains how to prepare in twenty minutes, what we ask and why, what a useful answer sounds like, what happens afterwards, and how to judge any agency, not only us, from one conversation.
In short: The first call is free. We listen to where the business is and what is changing, ask about what has actually happened rather than opinions, and say honestly what we would look at first and whether we are the right team for it. One page of preparation is enough. A good first call, with us or anyone, ends with something useful learned about the business, whether or not any work follows.
What the first call is for, and what it is not
The call has one job: to find out whether there is a real problem we can help with, and where we would start. It is not a pitch with slides about us. It is not a free strategy delivered on the spot, because any strategy given before the business is understood is a guess. And it is not a commitment. Nothing starts until a written proposal has been read and agreed.
That also means the call is useful even when the business is small, early or messy. Messy is normal. Most businesses that call us are in the middle of something: a launch, a slowdown, a new competitor, a partner who wants to change direction.
The one-page prep sheet
No deck is needed. One page with the eight lines below takes about twenty minutes and makes the call far more useful, because the time goes on the real question instead of on background. Rough answers are fine. “I don't know” is a useful answer too; it tells us where to look.
| Line | What to write | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|
| 1. The business in one sentence | What is sold, to whom, where | Shows how clear the offer is today |
| 2. The best customer | One real person or company, and why they buy | The best customer shows where growth is |
| 3. What is changing | The reason for calling now | Urgency shapes the order of work |
| 4. What was tried | Each attempt and what happened | Failed attempts rule out causes |
| 5. The numbers that exist | Enquiries, sales, average order, repeat buyers | Rough numbers beat none |
| 6. The one decision | The choice due in the next three months | Keeps the call on what matters |
| 7. Success in a year | Something visible in the business | Tells us what to measure |
| 8. Links | Website, pages, price list, past campaigns | Lets us see what customers see |
The questions we ask, and why each matters
Our questions follow one rule from Rob Fitzpatrick's The Mom Test (2013): ask about what happened, not about what someone thinks will happen. Opinions about the future are polite and hopeful. Facts about the past are useful. So instead of “Do customers like the product?”, we ask “When did the last customer reorder, and what did they say?”
1. Where is the business today?
What is sold, to whom, through which channels, and what is working. We ask what is working first because it is the safest thing to build on, and because it is often undervalued by the people closest to it. A useful answer names a product, a channel and a customer type. A less useful one says “everything is fine but sales could be better.”
2. What is changing, and why call now?
A launch, a new market, slower sales, a new competitor, a new partner. The trigger tells us how much time there is and what kind of help fits. A launch in six weeks and a slow decline over a year need very different first steps.
3. Who is the best customer, and why do they buy?
In plain words, not marketing language. Clayton Christensen and colleagues, in “Know Your Customers' ‘Jobs to Be Done’” (Harvard Business Review, 2016), argue that people “hire” a product to make progress in a specific situation, and that the situation explains more than age or income. So we listen for the moment: what was happening when this customer decided to buy? A useful answer sounds like “a clinic that opened a second branch and needed the same look in both.” A less useful one sounds like “people aged 25 to 45 who like quality.”
4. What has already been tried?
And what happened. Failed attempts are useful information: an ad campaign that brought clicks but no sales rules out some causes and points to others. We also ask who did the work and with what brief, because a good idea run with the wrong brief can look like a bad idea.
5. What decision is due in the next three months?
This is the question that keeps the call practical. It might be whether to open a second branch, whether to raise prices, which market to enter, or whether to rebrand. If the call does not help with that decision, it was not a good call.
6. What would success look like a year from now?
Something visible in the business: more repeat orders, a first corporate contract, a second branch that pays for itself. Not a number of followers. The answer tells us what to measure, and it also tells us whether expectations and reality are close enough to work with.
A worked example
This example is hypothetical, and its numbers are illustrative. A family furniture workshop in Damietta has sold to Cairo homes for years through word of mouth and a Facebook page. The second generation now runs it and wants to open a showroom in New Cairo. Their prep sheet takes twenty minutes:
- The business: solid-wood furniture made to order, sold to families furnishing a new flat.
- Best customer: couples about to marry, usually with a parent paying, who were referred by a past buyer.
- What is changing: referrals have slowed, and a large online furniture brand is advertising heavily.
- What was tried: boosted Facebook posts; many messages asking for prices, few visits to Damietta.
- Numbers: around 80 price questions a month, about 6 orders, high average order value.
- The decision: sign a showroom lease, or not.
On the call, the questions about what happened change the picture. The couples who did order had all seen a past customer's furniture in person. The people who asked a price and disappeared were not put off by the price; when asked, several said they could not judge the wood quality from photos and did not want to travel to Damietta on a guess. So the real problem is trust in what cannot be seen, not location. A showroom is one answer to that, and an expensive one.
What we would say at the end of that call: before signing a lease, test cheaper ways to show the wood. Close-up video of the joinery and finish, a sample box of wood and fabric sent to serious enquirers, and visits arranged to a past customer's home with their permission. If those raise the share of price questions that turn into visits, the showroom can wait or be smaller. The first service we would suggest is a short customer research piece with recent buyers and non-buyers, then photo and video production built around what they said. The decision on the lease gets a clearer answer either way.
What happens after the call
- A short written summary. What we heard, what we think the real problem is, and what we would look at first. If our reading is wrong, this is where it gets corrected, before anyone spends anything.
- A proposal, if it makes sense to continue. What we would do, in what order, and what would be received at each stage. The scope follows the situation, because we do not sell fixed packages.
- An honest redirect, if we are not the fit. If a freelancer, a specialist or an in-house hire would serve better, we say so and explain why.
- Nothing starts until the proposal is read and agreed. Questions about it are welcome, and changes to scope are normal at this stage.
How to judge any agency on a first call
These signs apply to us as much as to anyone. A first call is short, but it shows how an agency thinks, and how it thinks is what the money pays for.
| What to notice | A good sign | A warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| Who talks most | They ask more than they present | Most of the call is about them |
| The questions | About customers, numbers and past attempts | Only about budget and timing |
| Promises | Reasons and a way to measure | A sales figure before seeing any data |
| The solution | Depends on what they learn | A package ready before the problem is clear |
| Honesty about fit | They name what they would not do | Everything is possible |
| What is left after | One new, useful insight | A brochure and a price |
Four mistakes people make around a first call
- Waiting until everything is ready. It happens because calling feels like a commitment. Meanwhile, the decision gets made anyway, often without evidence. A call when things are messy is more useful than one after the lease is signed.
- Presenting the solution instead of the situation. “We need a showroom” or “we need a new logo” closes the conversation too early. The situation, what is happening and what should change, leaves room for a better answer.
- Hiding the failed attempts. It feels embarrassing to say the last campaign did nothing. But the failures are where the clues are, and hiding them means paying someone to repeat them.
- Judging the call by how impressive it was. A polished presentation is easy to make. Judge it instead by whether something useful was learned about the business.
When a first call with us is not the right next step
If what is needed is one design, a quick price for printing, or a single task with a clear brief, a specialist or a freelancer will usually be faster, and we will say so if that is what we hear. If the problem is clearly outside marketing, such as stock, quality or a partner dispute, the call can still help name it, but the next step will not be us. And if the idea has not been tested with a single paying customer yet, the most useful next step is often to sell by hand first; we are happy to say what to look for while doing it.
The strongest objection
“A free call is just a way to sell.” A fair suspicion, and partly true: we do hope some calls lead to work. But a call that only sells wastes both sides' time, and the businesses we fit best can tell the difference within minutes. The test is simple and it is yours to apply: by the end of the call, something useful about the business should be clearer than before, whether or not we work together. If it is not, the call failed, and no proposal will fix that.
Built on: how we have run first conversations with new clients since 2013, from Cairo, Dubai and our other markets; Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test (2013); Clayton Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon and David Duncan, “Know Your Customers' ‘Jobs to Be Done’”, Harvard Business Review (2016). The furniture workshop is a hypothetical example.
Before closing this page
- Can the business be described in one sentence: what, for whom, where?
- Who is the best customer, and what was happening when they decided to buy?
- What has been tried in the last year, and what did each attempt teach?
- Which one decision is due in the next three months?
- What would make a first call worth the time, with us or anyone?
