[reply worthy | day 27] how to give your DM leads a taste
(without giving away everything for free)
There’s a pop-up farmer’s market on North Ave I forget exists half the time. But when I do remember, I go.
Last time I went, there was this vendor towards the back.
Older woman, white hat, table full of peaches from a farm south of the city. Hand-written sign. No prices. Just a small chalkboard that said “yesterday’s peaches, today.”
The table was packed, but nobody was buying. People would slow down, look at the peaches, pick one up, put it back down, keep walking.
I walked past her 3 times before she said anything.
The 4th time, she picked up a peach, took a paring knife out of her apron, sliced off a piece the size of a quarter, and handed it to me on the flat of the blade.
Didn’t say a word. Didn’t smile like she was selling something. Just held it out like she already knew what was about to happen.
Gloveless hand aside… I ate the slice.
WHEN I TELL YOU it was the best peach I had eaten in I don’t know how many years.
So good you forget about the people walking past you because you’re trying to process what’s happening in your mouth (that sounded way better in my head before I typed it 🥴).
Juice running down your hand. Standing completely still while everyone else is moving.
I bought a bag. Then I bought a second bag for my best friend. Then I bought a box for his sister and her kids.
By the time I left, four other people were standing at her table. She was slicing peaches for everybody.
The woman never pitched me. Never described the farm. Never said “these are the best peaches you’ll find anywhere.” Never said “let me tell you about how we grow these.”
She handed me a slice, and let the peach do the work.
People’s knee jerk reaction in the DMs is to oversell. Without tone or body language, it’s very hard to read what’s happening on the other end. So people panic, and throw the whole kitchen sink at the conversation, hoping something lands.
But there’s something that works even better.
Give the lead a slice. Something they could use today. Something that would let the prospect taste your work before deciding if you’re worth a call.
Today, I’m walking you through how to build message 6. The Value Drop. The peach. The thing you hand the prospect that proves you’re worth the call before you ever ask for it.
→ Why “send me more info” sequences die at message 6 if message 6 is more info
→ The three Value Drop formats that work for any DM sequence
→ How to seed the call inside the Value Drop without making the message a Take
Let’s start with the peach...
🍑 Build 5: The Value Drop + Call Seed
After the Insight Bridge reframes the problem, you’ve now got the prospect is leaning in. They see something they hadn’t seen before. And they wanna learn more.
If you ask for the call now, you might get it. But you’ll get more of them if you hand over the peach first.
The Value Drop is the message that gives the prospect something they can use today, without buying anything, without booking a call, without owing you anything.
Something that lets them taste the work.
Three Value Drop formats. Pick the one that matches your offer.
1️⃣ FORMAT 1: The 4-question audit script.
A short list of questions the prospect can ask themselves (or have their head of growth ask the team) to diagnose where the problem actually lives.
They run it in 15 minutes. They learn something. The work proves itself.
2️⃣ FORMAT 2: The single-page checklist.
A one-page reference the prospect can apply on the next [thing they’re about to do].
They use it once. It either lands or it doesn’t. Either way, they got something useful out of the thread.
3️⃣ FORMAT 3: The 90-second teardown.
A short, specific analysis of one example (their public LinkedIn post, their company’s homepage copy, their case study page) with one specific recommendation.
They get a free piece of work before the call.
Whichever format you pick, the structure is the same.
You hand over the asset. You give them everything they need to use it. You let them use it without you in the room.
The call seed lives at the bottom, not the top.
Something like: “If running this turns up something interesting, happy to walk through what your team usually does next. Otherwise, hope it’s useful as is.”
The call seed isn’t a Take at this point. It’s a “if you want more of the good stuff, let’s talk about it” line.
The prospect, having now run the audit or used the checklist or read the teardown, will sometimes ask for the call themselves. How much better is that than you chasing them down for one!
Lots of founders I work with worry that giving away too much will kill the call. But honestly, giving away nothing kills more calls than giving away too much ever has.
Before & After
Here’s how to fix it in your own DMs:
1️⃣ Build the Value Drop before you build the call ask.
Your setter or head of growth should be writing the audit, checklist, or teardown before they ever think about the calendar link. The Value Drop is the asset. The call seed is the upgrade path. Build the asset first.
2️⃣ Pick one format and build the library once.
Don’t have your team writing custom audits for every prospect. Pick one format (4-question audit, single-page checklist, or 90-second teardown). Build 3 versions of that format per ICP. Train your VA to deploy the right one based on the prospect’s situation.
3️⃣ Score every Value Drop on the Value-to-Ask Ratio before send.
The message should be 80% Value Drop, 20% call seed. Anything more than 20% on the call seed turns the message back into a Take. Train the rule. Run the rule. Don’t break the rule.
That’s it.
Here’s what you learned today:
→ The Value Drop is the message that hands the prospect something they can use today, without buying anything. The peach at the farmer’s market.
→ Most sequences ask for the call repeatedly without ever delivering value first. The prospect categorizes you as someone who needs the meeting more than they do.
→ The fix is picking one of three Value Drop formats (4-question audit, single-page checklist, 90-second teardown), building the library once, and seeding the call at the bottom of the message at 20% or less.
Start with just one:
Pull up your message 6 in your most-used sequence. The one you usually send before pitching the call.
Read it and ask yourself: “Did this hand the prospect something useful, or just ask for the call?”
If it asked only, build one 4-question audit your VA can paste into the next sequence today.
Over the next 31 days, I’m walking you through:
→ How to write a close that works because 6 messages earned it
→ How to build a recovery system calibrated to WHERE in the sequence they went silent
→ The full sequence assembly, every piece, scored against every diagnostic from the series
→ The May Vault: every diagnostic, every builder, every assembly tool in one place
→ Built to Reply: the 30-day rebuild of every system that surrounds the sequence
→ The first 7 days of June: the prospect targeting system that determines who ever sees your sequence
→ The first 14 days of June: building the conversation architecture for a new prospect from scratch
Today is day 27.
Today’s mega-prompt doesn’t just write you a Value Drop.
It takes your offer and the prospect’s situation, picks the right format, and generates the asset with the call seed pre-built at 20% or less.
Paid members get:
✔ The Value Drop + Call Seed Builder
→ Paste your offer and the prospect’s situation, get back the recommended format and a paste-ready Value Drop
→ Each output includes the call seed sized at 20% or less
→ Pre-checked for over-asking, under-delivering, and Take-in-Give-costume language
✔ A Value Drop library starter pack: 3 audits, 3 checklists, and 3 teardown templates per ICP
✔ A Value-to-Ask Ratio scorecard your setter can run in 60 seconds before send
The woman at the farmer’s market sold me three bags of peaches. She never pitched me once. Your sequence can do the same thing, if it’s built to hand over the slice before asking them to buy the bag.
