The Barbecue Approach: How to Start a Partnership Conversation Without Pitching

Most cold messages get ignored for one reason: they read like pitches. The person on the other end can tell within a sentence that you want something, and they move on.

Travis Sago's alternative is to reach out the way you'd talk to someone you just met at a backyard barbecue. Friendly, curious, and with no agenda you're hiding.

Before you send anything, read their book, watch a few of their videos, or go through their recent posts. You're looking for something specific you genuinely found useful or interesting.

Your first message is just that: a specific compliment about something they said, and a sincere question about it. No offer, no link, no ask. People respond to being seen, and almost nobody does this well.

If the conversation turns into a call, treat it like coffee with a new friend, not a sales meeting. Skip the script. Get curious about how they find new customers today and what that costs them in time, money and energy. Your job is to sort and sift, to find out whether there's a fit, not to close.

None of this is copy and paste, and that's exactly why it works.

Pick one business owner you'd like to work with and write one genuine, specific compliment about something they've published.

This is lesson 5 of a free 7-day email series on leveraging digital assets, based on what I've learned from Travis Sago.