Course 07 · Cold Sales

Land a rev-share deal with one 97-word email.

Don't sell a service. Build a free working asset, hand it over, and split the revenue. This is the exact play that turned one cold email into an MVP build in 60 days.

◷ 13 min read· MentorMe Academy

The one idea

Stop pitching. Build a free working asset, hand it over, and split the revenue. A 97-word cold email to a sales-enablement consultant got a reply in 8 hours — because before the first call, a branded AI-audit quiz was already built. That one asset closed a rev-share deal and became a paid MVP in 60 days.

The competition isn't other AI builders. It's inertia. Your job is to make saying yes easier than doing nothing.

Who to target

Someone already selling to your customers who has no AI capability — sales/enablement consultants, marketing agencies, business coaches, course creators. They have the trust and the relationships. You're the AI layer they bolt on. You build, they sell, you share revenue. Zero upfront cost for them = zero friction to say yes.

The 97-word email

  1. One line naming their exact problem (their clients will ask for AI; they can't deliver it).
  2. Three specific things you'll build free — not a vague "partnership."
  3. One clear split: you sell, I build, we share revenue.
  4. One yes/no question at the end. ~97 words. No deck. No "hope this finds you well."
The structure that worked, verbatim: "Your clients will start asking for AI soon. Most agencies lose that work — no AI engineer on staff. I'll fix that for [Company]. Free: ① sales playbooks + cold-call scripts, ② a custom AI-audit landing page branded to you (every completion = a warm lead), ③ full tech fulfillment — I build it. You sell. I build. We split revenue. Landing page live in a day. Want me to build yours?"

Quality over volume — the rule that changes everything

  1. Find 100–150 companies, not thousands. Personalize each one really well.
  2. Watch open rates. Low opens = the list/deliverability is broken, not the copy.
  3. Follow up with value, not "just checking in." Each follow-up is a built thing: a Loom, a staging link, an education asset.
  4. Cap sends and use a warmed domain — blasting from your primary domain kills your inbox placement.

Do it — step by step

  1. Build the free asset first — a branded AI-audit quiz that makes their audience feel the gap themselves.
  2. Pick 100–150 targets in one niche (sales-enablement consultants is a proven start).
  3. Send the 97-word email — test-send to yourself first, always.
  4. Value cadence: Day 0 email → Day 3 Loom → Day 7 live staging link → Day 12 education asset → Day 20 break-up.
  5. Structure as rev-share, never a service engagement. The free asset closes it; the paid MVP build is where it lands.
The objection-killer: "What if they build it themselves?" They won't — and if they try, it'll be embarrassing in the first live demo. The rare combo is GTM context and can-build. Show up with it already working, and the conversation is over.