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# We sell with samples — Kelford Labs Daily
- URL: https://kelfordinc.com/we-sell-with-samples-kelford-labs-daily/
- Published: 2025-06-05T10:25:13.000Z
- Updated: 2026-01-18T15:14:45.000Z
- Description: Not by saying things.
- Author: Joel Kelly
- Tags: Daily Labs, books, demo, practice

> “None but those who regard advertising as some magic dreamland will ever try to sell without sampling.”  
>  
> — Claude C. Hopkins, My Life in Advertising

I started reading Blair Enns’ latest book, [The Four Conversations](https://www.winwithoutpitching.com/book/the-four-conversations-a-new-model-for-selling-expertise/), this week.

**In it, he writes: “In any sale of expertise the sale is the sample of the engagement to follow.”**

This made me think of what David Maister wrote in *The Trusted Advisor*: “The best selling technique is to not sell, but to commence the service process. ... Good selling requires giving the client a taste of what it feels like to work together.”

But I don’t think this only happens in the sales process itself, or in those one-on-one conversations.

**It can happen with our** [**marketing content**](https://kelfordinc.com/whats-your-middle-step-kelford-labs-daily/)**, too.**

The newsletters we write, the posts we put on LinkedIn, the process we outline on our website:

Each of these things are opportunities to demonstrate, to begin the engagement before we’re hired.

**We can point out possibilities, we can ask interesting questions.**

We can sell by *sampling*, not just by *saying things*.

So, what methods, means, or media do you have access to now that could allow you to sample and demonstrate what it’s like to work with you?

**And how could you start today?**

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[***Kelford Inc.***](https://www.kelfordinc.com/) ***shows experts the way to always knowing what to say.***