Respond to a request for free work or a spec pitch
A reply that protects my time when a prospect asks for unpaid samples, free strategy, or spec work, while keeping the deal alive.
The prompt
A prospect has asked me to do unpaid work before hiring me. Help me respond.
What they asked for: [e.g. "a sample design", "a free audit", "your ideas for our strategy", "a test article"]
How much effort it would take: [HOURS]
Who they are and the size of the opportunity: [DETAILS]
Is this a competitive pitch against others? [yes / no / unknown]
What I'm willing to offer: [e.g. portfolio, case studies, a short call, a paid discovery phase]
Give me:
1. A quick assessment: is this a reasonable request in my field, a common practice in this type of competitive pitch, or a red flag?
2. Three alternatives I can offer instead, such as relevant case studies, a short paid discovery or audit, a working session on their problem, or references.
3. A reply that declines the free work politely, explains my policy briefly without lecturing, and offers the best alternative.
4. A version that accepts a limited version, with clear boundaries on effort and on who owns the ideas if they don't hire me.
5. If it's a formal pitch, the questions to ask first: number of competitors, decision criteria, budget, and whether a pitch fee is paid.
Keep the tone confident and helpful, never defensive.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Sales prompts
What to fill in
- HOURS
- DETAILS
- yes / no / unknown
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
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