People who know me know I’m a huge fan of the PQL (product qualified lead) model. The cynic in me wants to flag businesses as pushing free-product-offers (to businesses in crisis), that are really self-serving acts of PR or product trial.
Think long and hard before creating “Pandemic Qualified Leads” – it’s not clever lead gen, it’s predatory behavior, with questionable ethics.
If you want to genuinely help with your products, think twice about your sincerity, be fully transparent, and give full easy opt-out paths and no auto-conversion to payments. Test your ideas in the clear light of day. Execute sincerely.
Give with the goal of just receiving a sincere “thank you” from someone in need. If your generosity (and product value) triggers THEM to ask about becoming a paying customer when they are able, then you’ve done a good thing for them and for you.
I’d also challenge you to think about your current customers in need. What can you do to help them through this crisis? Extend/defer payments? Create a survival or recovery playbook? Being generous deepens your relationships.
