Should I offer my clients a free trial, performance-based pricing or a revenue share?

It depends on the offer. Trials and performance-based deals work best when there is little or no trust, for example when you are not local and the client does not know you, and when the service is turnkey, low work and low risk. A review system that automatically texts or emails customers is a good example: let the client see how many reviews they get in the first week and pay if they like it, with or without a credit card. A performance offer works the same way: if you get a certain number of reviews within a number of days, they pay. Reviews and database reactivation suit this because you can show results before they pay. A trial is also a good fallback when there is resistance, after you have offered to waive the setup fee.

Do not offer a trial when it needs a lot of upfront work. You can often skip the trial by showing results instead: have the AI build the business a website and show it in two minutes, or create an AI receptionist from their website in thirty seconds and let them hear it answer the phone as their business.

Once you are already delivering a service to a client, you usually do not need performance pricing for the next one. Add it on for a monthly fee.

Be careful with revenue share, pay per appointment and similar deals when you do not control the outcome. Many business owners are poor closers, and if they rely on you for leads they may blame your leads. Set it up so the result is in your control, for example have the AI close online, and assume businesses are poor closers.