Posted on June 8, 2026
Sourced from this LinkedIn post from InEvent CEO Pedro Góes.
Have you ever found yourself in a “buy one, get one free” kind of situation, jumping through hoops just to win that one deal? In event sales negotiation, something similar happens all the time.
A prospective client approaches your sales rep with something that sounds like good faith. “We know your platform is good, but can you give us one free event, just to test it out?” Then comes the bait: they’re ready to sign a multi-year deal, twenty-five-plus events, but they just want one free event first.
It sounds like a low-risk way to win an enterprise-level client. Of course, it does. You want to put your best foot forward, so most people’s gut reaction is “sure, why not” because it sounds good on paper.
But that gut reaction is negative, and the reason isn’t obvious until you’ve been burned by it many times over.
Take Pedro Góes, CEO of InEvent, as an example. He’s someone who said yes to this exact request, repeatedly, for years. In his LinkedIn post on it, he put it plainly:
“A ‘small’ event is almost the same work as a large one.”
That’s exactly what we’ll be unpacking in this article.
By the end, you’ll know the real cost of “free,” and the better question you should be asking instead.
Why “Just One Free Event” Sounds Reasonable
There’s a reason this works so well and might be enticing. It’s because it actually makes sense, on the surface.
Think of it like a test drive. The client isn’t asking for a discount or a handout. They’re asking to try the car before they buy it. It sounds like low commitment, low risk, and if you prove yourself, you get the big contract waiting on the other side.
And from where you’re standing, that contract is huge. Twenty-five-plus events mean three years of steady business. That’s the kind of deal most sales teams dream about closing. So when there’s just one small ask standing between you and that prize, saying no feels almost irrational. Why would you risk losing the whole deal over one free event?
This is exactly why so many people say yes to it, Pedro included, in his early years running InEvent. It’s not naive to say yes. It’s the obvious move. The math looks like it adds up.
The problem is, it’s the wrong math.
The Hidden Math: A “Small” Free Event Isn’t Small
What you do not know is that a small free event requires almost the same amount of work as a large paid one.
It requires exactly the same amount of time to set up, with the same level of coordination, the same detailed run of show, planned minute by minute, and the same pressure to deliver without a single mistake, because this is the event that decides whether you get the contract at all.
The only thing that’s actually smaller is the number of people in the room.
Think of it this way. A “small” version of your job isn’t a smaller job. It’s the same job, just wearing a smaller costume. The work underneath doesn’t shrink. Only the headcount does.
So when a client asks for “one small free event,” what they’re really asking for is your full team, your full effort, and your full attention to detail, for free. The size of the audience has nothing to do with the size of the job.
Why Free Events Get the Least Commitment, Not the Most
You’d think a “test” event would get extra attention from the client. After all, this is their chance to see if you’re worth the bigger deal. But oftentimes, that’s not what happens. Free events usually get the least commitment from client.
But why?
If a client hasn’t paid for anything, they have nothing on the line, and by extension, no incentive to actually make use of the free event to the best of it’s abilities. There’s no invoice, no contract, or no real consequence if things slip. So when something else comes up, a budget meeting, a different priority, a stakeholder who’s slow to reply, the free event is the easiest thing to push down the list. It’s not malicious. It’s just human. People protect what costs them something, and deprioritise what doesn’t.
So stakeholders delay decisions, because there’s no financial pressure forcing a decision. Decisions get delayed, so the timeline slips. The timeline slips, so your team is now compressing weeks of planning into days. And when planning gets compressed, execution suffers because the conditions around them get worse, and nobody but your team feels the pressure to fix it.
You agreed to this event to prove yourselves. But the event that ends up showing the client your work is the one event where you had the least time, the least cooperation, and the least support to do it well. You didn’t fail the test. The test was rigged against you before it started.
What to Offer Instead
So if free isn’t the answer, what is?
Pedro’s actual fix is simple, but it changes everything. Instead of offering one free event, offer a yearly contract with an early cancellation fee, one that only kicks in if the first event doesn’t meet the criteria both sides agreed on upfront, in writing.
Here’s why this works so much better than free. Both sides now have something on the line. The client isn’t locked in forever with no way out; they still get a real exit if the first event genuinely doesn’t deliver. But it’s not free anymore. It’s accountable. And accountability is exactly what was missing from the “free test event” in the first place.
The principle here isn’t really about pricing. It’s bigger than that. Give clients an exit, not a freebie. An exit protects them if you don’t deliver. A freebie just protects them from ever having to commit, which, as we just walked through, is exactly what makes the whole thing fail.
How to Spot This Negotiation Tactic Coming
Once you know what to look for, this request gets a lot easier to handle. Here’s a quick gut-check for the next time it shows up.
If the client’s ask is “one free event to test you,” reframe it to a paid pilot with an exit clause instead. You’re not refusing the test. You’re just making it a fair one.
If the client hesitates at any paid commitment at all, even a small one, treat that as information, not a hurdle to negotiate past. A client who won’t commit to anything small probably won’t commit to anything big either. That’s worth knowing now, not after twenty-five events.
If the “test” event is the same scale and complexity as their real events, price it and staff it that way, free or not. The size of the audience was never the thing that mattered. The size of the job was.
Final Thoughts
Pedro Góes closed his original post with a simple question: Do you offer one free event to your clients before they close?
It’s worth sitting with that question yourself, because most people in this industry have either asked it, been asked it, or said yes to it at least once.
And if you’ve got your own version of this story, the one free event that turned into the worst event you ever ran, that’s a conversation worth having out loud, not just learning the hard way.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should you ever do a free event for a client?
Generally, no. A free event still demands the same setup, coordination, and effort as a paid one, just for fewer people. If a client wants to test your work, a paid pilot with clear exit terms protects both sides better than giving the work away for free.
Is a paid pilot better than a free trial event?
Yes, because a paid pilot creates accountability on both sides. The client has something on the line, which means the event gets real attention and priority, instead of getting pushed down their to-do list because nothing was at stake.
Why do free events fail more often than paid ones?
Because nothing costs the client anything if they delay decisions or deprioritise the work. That lack of urgency causes timelines to slip, which compresses planning time and puts pressure on execution, even when the team running the event hasn’t done anything wrong.
What should be in an event services contract to protect against this?
A clear early cancellation clause tied to specific, pre-agreed criteria. This gives the client a real way out if the first event genuinely underdelivers, without you having to give away the work for free to prove yourself.
About the Author / Adedoyin
