Pay it forward is a big part of the sales strategy. The company I'm submitting a bid on has a need I can fill, but how do they know they can rely on me? To get them to give me (a brand new company) the time of day, I've been helping them already. They email me problems and I turn around some work product. It's basically me showing them that we have the skills and can deliver on small things so maybe they can trust us with big things.

You can take this too far. In my other business, I sometimes did this for years before getting a (underwhelming) sale. Honestly, it's one of the reasons I think that business scuffles. Knowing where to draw the line is hard.