Do you negotiate with exchanges? Now it is relatively easy to get on the exchanges that are on Coinmarketcap, and accordingly your token will also be on this site.
Do need funds for this? As far as I know on the popular exchanges, it is almost impossible to add currency without payment.
Even if it requires investments - this is justified, believe me, I worked in the team of one project. At first, we looked for exchanges to add a token for free - but this was unsuccessful, we ended up paying a listing on a popular exchange and after 3 weeks our investment was paid off.