When I work with small businesses and entrepreneurs there is often a conversation about what they should offer for FREE to engage someone’s email on their list, to entice someone to work with them as a company, or to try their product. Personally I’d rather be asked about a list and told “when you join our mailing list we’ll give you x y z, than to imply the gift is the reason they are asking.
Integrity matters to me.
The mentality is that you have to be “free” to have people try you before they buy your services or product. There is a place for that in production testing, in deciding how or if something is desired in the market, and we all like to be enticed to try something new. However, if you are a solopreneur, small business and or entrepreneur I implore businesses and clients to see if their integrity lines up with what they are saying. “Free Consultation” can imply that at no risk to the client, they are having a “look see” at you as a service or product provider. That may be true, but to be effective it isn’t free. You’re asking for an investment of time, intellect and effort in return for a truthful taste of your services. However, it is rarely free for either the potential or the business seeking the potential. I haven’t met many successful companies that don’t truly understand the cost of that procurement of the client or purchase. It may be cost effective for Big Box Brand A to spend 40 hours with one of their strategist giving “free” consultations each month with the hopes of gaining a revenue share of those consultations and transition them into clients. However for the solopreneur, the stakes would be awfully high to do so. Let’s do the math:
40 hours of the 170 hours a month an average worker works = 1/4 of their income producing time (and the majority of those calls may be 20-30% effective for producing future income at best, the majority being a waste of time if pre qualifiers are not in place) = 40 hours of limited to no income producing activities.
40 hours of potential interviews/try before you buy sessions most likely means 20 hrs of additional prep time for calls, so its truly 60 hrs per month of invested time
That’s 40 hours of phone time, skype time, in person time and the costs of whatever that location or format is…
And moreover
It’s teaching folks that your time, your expertise, and your services are not worth paying for.
We won’t even talk about how many of the potentials truly never had an intention of going forward as a client.
Before you as a small business or solopreneur engage in 1/4 of your time as hopefully leading to new business, have you considered?:
- A low point of entry evaluative tool for their business, services, or products with a no strings attached value for their business?
- An on-going educational series available online or onsite to help them determine if they are a good candidate for your services or business?
- A pre-qualifier for attributes of a well qualified “fit” for your business or service is? A Checklist or Suggestive interactive?
- A component concept of levelized offerings your company provides so a company can begin where they are. We offer A, B, C D levels of service.
If these things are not in place on your social media interactions, content on your website or taught in your business blog, you might consider helping your potentials know who you are from the beginning. Engagement happens when both sides of an arrangement are assured that each is a “fit” for the needs of their business and that there is integrity in the offer.
What are you doing to communicate your value to potentials? How are you affirming what it is you do on your website, social media pages, or tweets? Why does that matter and how can you measure if what you are doing is effective? ….more on this topic to come!
