The Client Letter
December 11, 2012
Sedona, Arizona
Sunny 50 Degrees
Should you work for free?
I don’t mean forever of course… I mean, should you EVER provide any work to a client or prospective client that hasn’t been paid for?
We all come face to face with that question every so often.
The longer I go in this business, the worse my allergy to anything FREE becomes. Because I see that, in almost every instance, it eventually backfires in a BIG way.
I used to do it all the time. Mainly because I was spineless.
Then I started doing it less.
Now I’m on a mission to eradicate it from my life.
It’s a work in progress. And in my experience, it takes a while to adjust your thinking. It takes even longer to develop the guts required to refuse dishing out free advice.
Free doesn’t work… especially in the service business.
If you’re like most service providers, the only real thing you have to offer for free is the very service (or expert knowledge) you hope to charge for.
Call me kwazy but that just doesn’t make sense.
Yes, I know the whole free sample theory.
I think that works with cookies. I think that works with drugs on the street. But I don’t think it holds true for the average service provider… especially if you’re selling YOU. We don’t have the advantage of chemical dependence working in our favor here so we have to make adjustments.
Let’s look at this from a client’s perspective. I approach you and ask you for your free consultation. You spend time with me discussing my project.
At the end of that session, does the access you granted me increase the magnetic attraction I feel towards you or not?
I don’t think it increases it. The fact that you met with me gives me some of what I was seeking. Give me enough (you don’t know how much that is) and I’ll walk away full enough not to come back.
Instead of trying to figure out how to make “free” work, how about just cutting it out and seeing what that does first?
If you don’t like it, you can always go back.
My hunch is that removing “free” from your business is going to cut down the amount of time you waste on prospective clients, I can tell you that. It’s also going to demand respect from the clients you do serve.
Free ruins your fees… free ruins your positioning… free ruins your client’s perception of value.
Free can make you miserable… I know.
You know what the good part is in all of this?
No one can force you to work for free. So if you do end up working for free, you know exactly who to blame.
Even better, you can fix it in a blink.
The easiest way to end the reign of free in your business is to believe you’re better than free. To believe that what you do is inherently valuable enough to charge a lot of money for.
Get confidence like that and you’ll put a stake through the heart of FREE.