Guy at a bar in Nashville told me to stop offering free 30-minute discovery calls

He was a retired sales guy who said I was training people to waste my time (and he was right). I switched to a paid 15-minute call at $50 and my close rate doubled in 2 months - anyone else try paid consultations?

3 comments

3 Comments

zarag176d ago

Has anyone actually run the numbers on what an hour of their time is worth? I value mine at $150+. So why waste 30 minutes for free when the people booking those calls never convert anyway. It's like the retired guy said, you're training people to see you as free help instead of a professional worth paying. That $50 filter weeds out the looky-loos real fast. Smart move honestly.

grantc806d ago

Wow, you charged people $50 for a 15 minute call and they actually paid it? That's wild to me. I would have figured most folks would just hang up or go somewhere else. But I guess if your close rate doubled, it proves the point. Those free calls probably attracted nothing but tire kickers who had no intention of buying anything. Sounds like that retired guy knew what he was talking about.

michael8036d ago

Oh man, that reminds me of this buddy of mine who used to give away free fitness tips on Instagram (different field I know, but same idea). He'd spend hours answering DMs from random accounts and never turned any of them into paying clients. He finally just stopped responding altogether and put up a link to a $20 quick Q+A video call. Most people didn't bite, but the ones who did? They actually showed up and bought stuff. Funny how putting a price on something changes who takes you seriously, right?