Are You Giving Away Too Much For Free?

I'll be the first to admit that I love what I do so much (as a small business coach) that I could do it for free. While it's great to love what you do, all businesses are set up to create revenue and giving away the farm certainly doesn't accomplish that goal.

To one of my readers who asked "How do I stop giving away everything as a consultant?" I know the feeling all too well as I tend to be a huge giver of information myself. In this article, I'll share how to check whether you're indeed giving away too much for free (and what to do about it), plus a couple of surprising realities around giving away too much of your services for free.

Free is OK (to an extent)

I do believe that we (as business owners) need to have something that we can give away for free to new prospects who may be interested in our service. This is so they get a taste of what we do. I give away a free audio and video series, and I also give away free content weekly (via articles). Others have free consultations etc. I tend to favor providing free offers that don't require a whole lot of your time on an ongoing basis. But for some, consultations can be quite lucrative so that may work as well.

Free can be a disservice

Sometimes we unleash a whole lot of information (because we're so passionate about what we do), but we stop short of sharing the products and services we offer. If we give away our expertise for free and never tell our prospects or clients what else is available, I see that as a disservice. Think of it this way - your prospect shows up truly looking for a solution to key problems, challenges or burning desires they have.

My guess is they will receive the most benefit and the best results from working with you for a period of time by investing in one of your products and services. To leave them thinking one hour or one meeting is all they need would be a disservice.

So while it's fine to give an introductory free offer, you serve your prospects best by letting know what else is available to truly solve the problems they are experiencing. And when you begin to share what else is available, that's part of having an effective sales conversation.

Free only gets you so far

This is another place where I see it as a disservice. We need to invite and allow people to invest in themselves and their businesses. If I had just stayed with getting free stuff and never invested in myself (through hiring coaches, purchasing products, etc.), I certainly wouldn't be where I am today. I think we all know you can only get so far on "free stuff." Without a doubt, you'll experience success at a much slower pace (if at all) if your only source is free stuff.

Also, a prospect's commitment to action and implementation tends to be much lower when they receive stuff for free. I don't know about you, but when I invest and pay money to get the knowledge I need, you bet I'd want to get my money's worth. So I carve out the time to ensure that I'm taking action. And we need to give our prospects and clients the opportunity to invest in their own success and to experience the results of their own investment.

Balance free offers with paid offers

If you're using some sort of consultation as an introduction to your service, you can't possibly give away everything you know during that time anyway, so take the time to set up the consultation in a really effective way.

Give your prospects a valuable free taste (say, your top 2-3 golden nuggets of advice) and then share where they can tap into a complete solution if they'd like more. Be sure to have different levels of service you can offer (low-end, middle, high-end) so that your prospect can choose the best option for their needs.

People who want to "pick your brain"

I've often had invitations to breakfast, lunch, etc., where people say they want to "pick my brain." If that's happening for you as well, it means people truly value what you do, which is awesome! And it also means it's time to start charging for the information you share vs giving it all away for free. There has to be some boundaries.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of getting together with folks and making connections etc. But sometimes, when people say "Hey, Allison, I'd like to get together so I can pick your brain and find out more about what you do." that's my opportunity to offer my free audio full of info on what I do for small business owners. My assistant sends them the audio, they can listen at their leisure, and we invite them to follow up if they have more questions based on what they heard.

In summary

You have expertise and information that is of high value - treat it that way. Balance free offers with sharing options for going more in-depth (i.e. your products and services). FREE can only take a person so far, so give folks the opportunity to invest in their own success so they can truly experience great results.