OK. On one level I sympathise, on another I don’t.

Let’s get this straight. When people ask you for advice, hoping to get something for nothing, it is an opportunity to engage with them and demonstrate your value.

Does this mean that you should give advice for free? No.

Does it mean that you have an opportunity to help them define their need and the value to them of having it satisfied. Yes.

Does it mean you have an opportunity to engage them in the search for a solution (for which you can charge.) Yes.

Frankly, if you don’t know how to do these things, there is a very good chance that you will be wasting much of your client’s time when you do start charging because you and they will not be focused on the value in your professional service.

Do think about your value, but remember, the value to the client is not something you define. They do. You have a part to play in preparing their mind so they can grasp it. Admittedly, this requires technique and a certain skill, but you can learn that.

If many people are asking you for free advice, and you know is worth something to them, but you are not converting a fair proportion of them into clients, perhaps you should think about how much fee revenue you are losing.

You could even consider asking someone to teach you how to convert more of them. Just don’t expect them to do it for nothing.

I get asked for free advice and help and to “pick my brain” so often I made it a service you can pay for and schedule with me via Tungle.Me a few months ago (uptownuncorked.com/2010/03/01/the-pick-my-brain-experiment/). That certainly cut down on requests, and narrowed it to folks who were serious about getting help only. Chris Penn is famous for putting a monetary value on his email contact form (christopherspenn.com/contact-me/). Nice post.

Leslie Poston
Twitter @leslie
SKYPE: UptownUncorked
LesliePoston.com: Everything You Need To Know
UptownUncorked.com Social Media Consulting: Bringing People Together, Founder
FilmPop.tv A Digital and New Media Agency for Independent Film, Co-Founder
You can read my work at Mashable, Style Career Publications, Technosailor, Media Bulls Eye, Louis Gray Blog, Blorge, Free Access Australia, Lost in Technology, Profy and now: Twitter for Dummies (coauthor: Fitton, Poston, Gruen)

Karima,

Sorry to be a Johnny-come-lately to this post, but The Brand Builder passed this to my virtual desk today.

This is an excellent post that echoes sentiments Olivier has rightly made before. I know others in the comments have seconded your thoughts that other professions don’t take lightly the expectations that “picking one’s brain” is an exercise in gratis/pro bono. As a web developer and an IT person by proxy, my profession is often queried for free advice or requests for next-to-nothing work. I don’t know that I’d be brassy to give someone the full invoice with discount after the fact, but I’ve turned aside many requests for work simply because I need to put paying clients first; favors don’t pay the bills.

Thanks for putting the social media profession in the same category. I continue to fight looks of amusement or derision because my bread-and-butter these days happens to be Twitter, et al.

All the best,

Mike

This is music to my ears. You paint a picture that is consistent with so many of our working days (across the world). Why are we still seen as not adding real value to a business? If we were then our time and expertise would be renumerated accordingly.
I agree it’s almost the word ’social’ that causes the confusion and problem, and love the way you describe this. Here in The UK businesses across the land hide behind fear, ROI and not enough time. Strange that they have enough time to listen to our thoughts (pick our brains), read our outline strategy documents and then feel they cannot proceed.
I wrote a post myself yesterday trying to see how we can forge stronger links with business in order for us ALL to succeed.
Great post!

I’m so happy to have read this and in recent months, I’ve felt my blood boiling more and more when it happens. It’ s about time someone said this out loud and I applaud you for doing so. It does apply to many professions, most likely in the services sector. Sadly, what I’ve started doing is really guarding my comments, protecting what really equates to intellectual property. It’s out there, it’s free, but acquiring, honing and then applying the knowledge we have takes resources, time and much dedication. It’s like any profession that requires you to be educated, then charge for it. Give it away, it will have little value.

Great post Karima. It can be a more grey area when it’s a good friend, relative or former colleague. It’s always easier when there is a professional level of distance and respect so that pricing can be seen as a signal of quality.

Keep up the great work.

Well stated. I think this is an issue that all industries face.

I’ve been plenty of guilty of asking a lawyer or an accountant of advice in a very casual setting (Happy hour, etc) about legal advice. They will gladly give out generic answers. I do the same with social media – there are a lot of ‘it depends’ in my answers. But the practice of scheduling some of my time for free is just not a possibility. I consider it almost an insult if someone wants to do it over lunch or coffee. Free is one thing – pro bono work is not a problem when it is warranted. But saying my hour is worth a $10 lunch is insulting.

Thanks for the wisdom. Keep it up.

I agree that people should not be able to pick your brain for free, but I can say that there is advice I give for free to convert them to a paying client. For example, your blog is free to them and so are your tweets, but to get specific individual advice/plan, there is a price tag. I always consider trades as well…in otherwords, will tweet for shoes…tell your friends. Or chocolate or wine…you know how it goes.

Thanks for a great post. I am definitely going to share it.

Unfortunately, the bottom line is that people will take advantage of you if you let them. I have been on the end of those ‘we aren’t sure if we want to move forward, can you give us some more details on how you would do this?’ calls where it’s obvious the company is picking your brain hoping to get the milk without buying the cow.

It sucks but when it happens, the best you can hope for is to learn from it, and move on. I’ve learned to discuss general ideas, but if they want specific advice on how to apply something to their unique setting, then they have to pay me to hear that.

Great post, Karima

I have an additional take on this (naturally). For me, I’m a “yes” person. It’s not in my nature to turn people down who ask for help. Obviously as my time restrictions grew I had to do so more and more. But still I have people that I let “pick my brain” all the time. I did find a way to mitigate some of that and derive value from it however…

Mail them an invoice afterwards. Do it at your full rates and include every drop of time spent. Then add a line item to the invoice discounting the entire thing. Yes, it still ends up being “free” but the person on the other end will do one of three things.

1. Feel like they got something over on you, in which case you know not to do business with them.
2. When faced with the actual amount of money that you just threw away to spend time with them they will offer to pay because they never thought about it in those terms before
3. Realize the value that you just delivered and try and reciprocate, usually through giving you work or referring work. People don’t want to feel like their “social capital” is out of balance.

The whole point is that you never allow yourself to be devalued. When I give you my time I view it as me “giving you money”, and I want you to view it the same way.

Lastly, there are two reasons you give something away. To benefit someone else altruistically, or to ultimately benefit yourself because you expect reciprocation. The people in the first group assumedly deserve your time if you can give it to them. The people in the second are an investment in your future. Then there’s a third group of people, those you don’t want to give charity to and can’t reasonably expect to benefit you back, those you need to say no to… firmly.

Cheers,

Matt Ridings – @techguerilla