George Washingtons or Benjamin Franklins?

There’s a cost associated with charging for an up-front consulting engagement.

A colleague recently said:

I’m going to start charging for my introductory 1-hour consulting calls.

My response…

Imagine, as a consultant, someone calls you and has an idea to revolutionize how beach umbrella rentals are transacted. The innovator is looking for the right consultant to lead the transformation for this market segment.

In a ten-minute “chat”, you determine that (a) this woman is intelligent, (b) the segment she’s trying to disrupt is a two-hundred-million-dollar market, and (c) you have precisely the skills and experience to help her be successful. This is the perfect scenario for value pricing your consulting services.

If you engage in brief bursts of knowledge-seeking opportunities, you can do six of these in one hour, increasing the odds of finding more ideal clients who can pay what you’re worth (Benjamin Franklins).

Suppose you follow a different path that constrains the number of conversations. In that case, you reduce the probability of finding ideal value-based consulting opportunities while maximizing your [misdirected] goal of trading precious hours for a fixed number of dollars (George Washingtons).

The hidden side of going for Benjamin’s upfront is that you’ve established your worth to a potential client who may need you for your true value to his vision. There is no way to unring this bell.