Free Consultations Don't Work

Sean D'Souza, in his PsychoTactics blog, writes about the Myth of Free:

I'm not convinced FREE works. So I decided to put my money where my mouth was.

And I dedicated 16 weeks of educating customers free to find thatthe only ones that signed up were those that had already paid.

Free is fine. It works.

But paying customers buy more. And it's mainly because freecustomers don't understand value. I've tested free extensively atworkshops by giving away gifts free. I've tested it by giving awayteleclasses free. I've tested by giving away complimentary articles andreports. And free speeches at the corner coffee house. And we tested inthe US as well as New Zealand...And everytime we made customers pay,the results were better.

The more I've restricted the terms, the more people are eager tosign up. To give you an example: We closed our membership to 5000BC(our membership site). As a result we've had more people write to usdirectly, wanting to get in at any cost. These very people are hungryfor more and they post more on the forum, they ask more questions andthey're more keen to buy products. I'm not convinced about free.

The customer is right. But doesn't always understand the value whenit's free. Value between two parties is what makes a relationship arelationship.

I can't agree more.  Once I stopped giving free consultations to prospective clients, I found that the potential clients were more likely to show up on time, be prepared for our meeting, and retain me as their lawyer far more often then before.