How can you possibly expect to get ten times the value out of anything you paid nothing for?

You can’t.

Some people think trolling the net for “free” ideas is going to make them a million dollars, or going to the “free” seminars is going to get them the best information available…

When you don’t pay for something, you don’t value it.

I think the difference between for instance getting online and “doing it yourself” with “free” advice is that “free” advice is not free.

And I have proven this.

I have given the same sales systems advice to several business’s for free and to several business’s for thousands of dollars in consulting time.

The ones who paid made money, the ones who didn’t made excuses…

It’s really lose:lose the whole “free” advice thing – because if people don’t buy in and actually invest in their learning they don’t respect your time or what you teach.

Way I see it you can only multiply the dollar value of a dollar value investment.

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Hey Leela,

What a refreshing post.

It was drummed in to me many years ago when I was a young and green PR consultant in London that clients do not value advice they get for free. They also place little value on information/advice that is instantly available. We weren’t talking about the internet then, just the point that one should (at least appear to) consider the question and take some time before getting back to clients. I think these points are as valid as ever – unfortunately clients do not take you seriously if you give your services freely. And why would they ever expect to pay you if they start off getting your advice for free in the first place?

I’m all for building business relationships and certainly don’t expect to turn a fast buck in my field (writing) but there is certainly too much emphasis on giving things away these days. Never mind, as Thor says, that the freebies are often of dubious quality. But it’s not the way to build a brand and it’s certainly no way to make a living.

All the best,

Persephone

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Leela Cosgrove Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 1:14 pm

Thanks Persephone – see, I think writers understand the whole thing in a way a lot of people don’t because it can be SO difficult to get clients to understand the true value of GREAT content.

I worked as a freelance writer for years before moving into focusing on information products- it can be a tough gig … people want everything for nothing and don’t understand the difference between premium and free content …

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Ever been to a Westfields lately. Everyone is selling the same thing but no one wants to make a point of difference with their stock. However they are all quit happy to cut their profit margin (buy on get one free). Look at the magazines they think its a great idea. I think we can all see their fate.

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Leela Cosgrove Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 1:15 pm

It’s crazy, isn’t it?

We’re having problems moving stuff … so let’s cut our profit margin in half! Because then we have to sell TWICE as much to make the SAME profit!

Unfortunately, a lot of retailers don’t understand the basics of sales and marketing … it’s sad to see where it’s going!

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Hi Leela – also enjoyed the first artical – it is great to here some common sense!

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Mark Byers Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 12:17 pm

That should be article!

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Leela Cosgrove Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 1:25 pm

Thanks Mark!

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well actually no… i think there are 2 different cases of this kind of thing:

1 – sales people & companies who can only make a sale by discounting & give in too easily to customers who want a discount… along with companies who can only compete by reducing their price & dont understand the idea of making a value statement

2 – people who are giving stuff away for no commercial reason… which is entirely within their rights to do

…and quite frankly, if anyone is running a business that is threatened by other people giving away things for free, then i would argue that they are either A – in the wrong business, or B – have a crap business model & should stop blaming someone else

…let me explain…

in the majority of cases, in order for someone to be ABLE to give away something for free, it has to be something that:
– doesnt cost much
– they dont need anymore
– they dont have many of
– is easy to make
– etc

…and the ONLY major exceptions to this rule are where the person doing the giving is either very wealthy & can afford to give away expensive things, or is giving more than they can afford for charitable reasons of their own, or is completely crazy & has lost their marbles…

…but either way, those exceptions are rare…

…or, they are (in the case of charity) perhaps common occurrences, but perfectly reasonable behaviour.

so anyway… one way or the other, all this is, is a website doing what people do anyway… they try to help each other for no commercial reason…

i went and had a look at the site in question… and i really fail to see how this could possibly be a commercial threat to anyone…

to be honest, i am actually amazed you wrote an article about this… and even more honestly, more amazed that i could be bothered replying to it… but i am waiting to meet up with someone for a business lunch… i might give them a free hug, or a free compliment, or any number of other free things

…should i be charging for those too? (joking) …i know you said you dont expect people to charge for everything at the outset of your article, but that just seems to be in start contradiction to what your article is about & titled in the light of what the freeple website actually does

regards,
Trev

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Leela Cosgrove Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 1:13 pm

Urrr – what Freeple website?

Oh – just googled it.

I wasn’t talking about their site. Didn’t even know it existed until you said this …

Freeple is a word my partner and I use to explain “seminar bogans” – people who want everything for nothing. Who aren’t willing to pay for stuff in their business. And who give away stuff for free – YES YOU SHOULD ABSOLUTELY BE CHARGING FOR COFFEE … if you give value, of course.

Meanwhile, please don’t go attacking people based on a totally random misinterpretation of what I said.

If you don’t understand business and the ideas behind it, perhaps you should avoid making comments altogether.

I wonder why you’re still waiting for said business lunch? Looks like someone made a very good call when ensuring THAT didn’t go ahead …

I don’t give my time away for free. It’s the most important thing I have.

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Happy to refer ya’ll this FREE article/forum from McKinsey.

http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/the_debate_zone/will-people-pay-for-content-online#

Let’s face it. Free vs paid scenario is everywhere. Arguments on both sides will always have their merits. Both will also have flaws.

Btw, is Anthill free?

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Leela Cosgrove Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 1:21 pm

Of COURSE people will pay for content online … I have an entire business based around creating that content … and my clients do VERY VERY Well (in excess of $4million for micro businesses in the last 3 years).

Is Anthill free – yes, the information is free. That’s a loss-leader which drives traffic to the site, so they can monetise via advertising.

Meanwhile, was the hardcopy magazine free? No … so it’s a question of logistics …

There’s NOTHING WRONG with loss leaders … I’ve developed a whole bunch of my own that are awesome for my business.

What I don’t like is people giving their time away for free – or ALL of their IP away for free …

What I don’t like even more are “business people” who refuse to pay for anything … “let’s do a deal” … “I don’t pay for information” … “There’s a whole heap of work coming your way … ” etc.

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As an advertising agency a free pitch is an easy way to win a client, but you really need to make sure that it’s a pitch worth doing – we are constantly asked to pitch $3,000 worth of creative just to be able to win $3,000 worth of work.

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Thor Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 1:13 pm

At the end of the day – A loss leader that has a strategy is GREAT!

Seminar Bogans who want everything for free and wonder why they are still broke because they haven’t invested in their business knowledge then get on their high horse when you try and sell them into a cost event or program are who we are talking about here.

Not Loss Leaders.

Loss Leaders with SALES on the back end make perfect commercial sense.

Seminar Bogans, well, good for nothing except maybe landfill really.

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Let me make a point here – if you read the article – LOSS LEADERS WORK. In fact, I’m working on an awesome one for my business as we speak.

My issue is with people who ONLY want to go to stuff that is free … who only partake in free information … and then wonder why they are still broke and their businesses aren’t making any money.

It all stems back to an issue with sales, I think – people who are afraid of selling are also afraid of being sold TO …

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Hi guys,

Love your work as always… my only comment on here is that I am one who goes often to seminars for FREE (admittedly most of the time because I was invited rather than searching for free seminars) and I find them very useful to get a little more insight into the person who is trying to upsell you into buying and/or using one of their progams.

And it is true that there is alot of information in these seminars that I dont implement… this could be partially because maybe I dont appreciate the information as I havent put any money into it… but since “my time” is the most important thing I have in my business then even though it hasnt cost me money to go to a free seminar it can certainly cost me alot in time – which I value.

Sometimes the reason I dont implement what I hear at a free seminar is that the timing isnt right at this point (but could be at another) or its not relevent to me or that the person who delivered the message isnt living the life they promote (this is a real disappointment when you listen to someone for 3 days then do a little research and find they are really only at a similar or lower point in life or business to me currently).

Then again, that last group of speakers/coaches/mentours have advice often that I may not take even if I were paying for it… and I have paid for advice I havent taken.

I love that we still live in a place (Melbourne especially) where there are free seminars available for people to choose to learn or network or even so the speaker can deliver a message.

On the same token, there are also alot of speakers who charge large amounts of money to be at their seminars and they still dont deliver 100% value and instead hold back around 70% for people to upsell to one of their programs.

I do agree with Leela that people should be doing alot less free coffees and one on one free consultations as that really does lower the value of the service some people provide.

Thanks for reading,
Belinda Pritchard

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I love this. Particularly since our house publishes an online music magazine, which has in the past few months come up against the problem of people expecting things for nothing. One particular person told me that his business couldn’t deal with us in a particular way because we expect them to pay for advertising. It didn’t make sense to me *at all*. If we didn’t offer it free, we could take a flying leap.

I think that for people who have dealt with those who do give things away online (like ad space for instance), it somehow becomes a ‘thing’ where any advertising online – esp in that genre of the industry, for which most publications online are glorified blogs – having to pay just isn’t in their mindset. But you also can’t give into it.

For our other services, we often spend an hour – no more – in an initial consultation with people as a basic introduction-well-met type thing: and that is driven more by the desire to get a sense of whether we can work with them than anything else. It’s saved us on more than one occasion from being stuck in a working relationship that is a big fail.

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Leela Cosgrove Reply:
October 21st, 2009 at 10:35 am

Hear ya Leticia! We call that “pissing in the pool” – when other people in your industry totally screw you by under-cutting and thereby change clients expectations … happens a LOT in my industry!

The fashion at the moment is to put on FREE 3 day events … and not multi-speaker sales-fests, but actual events … I charge $997+ for my 3 days … and people are like … “Oh, but such and such are doing theirs for free”. Good. Go to theirs. Because if you don’t think $997 is worth it, you’re not my client.

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Hey Leela – I’ve just stumbled upon this article a few seconds ago – I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!! It’s particularly good timing for me because I just got sabotaged by some ‘freeple’ this week and because of their inaccurate (actually mean spirited behaviour) talk about a FREE event I did, I ended up losing a contract with a major client. What the hell is it with people who want to be your best mate when you give them free tips, buy them coffees and valuable advice, and as soon as you present an offer they bag you and say you only care about money!?!? I’ve been gutted and really down about it but reading your article has really given me some perspective – THANK YOU. Rock on , Dave Lourdes

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Leela Cosgrove Reply:
December 17th, 2009 at 10:19 am

… and that’s why I don’t do coffee or free events anymore! Problem is – if people don’t pay for stuff they don’t value it. I’d love if it was otherwise. I’d love if we could help people – but they won’t let us.

Funnily enough, we called someone (someone who I know is very successful within the seminar industry) the other day to invite her to a seminar – given her level of influence in the industry, we offered her a free ticket. And she refused. Said she didn’t go to stuff for free and she would love to come, but she was damn well paying.

I was like – how DIFFERENT is THAT headspace? Talk about the anti-freeple! And she has the results that prove the success of said headspace.

And OHMYGOD! You’re a BUSINESS PERSON who CARES about MAKING MONEY?! WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU DAVE!

Look, at the end of the day – do you WANT a client who wouldn’t work with you due to gossip about how you charge for what you do? I would CELEBRATE the near miss!

This says a lot more about their own mental blocks than it does about you – money is only a reflection of the value we provide to people. But obviously they can’t see that. To them, money is a scary horrible thing and they don’t know how to deal with it. I feel so sorry for people like that! What a horrible way to live your life!

Glad you enjoyed it!

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