Why Do We Keep Giving Away the Milk?

Being in the sales and marketing sector it I am often asked for advice. This ranges from reviewing someones marketing plans, recommending PR strategies and more often leveraging my network introducing someone to a potential customer or vendor. I came across this blog yesterday which really struck a cord.

Reprinted from the blog of Drew McLellan (http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2008/02/why_do_we_keep_giving_away_the.html)

“I was at lunch with a peer and friend the other day, telling her a story about how a mutual acquaintance had called me out of the blue to ask for some marketing counsel, which of course I gave her. My lunch companion said, "I hope you charged her."

Gulp.

I've been in the business for 20+ years. Owned my own agency for almost 13. I know better. But I still give away too much milk. And then I get frustrated when no one wants to buy the cow. I know I am not the only marketing professional out there who struggles with knowing when a simple conversation turns into a billable opportunity. Am I?

I'm not suggesting that I carry a time clock in my pocket and start punching in every time someone asks me a question over a cocktail or at a networking event. But when someone asks you to have coffee or if you "have 10 minutes" at what point do you know this has turned into a business transaction?

And, how do you gracefully let them know it has turned into a business transaction? I don't want to even think about how much money I have left on the table over the years because I didn't have the answer to those two questions.

Don't get me wrong. I want to be helpful. I want to be generous. I'm even okay with being an absolute fool now and then. But, I also want to be a smart business owner.

As Steve Lovelace said in a post on this topic: Nobody expects their architect to work free... so why would you?”

It is very disturbing to me that we are afraid to get compensated for doing our jobs. If your friend was a broker and you were buying a home through him who you expect him to forgo his commission? If you went to your friend the physician for a check up are you charged a fee? So why do we allow our assets to be given away for free simply because someone asks nicely? Is your knowledge in marketing any less valuable than the physicians knowledge of medicine. Your friend the broker gets commission simply for showing you a property.

This doesn’t mean of course that all your time is billable but it also doesn’t mean that you are running a pro-bono service either. And by the way, I don’t buy into the “what goes around comes around adage” as that was created by people who simply wanted something for free. In the situation above I would have told the acquaintance, ‘your situation sounds very interesting and it really merits more than a flip answer. Why don’t you come into my office so we could discuss the situation professionally?’ Now this is the litmus test; if the acquaintance isn’t willing to schedule an appointment in a professional manner than why should dole out counsel for free. Note that I didn’t explicitly say to charge the acquaintance – you could determine that at the meeting and whether there is an opportunity for some billable time. But, you wouldn’t expect you friend the physician to give you an off-the-cuff physical examination either.

It is important that we recognize that our human capital be it from an expertise that we have, to relationships that we have cultivated, are valuable and giving them away for free only serves to reduce their value.