[ziggystardust]

Hey, Thanks for being generous in taking out some time and writing so elaborately!!

Quick replies to your pointers 1) not all calls are of the same length Some calls need just 5 mins to explain a complex idea and some calls need 1 hour to explain something simple! Fixed pricing breaks here.. the opposite party will be like why am I being billed for one whole hour when only consumed 5 mins of your time ?!

2) upfront sounds great ! I’ll try that .. but most of the times people get sold into paying for consultation only after the initial consultations fetches them some value. Tire kickers are anyway not gonna come back .. so they aren’t of concern either way!

What do you think of an idealist setup of the following fashion: - conversation starts for free - client can see value and decides to pay - by the end of the call client gets an invoice automatically with the consumed minutes of consultation

Ofcourse this is an ideal scenario but I think that would take care of my problems Is this something that makes sense ?

[inceptivecss]

1) I'd argue that what they're paying for is less your time and more your knowledge and ability to provide them with answers. They're only going to complain if you're specifically charging them for an hour of your time on the invoice. If you instead are charging a fixed-fee amount for an expert consultation, it doesn't really matter how much time they take. You set a timebox so they don't take advantage of you, but if they don't need more than 10-15 minutes of your time to get the value they wanted out of the discussion, there's nothing wrong with that.

2) It sounds like you could benefit from showing initial value in some other way, such as a newsletter, case studies, or knowledge-base.

3) From a client perspective, it feels odd that I'd walk into a free initial-consult meeting and then get an invoice afterwards, even if I got value out of it. I think most clients would feel the same way. If they're paying for a consult, they'll want to know up-front. The other way feels like a bait and switch.

That said, you know your clients best. If you think that they'll be receptive to that sort of thing, give it a try.