For the busy tiny business owner the following can be dreaded words:
“I’d like to get together with you to pick your brain.”
The first thought that may fly through your mind is
“So…. you would like to get together with me for free to find out some information. I don’t think so!”
Firstly, Be Flattered
They like you, they really like you. You shouldn’t be angry, you should be flattered that people are requesting an audience with you. They want your advice and they are reaching out to you.
You have proven yourself to be approachable and worthy of attention. And, in business, attention is the sincerest form of flattery.
Stop Playing the Blame Game
Here are some of the reasons that people are asking to pick your brain (for free):
- They aren’t clear about what exactly you charge for
- You haven’t set clear boundaries in your own mind about what you charge for
- You don’t have the chutzpah to respond letting them know that your time costs money
In any case, these are your problems, not theirs. Take some time to clearly outline what you charge for and then (quite simply) charge for them. In many cases, the person will be happy to pay you, if the benefit is clear and value is demonstrated to them.
Awareness, Interest and Evaluation
If you want to increase billable hours, understand that your prospects will need to be able to pick your brain to make an informed decision about whether to hire you or not. And they don’t want to put any skin in the game when they are making this decision.
The first three stages of the sales cycle: ‘Awareness‘, ‘Interest‘ and ‘Evaluation‘ require that your prospect be able to learn more about what you do, what the benefits are and how you are the best choice for their hard earned dollar. You cannot make sales without moving prospects through these stages.
These first three stages require “brain picking.”
Pick When Your Brain is Picked
This is crucial. You must allow free “brain picking” but you can choose when and where.
Here are some great ways to allow free “brain picking” that leads to sales:
- Hold group events – Holding a group event where you are doing presentations can allow multiple people to pick your brain at once is a very efficient way to give away free information that moves prospects from the awareness stage to the sale stage.
- Start blogging – When prospects want to pick my brain, they can do so virtually and while I am sleeping or fishing with my kids. I have tons of free resources (that tell my story) available on my blog and website.
- Attend group events – In addition to starting your own group event, start attending more group events held by other individuals and organizations. Be liberal with your brain picking at these type of events.
- Be vocal in social media – You can provide lots of great advice in LinkedIn groups, on Facebook pages and through your Twitter feed. This is another very efficient way to allow your brain to be picked by multiple people at the same time.
- Hold Webinars – Webinars are a cheap and easy way to reach lots of interested people at the same time. GoToMeeting is $49.00 per month and you can have up to 15 people on a call at the same time.
- Free Reports/eBooks/White Papers – These can be made downloadable from your website and provide lots of great information for prospective buyers.
Also, remember that sales is about relationship building. And building relationships is a process. It takes time, it takes energy. Often, it is a good idea to sit down with someone (free of charge) and provide that brain for the picking.
What are your thoughts? How do you handle requests for free brain picking? How do you increase billable hours? What exactly is “chutzpah?”
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{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }
Russ- love your comments! I have been doing this for years- but not being as strategic on the ROI of my time! I was just chalking it up to KARMA- which worked well- but your recommendation is better and leads to a faster ROI of my time and energy.
Thank you and Happy New Year!
Margaret
Hi Margaret — I didn’t put much thought into it either until recently when I received about three of these requests in a row and I realized that my free Meet Up group, my blog and my social media sites were some of the places that I was allowing free brain picking.
Thanks so much for the thoughtful comment.
Ahhh …a tough one here Russ. When I first saw your commnet on who is responsible for this, I was a little torn on my feelings, but after some serious thoughts on the matter, I can see that yes, it is the responsibility of the “brain picked” to speak up, show up, and notify upfront that the information that is free is that which is given by choice at the chosen time and place.
…and then again was that a “Limited Picking” sign I just saw on your front door:) 
I do believe in brain picking under the right circumstances. Those circumstances change at times in our busniess walk. Your post does a great job listing some awesom places to allow the desired “brain… picking”.
Good job talking about a touchy subject….
I’ll “pick your brain” about what you learned from the comments of your readers later.
@jennifer — It is certainly a very touchy subject Jennifer but something we all deal with. No one likes to feel that they are being taken advantage of and yet we all know that we should give and not keep score. Sometimes there is gray area but if we can set clear boundaries in our own minds about what we charge for and what we don’t — this is half the battle.
Thank you for your insight!
Russ:
Love your comments and it is the quid pro quo that goes unsaid, you always have to give to get! I think we all set ourselves up for some of this brain picking by not articulating our process, value prop, value, issue and resolution processes and practices in the “dancing/dating” process called networking that we all do a lot of to find new prospects. In your terminology you try and “attract the maybe’s”. I have always looked at it a little more as “going for the no” cause “yes” does not always mean I will do business with you but we can keep talking. The fundamental construct comes down to the one thing in life that is our ultimate equalizer” TIME, we all have the same amount of it and if you are respectful of other people’s time then drive to a win-win resultant for all parties the world would be a better place. Not everyone works under this premise however and so we spend a lot of time investing in others to no avail. Keep doing what you are doing and you do a great job educating people.
@Mark Hendrix — Absolutely Mark! I think my mentor and friend Fred Miller would agree with you on the “Go To No” philosophy. I love your take on this — as it is the precious asset of TIME that makes this such a difficult business conundrum. Thanks for your expert advice!
My first thought is, “Send me $1,000 and I will tell you what I do!”
Then I read, “The first three stages of the sales cycle: ‘Awareness‘, ‘Interest‘ and ‘Evaluation‘ require that your prospect be able to learn more about what you do, what the benefits are and how you are the best choice for their hard earned dollar. You cannot make sales without moving prospects through these stages.”
We can charge for what we can do for a client, not what we know. How will anyone know what we do if we aren’t willing to open the window to who we are?
If all you think about is billable hours, you are just a peddler. If show your true value, you will have a client relationship that lasts. Get paid once, or create an income stream–I’ll take the income stream everytime.
@Robert Gatesh — Great stuff Robert! You make an important point — we can only charge for what we can do for a client. The “end” is what we charge for and “brain picking” is required for the prospective client to know that you do indeed know what the “means” are to get to that “end.”
Thanks for the very thoughtful comment and sharing your expertise.
Excellent Post on an important subject often not talked about, Russ.
There’s a great Abraham Lincoln quote that applies here. “A lawyer’s time and advice is his stock in trade.”
This applies to the services many of us offer.
We want prospects and current clients to know our expertise(s) and feel comfortable hiring us, but we understandably don’t want to do too much “Free Consulting.”
No one is more generous than Russ Henneberry. His MeetUps and blogposts have provided me, and many others, with an internet marketing education that would cost $1000s if bought from other individuals or spent on tuition.
I really like the idea of letting people who “want to have a cup of coffee and pick your brain” know that you already offer this “free brain picking” in the manners Russ described.
Explain to the person about those “freebies” when they make their initial inquiry. Have an up-front contact with people who want to sit down one-on-one, that you only do this when there will be an outcome of “Yes”, you are going to hire me or “No”, I’m not a fit.” This is a great way of filtering out the tire kickers who are not yet ready to buy.
After that explanation of “sitting down for coffee” the verbiage can be: “Here’s how I work. We’ll have a short conversation. You’ll have questions for me. I’ll have questions for you. When we finish the conversation, you’ll tell me the next step. That next step may be you telling me I’m not a fit, and that’s OK because I’m not a fit for everyone. How do you want to proceed?”
As always, Russ, great stuff here. Not a bad idea for some of us to forward a link to this post to some of those “Brain Pickers”. I hope the discussion continues.
BTW, Russ, when and where can I meet you for a cup-of-joe? I’m buying!
@Fred Miller — Wonderful insight here Fred. I think the important point you raise here Fred is that we are making these choices as business owners. We can’t lay the blame on the “brain picker.” We need to think this through with a process and what you have outlined above is a great one. Essentially, what I hear you proposing above is that you make the person aware that the “brain picking” session will be a bit more formal and will end with an outcome. Setting these expectations at the outset is powerful indeed.
I couldn’t stop reading this one Russ. I’ll throw one more at you. What about the person who has already bought a product or service from (someone else)? I often find that they are the worst brain pickers and quite frankly it sometimes feels like they’re like sucking the life out of me. OK OK maybe that’s going overboard but how do you feel about people picking your brain for their personal affirmation of having made the right or wrong choice, or could we (me) just taking it personally because they didn’t use our (my) product or service. The funny thing about these brain pickers is that it seems I rarely have good news for them. As a matter of fact it often seems like a case of letting them down gently or embarrassing them for having made a poor choice which of course is not the intent.
How do you handle this? Brutal honesty? Let them down gently? White lie and say, “sounds good to me” Personally I have excelled here with brutal honesty.
Doug Belleville
@STL Beds — Doug, this happens to me a lot as well. For me, I offer an audit product/service to evaluate their current situation for people that get out of hand with these kinds of “brain picking” requests. But, as I state in the article, allowing your brain to be picked is necessary to generate new customers — they are looking to you as the expert.
If there are questions that come up often — use your blog to answer these FAQ’s and point them to that free resource. For example “11 Factors To Consider When Purchasing Your Next Bed” — they can then make the evaluation of their decision on their own and you still establish STL Beds as a valuable, authoritative resource.
This was a great “real world” example of what your post suggested us to take a look at… great response.
Kathy
I am an advocate of helping others. I know that there is only 24 hours a day and about 10 of those dedicated to working. I set several hours a week dedicated to reaching out and helping in advising or whatever you would like to call it for FREE that is my way of helping me appreciate myself and what I have. I have a mindset that every hour I work is “Billable” just at different rates, some at a rate of $ payments, others at a rate of Confidence and others at a rate of Self Satisfaction. I guess I have never thought about someone taking advantage of me, since I have built in time of my week for this activity.
@Terry — Wow — that is a fantastic perspective Terry! Building time into your week to allow for brain picking is a great way to “Pick When Your Brain Gets Picked.” Thanks for taking the time to leave your take!
Timely Russ. My to do list includes reworking my fee schedule and clearly defining pricing. I get picked on creative services – photography and design. Lack of boundaries and clarity on my part had led to too many might profits leaking out the back door.
chutzpah is the neuter version of the masculine “cojones”.
@Mike Winslow — Thanks for clarifying the word “chutzpah!”
Yes — defining pricing and a clear fee schedule both in your own head and on your marketing materials can help with this problem.
Thanks for stopping by!
Russ, one more set of thoughts I would like to contribute/share on this question is the following perspective:
There are three types of work that occur in any business situation, in the immortal words of Dr. Michael Hammer, Leader in Business Process Engineering, God rest his sole. They are:
1. VA, Value Added,
2. NVA, Non-Value Added and
3. W, Waste.
Now the key to success is People/Businesses will pay you for VA, but NVA and W are on your nickle. SO if you can isolate the VA you can capitalize upon it!
Point being when you are giving free make sure you know which bucket it falls within and then make the determination of the fee schedule and it’s worthiness.
@Mark Hendrix — That is some really great stuff Mark! Thank you for that contribution!
It’s great that you both reminded people of the value of take-away or downloadable info pieces like special reports and white papers, and also that you placed them in their proper spot in the sales cycle: up front, in the information-gathering stage.
These documents are silent salespeople! To the point of your post, they can take the repetitive parts of your initial sales inquiries and present them in an interesting, compelling manner that propels them forward to the next step in the process. It’s automated brain picking, crafted carefully into a package that sells your product or service for you!
And don’t even get me started on VIDEO special reports, tip sheets, and case studies…that’s like getting an unfair advantage when it comes to sales. I’m just getting my feet wet in that area, but I’m so excited about the possibilities of video buzz pieces on websites, optimized for mobile devices, and sent in emails! It’s brain picking in your own words, said exactly the same way to all of your interested potential clients/customers–nothing missed or forgotten, and reaching visual and auditory learners equally!
@Jennifer Nagel — Wow, is that ever true. I absolutely love the concept of “silent salespeople” — all of these types of content marketing have been a real time saver for me and all that I know are engaging in it — when people ask me how I come up with the time to create content, I ask them how they don’t find the time to create these time-saving pieces.
Nicely put Jennifer — thanks for your contribution!
Russ, you and I have had coffee many times, and in our case I think there’s a mutual understanding that we’ll both learn from each other. But when it comes to customers, you’re right, it’s not always conducive for business to ‘meet for coffee’ and two hours later you’re tired of giving out free advice.
It’s tough, though, figuring out which people really want to do business with you and which just want an hour or two of free tips. How do you personally filter the latter out?
Being that I’ve been teaching for a long time as well, I like the approach of ‘you can get my brain at one of my meetups’ as a likely answer to this.
@St Louis SEO — I couldn’t agree more Will. There is a big difference between getting together to share information with those in your industry (what could be termed as Masterminding) and malicious brain picking. There are varying degrees of brain picking and the sort that we need to learn to identify and avoid is when a person is trying to take advantage of us. In other words, someone posing as a prospective client but has absolutely no intention of hiring us — they just want to do as much brain picking as possible and then dissapear.
As I have stated, brain picking is an essential part of the marketing and sales process. It is also an essential part of being a good “Go-Giver” type business person. But there is certainly a line that is crossed — the trouble is identifying where that line is.
Thanks for your insightful comments!
One thing that I have thought about in this process is, as my level of success increases, the less time I allow for “brain picking.” That is to say that in the beginning I spent the majority of my time “sharing” what I knew and now it is much more balanced.
But in the end I believe that “Givers Gain!”
Happy New Year to all,
Kathy Sammons
@Kathy Sammons – Great point Kathy! I agree 100%. Givers absolutely gain — and your other point is well taken. When we are busy there is less time for “brain picking” but in order to keep the pipeline full we must make “brain picking” a part of what we do. It is absolutely necessary to educate the market to continue making sales.
Thanks for your thoughts!
I always thought my heart was bigger than my brain, and for me I would prefer that “order of importance”. So, consequently I am not too concern if I have to give advice or help someone with an electrical quagmire. Having said that, by reading all the comments, one has to
Establish that Russ must have an equal size of heart and brain. To me, that is the right balance, but perhaps not an accepted “modus operandi” by most business man and woman. On the other hand, it must be a topic close to many “hearts”, (No pun intended). Judging all the excellent comments, it must be important and I am sure there are individuals who will exploit any knowledgeable person without
thinking about compensation. Now about Russ; I know him for a relatively short time (2years), and right from the beginning I labeled him affectionately as “Guru”. He helped me to get acquainted with my web site that he created. (Hello Website, I think I know you now). He also made himself available when I got lost in the “ocean of internet” several times. Yes, he did. Did I pay him for those “life saving” guidance’s? No! Did I pay him for my website and recommended him to others? Yes! Will I continue to be his friend and separate business when I need a large project to be done? Yes! I know he is very talented and I learned a lot from him. Not to mention that he was the one to introduce me to Jennifer Tobias (The lady who can elevate one’s spirit to astronomical heights- just listening). I could not purchase that experience for a million dollars. Other than all this, I have nothing to say about the subject !
@Dale Attila Fogarasi — Dale, wow, thanks for the great compliments — send me your PayPal account info and I will make the deposit that we agreed upon for this great review.
Having a big heart is absolutely necessary in this era of Internet marketing because the web increases transparency tenfold. If you are just a “peddler” as Bob Gatesh mentions in his great comment on this post, you will be discovered.
Thanks for your insight and your friendship!
I’ve been owned by this for most of my life, and could still use a hand clarifying on how/when people need to pay for my time.
All I know is, is that my knowledge, wisdom, story, and life experience are ridiculous deep and valuable, and I’ve been paid highly for them whenever I’ve managed to convey my value properly.
Thanks Russ!
@Jason Fonceca — It’s tough but you need to lay down some boundaries. Know what they are before you have conversations with prospects. Develop standard phrases like “Here is how I work. I do a complimentary first conversation over the phone to determine whether we are a good fit for each other. Conversations we have after that are billed at my consulting rate of $X.”
You just need to determine when it’s a good time to get your brain picked and when you are getting taken advantage of. Sounds easy, eh? We both know it isn’t.
That’s actually very, very helpful.
I’ve just never had an example in front of me of someone who gracefully set the boundary, and that’s really the key I think for me, and a lot of people.
I love being charming, graceful, charismatic and tasteful, and most of the ways I’ve seen of setting boundaries are not so much that
What you say is a great starting point!