Step · Reveal
The Free Call Tally
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Free is a price. Every discovery call, every "pick your brain" request, every diagnostic conversation is a line item you did not invoice. Aggregated, they have a number.
What this reveals. One number: the annual dollar value of your unpaid discovery calls, pick-your-brain requests, and follow-up time, net of the conversion rate that redeems some of them.
What it does not do. It does not tell you to stop taking discovery calls. It documents what the unconverted portion is costing you.
What is your hourly consulting rate?
The rate you would invoice if this same conversation were billable work. Use your typical rate. Enter the number, not the range.
How many free calls do you take per month?
Discovery calls, sales conversations, pick-your-brain requests, "quick questions" that turn into calls, referrals wanting to explore. Every unpaid meeting on your calendar counts.
What is the average length of a free call?
Actual time on the call, not the calendar block. Include the calls that "just went long."
How much prep and follow-up time does each free call carry?
Reading the requester's LinkedIn beforehand. Writing the recap. Sending the follow-up email. Sketching the proposal. Answering "one more question." The hours that never touch the calendar.
What share of these free calls convert to paid engagements?
The portion that become billable work. The rest stays unpaid: that is the unrecovered category the reveal isolates.
the dollar value of the free calls that never converted
The number above is the annual dollar value of the free calls, pick-your-brain requests, and follow-up time that did not convert to paid work. Priced at your hourly rate, held against your monthly volume, and net of the share that did convert.
The calls that converted are business development. The calls that did not are inventory you released to buyers who never signed a contract.
Three scenarios from the same inputs:
Assumptions used: hourly rate, free calls per month, average call length, prep and follow-up minutes, and share converting to paid, all inputs you selected. The tally is a scenario built from those inputs. It is not a forecast, a valuation, or a compensation benchmark. It does not account for the pipeline value of unconverted calls that referred a paid buyer later.
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This tally prices the unpaid call time you entered at your stated rate, net of the conversions you reported. It treats that time as billable elsewhere, which holds only if paid work was available for those hours.
This is usually an operating decision you can make from the figure above: set the policy, set the session fee, and apply it from the next booking.
Set your own date: the next booking the new policy applies to.
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This tool is complete on its own. If a consequential financial decision does arise, the Private Decision Review determines, at no charge, whether the Decision Desk™ ($5,000, invoiced after acceptance) is appropriate. Request a Private Decision Review
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