What Should You Do About Freebie Seekers?
By Anna Johnson on August 6th, 2010Once you’ve established your Internet business and achieved even modest success you can expect all kinds of people to start contacting you. This includes freebie seekers.
I define ‘freebie seekers’ as people who want something of value from you for free. This could be one of your products or, as often is the case, your time. Freebie seekers may email you, call you, or come up to you at conferences. In each case, they tend to want more from you than they’re willing to pay for, whether it’s payment in money or in kind.
In other words, freebie seekers want something for nothing.
Freebie seekers are NOT people who legitimately ask you questions or seek your help. They’re not people who comment on your blog or email you to offer suggestions, feedback or ask simple questions that can you can easily answer. These people are NOT freebie seekers – these are your most loyal, valuable customers or subscribers!
I should also say that freebie seekers aren’t bad people. They don’t necessarily know they’re stepping over the line when they ask you for something. And let’s face it, we’ve probably all been freebie seekers at some point, whether we’ve consciously known it or not.
But when you find yourself spending hours answering people’s questions or giving away products to so many people that you’re undermining your own time and business, you’ve got to be a bit more ruthless when it comes to dealing with freebie seekers.
Here are three (3) tips for dealing with freebie seekers…
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Three (3) tips for dealing with freebie seekers:
1. If the freebie seeker is not really a freebie seeker but someone who is simply asking a straightforward question that you can easily answer without spending inordinate amounts of time doing so, by all means answer them. That’s just common courtesy.
2. If the freebie seeker wants one of your products for free, say no. They might give you all kinds of reasons why you should give them your product for free. Some of these reasons might sound legitimate. You might even be able to verify that they’re true. But you’re running a business, not a charity. More importantly, the only way you’re going to stay in business is by selling your products and making a profit, not giving your products away.
If someone can’t afford your product (or just doesn’t want to pay for it), then they can’t afford your product, period. You do not owe them anything. Remember they have decided that OTHER products and services ARE worth paying for, while deciding that yours is not worth paying for. That’s their issue, not yours.
What’s more, if you’re like a lot of Internet marketers you can direct them to free resources that will help them. Here at Kikabink, for example, we have literally thousands of articles offering news, strategies, tactics, tips, links and more in relation to Internet marketing. All those articles are FREE.
If you also have tons of free information you can direct people to, politely decline to give them your product for free and point them to your free resources.
Sure, there may be cases where giving something to a certain person or cause is the right thing to do. If you feel that devoting your time or your products genuinely helps someone you want to help or that serves a worthy cause GO FOR IT. Just keep a tight reins on when and for whom you do this. Otherwise you’ll jeopardize your business and no longer be in a position to give anyone anything!
3. If the freebie seeker asks you questions that would essentially require hours of your time to answer, or they essentially want some free consulting or coaching from you, I recommend doing the following…
Firstly, if you have a product that would help them in the way they want, point them to that product. You might say something along the lines of ‘our such-and-such product shows you how to do that. If you want to order it just go to this link.”
Alternatively, if you don’t already have a product or service that would address the freebie seeker’s questions, say something along these lines: “we don’t currently have a product that deals with those questions but it’s something we might consider putting together. Would you prefer us to provide this kind of information in the form of a coaching program, home study course, or something else?”
In this way you’ve clearly conveyed to the freebie seeker the facts that (a) what their asking is substantial and worth a lot you, and (b) if they’re genuinely interested in having the information they want then they’ll have to pay for it. At the same time, if they’re genuinely interested in – and interested in paying for – the information, you’ve given them an opportunity to indicate how they’d like it to be delivered.
Now you’ve turned a potentially time-wasting activity (i.e. dealing with freebie seekers) into valuable market research!
These three tips should hold you in good stead when it comes to dealing with freebie seekers. The main thing is that you don’t get dragged into a situation where you’re giving time and products to people who really don’t value your time or products (otherwise they’d pay for them!).
That doesn’t mean you should never donate time or products to people; you just need to be judicious about who you give to and how many products and how much time you donate. If you’re like most small businesses, you just won’t survive unless you value your time and the products or services you sell.
You can’t give… unless you have something to give! That means ensuring you have a strong, profitable business.
August 6th, 2010 at 7:20 pm
Anna, I have a slightly different take on it –
Many years back I *was* a freebie seeker; a single dad with no hope and no prospects for the future. In time I found a mentor who agreed to take me on under the single condition that when things paid off for me that I would do the same for others.
A nice principle, though at times difficult to implement. However, my credence came to be that I am now able to give equal time to”free customers” as I do to “paid customers” (at least that’s how I am able to ‘justify it”).
However, I think your market research comment near the end is a great one. Even though I do that, I’d never quite thought of it that way.
Great article.
- Paul Barrs, Online Business Podcasts.
August 7th, 2010 at 6:14 am
Thanks for your comment Paul! I’m not sure I’d call you a freebie seeker, though. You paid your mentor back by agreeing to his/her condition and in doing what you’re doing now (helping others for free). I certainly support the idea of paying it forward