I look at the $0 consult as marketing time. I am not giving answers. Given the limited information provided in the request, I am gathering more detailed information about the project and the prospect, and determining how i might go about developing a solution to address the problem. The most I plan to give in the free consult, is a scope and budget; same as clients that contact me through other means. In my business, questions are free, answers you pay for!

These are valid questions and answers. A few thoughts.

1. The most limited resource we all have is our time. We need to constantly be assessing whether it we think it is worth our time to invest in a potential lead.

2. As far as charging for prep time for a call, if the client agrees to pay for prep time (which they often times will do), then be up front about what the overall cost will be.

3. Charging by the minute. If payments are being processed by Zintro (which typically happens if the entire project will be delivered over one or two phone calls), the minimum time amount is one hour.

4. The amount the expert charges is what the expert receives. If payments are being processed by Zintro, Zintro will add a fee to the amount paid by the Client.

5. It is important for Clients and Experts to realize that Zintro DOES NOT REQUIRE THAT PAYMENTS ARE PROCESSED THROUGH THE ZINTRO PLATFORM. You are welcome to take projects off platform. Zintro's primary revenue source is the Client and/or Expert Premium subscription fee. Facilitating payments is an option for the Client and an Expert and a minor secondary revenue stream for Zintro. Our primary objective is to connect users.

--Stuart
Founder & CEO, Zintro Inc.

I depends, I think, on how you are managing your work time: if client gives you complete information prior to call and you have to work 6 hours to put toghether a serious answer, a charge of $600/hr for a phone consult (wich will most likely last 30 to 45 mins max.) doesn't sound that outrageous at all!

How is that the time spent on the consultation is quantified and then paid for. If the rate is say $600/hr will that be paid at $10 per minute or as a minimum of one hour. What about if the engagement is for hours upon hours... will ten hours mean $6000?
The hourly rate is the expected amount the expert is to pocket, right? No cuts, no commissions

Agree with you that most clients may be looking for experts to hire on longterm projects, however, if you are accepting this 0$ offer from them, you'll be losing those serious experts that really have no time to waste behind 'window-shoppers'... In short, give us real business and you will see the returns...

Thanks for the suggestion. This is a common misunderstanding about Zintro. Most (I would estimate 70%) of inquiries are clients looking for experts for extended projects as opposed to phone consults. That is the reason they don't propose fees. They are using Zintro to source experts for potential projects and will put them through their standard diligence before deciding whether to engage them.

On the other hand, if the entire project is a phone consult, I 100% AGREE THAT EXPERTS SHOULD BE PAID FOR THAT TIME.

--Stuart