All of my recurring advisory services—whether consulting, private coaching, group coaching, or even memberships to Mindshare Pro—come with “unlimited” access to me for questions.
Unlimited access might seen like a scary proposition. But does it really need to concern you?
Personally, I don’t think so. Clients are also generally respectful of your time. But it still helps to have systems in place to make it easy for everyone.
Below are a few of the features that help limit the “risk” of offering unlimited access to my brain.
1. A robust onboarding process
I typically do weekly calls for the first month in my 1:1 programs to get up to speed quickly on things, then phase into less frequent calls as the work evens out.
For group coaching, I do an initial 1:1 kick-off call for each client to get things going smoothly before they join the group component, giving them the attention they need to get a few things moving right away.
These practices keep my clients from twiddling their thumbs after our first call or having to rely on a high volume of questions to get value in the first few weeks.
2. A 24-hour response time expectation
I promise a 24 business-hour response time for my clients’ questions, though I aim to respond in a few hours if I can.
This buffer window makes it easier to keep conversations at a steady and sustainable pace.
3. Limiting who has access to me
I also limit who in the company has access to me, which prevents me from fielding questions from an entire organization. It might be one person, or two people, or just the marketing department and key participants.
This practice helps a lot, especially for the lower-priced tiers of service.
4. Recurring deep-dive calls in the calendar
Most importantly, I keep recurring, deep-dive calls on the calendar to allow my clients to gather these questions and knock them out together in real time.
Most clients prefer it this way, too. It’s a lot easier to tackle things in bulk vs. trickling it over email or piecemealing conversations via Slack.
These scheduled calls handle the bulk of my weekly activity.
I also allow short calls to be scheduled between our regular calls, but they rarely get used unless something unusual is going on.
As a result…
As a result of these features, my work is generally calm, stable, and evenly distributed throughout the weeks and months.
Onboarding can be a little more intensive, but otherwise things tend to smooth out, making unlimited advisory services a sustainable and desirable aspect to my business model.
Do you offer advisory services? Hit reply and let me know if it’s ever been an issue for you.