The Meta-Irony
“How do I handle Quick Questions? They’re killing me!”
...
“Quick Questions” are the accountant’s “Death by 1000 cuts.”
They seem innocuous, but really they have the power to derail an entire day of meaningful work.
You know the kind:
“Hey, quick question. I’m thinking of hiring. Should I 1099 or W-2?”
“Hey, quick question. I’m thinking of buying a car. Should I do it before the year ends or wait?”
“Hey, quick question. Should I buy the building, or lease it?”
...
An answer, in nine parts:
1. Save for the person who takes the Scenic Byway of Forty Sentences to actually get their question out, questions are quick by nature. Don’t take the bait!
2. Embedded in the Quick Question is the positioning: “If I make it quick, you won’t have to bill me for it.” Don’t take the bait!
3. Quick Answers may not be quality, accurate, or helpful. Don’t take the bait to offer one!
4. Being able to deliver a quality, accurate, and helpful answer quickly, especially when the subject is complex makes your answer all the more valuable. Price accordingly.
5. The value is in how the answer can be applied, not in the time it takes to answer.
6. Of course your clients will have questions throughout the year. Their lives don’t stop just because it’s not tax season. Expect Quick Questions. Build answering them into your services and price accordingly.
7. But what if people don’t want to pay for that service?
If you know for sure that Quick Questions are simply a part of the deal, and there exists no known reality in which Quick Questions do not occur, then stop bending your business into a pretzel to accommodate a reality that doesn’t exist.
8. What if some clients don’t ask Quick Questions?
Then create a service that is The Return Only, and highlight that it does not include “Quick Questions”. Call the Return + Answers to Quick Questions out as a different service. When that client calls with a Quick Question, ask them if they would like to upgrade.
9. In some cases, it can be this, as a client recently put it to me: “I have to stop letting myself get walked all over.”