Why do some people in community platforms feel consultants don’t deserve to be paid for personalised consultations?
Is it a case of entitlement, or simply the difference between being useful versus being valued?
Social & professional communities are built on collaboration, networking, – knowledge sharing. Members freely exchange ideas, experiences, & perspectives for the collective benefit of the community.
However, there is an important distinction between knowledge sharing & professional consulting.
Consultants earn their livelihood by providing specialised knowledge, expert insights, & practical solutions developed through years of education, training, research, & experience. Their expertise is not merely information, it is their professional product.
Employees expect to be paid for the value they contribute to their organisations. They receive salaries, seek promotions, negotiate salary reviews, & benefit from employer-sponsored training.
Yet, some of these same professionals struggle to understand why a consultant should charge for personalised advice.
Consider two scenarios:
Scenario 1: CV Review
A job seeker approached a consultant to do a quality review on CV, but gets surprised when asked to pay for the service.
The reason for demanding the review is to increase chances of getting a dream job.
The question is: If the job seeker recognised enough value in the review to seek it out, why was the idea of compensating the person providing it so surprising?
Scenario 2: Project
An employee is assigned a critical project and reaches out to a consultant within a professional community for assistance in reviewing the work & providing feedback for improving the quality of the deliverable.
The consultant invests time, expertise, & professional judgment to support the assignment. However, when the consultant requests a professional fee, the employee is surprised & questions why payment should be necessary. This employee earns a salary from an organisation and is compensated for his time and expertise including periods of low activity yet she could not understand why she should pay for a personalised consultation services,
Is that fair?
There is a significant difference between answering a question in a community forum & providing professional consulting services. One is a contribution to a community. The other is a professional engagement.
Most people recognise the value of their own time & expertise & expect to be compensated for it. Yet they sometimes assume that the expertise of others should be available to them at no cost.
Perhaps this is where the confusion lies.
When people find you useful, they will seek your knowledge, network, experience, & time.
When they truly value your contribution, they will respect its worth & be willing to compensate you for it.
Usefulness attracts requests.
Value attracts respect & remuneration.
Being a member of a community does not diminish the value of professional expertise. Knowledge sharing may be free, but consulting is a profession.
The real question is not whether a consultant’s expertise is useful, but whether those benefiting from that expertise value it enough to pay for it.
what do you think?
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