Which is right for you? Offering Q&A Calls or Open Office Hours?

Two simple ways that allow clients to connect with you are Question and Answer Calls and Open Office Hours. Here are the benefits of both to help you decide which one is right for your business.
Q&A Calls
- Well-Developed List. If you have a well-developed contact list, the traditional Q&A call is a great offer. You need a healthy-sized list since this can be a waste of your time if too few callers participate. You don’t want the whole 60 to 90-minutes to become a private coaching session for just a lucky few.
- Group Learning. Q&A calls provide participants with learning not only from their own questions, but from others as well. Often one caller will have a question that several others will be struggling with as well. So listeners benefit not only getting their own questions answered but from the questions of others too. That’s why you need multiple callers to make this offering successful.
- Frequency – Monthly. For my Inner Circle clients, I offered these calls monthly. People were able to call in with questions or could email their questions prior to the call.
- Per Person Time. My goal is to answer each question within about 5-minutes to permit as many questions to be answered during the call as possible.
Open Office Hours
- Any Size List. When you hold Open Office Hours, you agree to be at your desk for one or two hours to answer questions from callers.
- Private Learning. Each caller gets private attention so you don’t need to gather a crowd to make this work.
- Frequency – Your Option. You can offer this mini-private session monthly or more often if you prefer. Since you don’t need to gather a group, you have no lead time to fill the call. This can even be a special offer promotion you announce only 24-hours in advance.
- Per Person Time. What works best is to keep each call at 5-10 minutes. Since others might be calling, you don’t want to hold up the line with just one client. Keep things moving so several callers can have access to your wisdom and you don’t give away a lengthy private coaching session.
Your Client Attraction Assignment
If you are looking for bonus options to sweeten your offering and make it irresistible, add one of these calls so clients can get greater access to your help. People crave interaction with the expert so give it to them in a way that is easy for you and effective for your clients. You can test the waters by offering either or both options on a one time basis to see which one your clients want more.