How to Charge for a Discovery Call (Without Losing the Lead)
Most "discovery calls" are free because they are treated as sales calls. That is fine, right up until the call itself starts doing real diagnostic work, at which point you are giving away a service under a sales-call label.
Know which kind of call you are actually running
A sales call asks: is this a fit, and do we want to work together. A diagnostic call asks: what is actually wrong, and what would fixing it involve. The first is reasonably free. The second is a service, whether or not you are calling it that.
Make the value obvious before they book
If the call includes real diagnosis, say so on the booking page in one sentence: what they will know by the end of it that they do not know now. That sentence is what justifies the price, and it should exist whether or not you end up charging.
Offer a credit, not a discount
A common middle ground: charge a modest fee for the call, and credit the full amount toward the engagement if they move forward. This filters for people who are seriously considering the work, without making the call feel like a hard sell.
Set the expectation before the call, in writing
The booking confirmation, not the call itself, is where the fee (or the credit policy) should be stated. Nobody should be surprised about payment once they are already on the call.
Fair questions
Won't charging for discovery calls reduce how many people book?
It will filter out people who were never going to become clients, which is usually the point. The people who book anyway tend to be the ones worth the time.
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