According to self-marketing expert Ilise Benun, we often put business-building roadblocks in our own way when we’re starting our freelance careers.
Per Ilise, we need to get our minds clear before we get our butts in gear.
Ilise has been mentoring creative and marketing professionals for over 30 years now, and she’s great at helping writers build successful freelance careers.
She recently spoke at AWAI’s 2022 Copywriting Success & Getting Clients Bootcamp. Here are some highlights from her presentation.
She said overcoming five common business-building roadblocks all starts with mindset, particularly the mindset of strength. Success is all about learning what works and then doing it over and over again, as opposed to constantly repeating the same mistakes, which is what happens if you don’t have the right mindset.
There are five characteristics in the mindset of strength.
- I am in charge here.
- I get to choose — you don’t have to accept all clients.
- My time/effort/process has value.
- There are plenty of good prospects who will value that.
- My job is to find them.
One of the stories Ilise knows you’re telling yourself is that no one wants a newbie. But, what’s wrong with being new? Nothing. And everyone will be an endless newbie as we try to keep up with technology. We are all perpetual newbies.
Ilise went on to explain that clients are like children.
- They get excited, then easily distracted. You may call that ghosting.
- They often ask for something unreasonable or impossible.
- They can’t have everything they want.
- Your job is to give them what they need, not necessarily what they want.
- They won’t always be happy. That’s okay.
- You may have to disappoint them. Communication is key.
- You want them to respect you.
Ilise then reframed the five business-building roadblocks into five stories you’re telling yourself:
- I have no experience.
- I have no samples.
- I don’t know where to find clients.
- I don’t know how to talk to clients.
- I don’t know what to charge.
She then went on to smash each story…
1. I have no experience.
- Focus on what you have, not what you don’t have.
- Some clients won’t care about experience. Find those.
- Bring what you have — your enthusiasm, work ethic, sense of humor, personality, unique perspective, and curiosity.
Recommended answers to questions:
- When they ask if you have experience in their industry, and you don’t, you say — No, and that’s the good news. That means I’ll come at it with a fresh perspective, like your customer.
Ilise discussed the difference between relationship-based vs. portfolio-based marketing. Portfolio-based is where you care about your samples or lack of them. The better type is relationship-based, where all that matters is how you interact with the person. They get the working relationship in addition to the copywriting.
2. I have no samples.
- Focus on what you have, not what you don’t have.
- Some won’t care about samples or even ask for them.
- Everything you write is a sample of your writing. — LinkedIn title, posts, website About section, emails. It must be as good as it can be.
Recommended answers to questions:
- When they ask if you have samples of what they need, and you don’t, say — No, but it would actually be more useful to you if I draft something for this project so you can see how I’d approach it.
This has more relevance than something you wrote for someone else.
3. I don’t know where to find clients.
- The market is all around you. Everyone needs copy. They need more sales or a better website. You have to open your eyes to see it.
- Who do you want to help? What do you care about? Who are you best suited to serve? Who brings out the best in you? You’ll know it when you see it.
- LinkedIn is the marketplace. It’s “Google for business.” It’s a database of 800+ million professionals.
4. I don’t know how to talk to clients.
- Listening is better than talking. Don’t talk too much. Use small talk to build on the conversation where you can ask more questions.
- Questions are the answer to everything.
- Experiment, make your mistakes, learn from them, and move on to better clients.
Recommended answers to questions:
- When a prospect wants a proposal but hasn’t provided enough information, you say — I’m happy to provide a proposal, but first let’s make sure it’s a good fit. Can you meet Friday at 2 so I can ask some questions?
- When the project or prospect is not a good fit, say — This is not my strength. You’d be better off with someone else.
- When they ask for something you don’t want to do, your reply can be — Unfortunately, I don’t work that way.
- When asked, Can you do this too? you can answer —Yes, of course, and we’ll need to talk money again. —This is scope creep. This is how a five-page website turns into 25 pages. Or, you could say — Yes of course, but that’s not in the original scope. So let me work up an estimate.
- When you see a red flag or just don’t want to work with them, your reply could be — So sorry. I’m not available. — No further explanation is required. — Potential red flags are when someone is late, doesn’t show up and doesn’t apologize and doesn’t have a legitimate reason. Also, people who are all over the place, which could be several of your clients. Be aware of it and you may need add money to your quote.
- When you’ve outgrown a client and don’t want to work with them anymore, you’d simply state — It’s time for me to move on. — You can make a referral if you want, but there’s no explanation required.
5. I don’t know what to charge.
- Find out what standard rates are. AWAI’s pricing guide will help you set the standard, but your clients may not know what industry standard rates are.
- Find out what each prospect can afford. Don’t give them your price chart. Discuss their budget.
- Learn to love the money conversation.
The money conversation is not:
- A confrontation — no need to be adversarial or defensive.
- A one-off — you’ll have to work with them afterwards.
- One and done — you may need to talk money again.
- Dueling monologues — you have to listen carefully to respond. Anxiety gets in the way of thinking straight.
The money conversation is:
- A conversation.
- An information exchange.
- A relationship-building process.
- An opportunity to build trust and credibility.
The best way to get into the money conversation is to say — Let’s talk about money.
- To find out if they can afford you, pose this question — Are you thinking, $500, $5,000, or $50,000?
- When the project has a lot of unknowns, you can explain — Since there’s a lot we don’t know at this point, I’ll need to give you a range.
- When they ask you to lower your price, reply with something like this — Well, we could do fewer “X” to bring the price down if that’s all you can afford.
- When you don’t want to lower your price, say —Unfortunately, I can’t do this project for less. I won’t be able to provide the high quality I’m known for.
- When they push you to give them a price on the spot, tell them — It’s my policy to never blurt prices out. I like to sleep on it and run the numbers and I’ll be in touch tomorrow.
- When they ask for something you don’t know how to do yet, answer — Yes, I can do that. (Then go learn it.)
A question from the Bootcamp audience concerned whether the standard rate should differ by location. Ilise said that rates could differ by location, by industry, by divisions of the company. That’s why you have to find out what your contact can pay for your project.
A second audience member asked if you have a great prospect, love the product, but budget is so much lower than standard, should you still take the project? Ilise said it’s okay to take it — it’s your business. The response should be, “If this is your budget, here’s what I could do for that.” And do a little bit of what they want.
