A Simple 3-Step Process to Selling Freelance Services

For some freelancers, we really dislike the ‘selling’ part of freelancing.

Not many freelancers I know do, including myself.

When I hit the footpath to find my first 20 freelance clients all those years ago, the thought of ‘sales’ brought up images of dodgy, fast-talking used car salesman draining every last penny out of their unsuspecting prospects. Ewww.

The thought of being compared to those type of people gave me the cold sweats.

Literally.

I was so nervous I had to wipe my hands before walking through a prospect’s front door so they didn’t feel my wet fish palms when I shook their hand.

Embarrassing!

So my challenge was to figure out how I could sell without being ‘salesy’ and convert more prospects to paying clients.

What was the magic formula that delivers sales without the sleaze?

After visiting 97 businesses in 2 days I was closer to figuring it out.

I had to change the way that I thought about sales.

Because without the sale everything else is redundant. I didn’t have a business without sales.

You can have the best product or service in the world but one of the most important things it comes down to how well you sell yourself.

Probably the best thing that I did was reframe the words that I used to describe the sales process.

Because no one likes to be sold anything — they like to be informed so they can make their own educated decisions on the best product or service for their needs.

Over the years I practiced my craft.

I started to break down the sales process piece by piece and could see a particular pattern that, when followed, would land me the sale more often than not.

I was starting to see that there was a formula.

And the more I followed it, the more I would have people saying “OK, how quickly can you get the project started?” or “So can you fit me in this month?” or “What are the next steps?”

To say it was fun would be an understatement. It felt like I had people at my door begging to do business with me, and whenever I had too much work, I knew it was time to raise my rates again. It was pretty cool to be so in demand and have the power to be selective in who I worked with.

So what’s the magic formula I hear you asking!?

The key to selling your freelance services is Learn, Educate, then Close.

One is no less important than the other, and in fact if you shortcut any of them you’ll risk losing the sale.

Step 1: LEARN about your prospects so you can quickly build rapport.

Firstly, you need to learn everything you can about your prospect. Ask as many questions as you can and, no matter what questions they ask you, don’t let the conversation go down the path of your products or services just yet. Keep it squarely focussed on them.

There can be a real eagerness to get to the part that shows off how much you know about your stuff, or how great your portfolio is — but the more time you spend getting to know them, the better off you’ll be. Trust me.

The ‘getting to know your prospect phase’ is where you will find out everything you need to know about their pains, their dreams, their goals, their worldview, their likes and dislikes — and you’ll also figure out whether or not you even want to work with them.

Step 2: EDUCATE prospects so they can make an informed decision.

Now the fun part starts — educating your prospect on how they can win online.

(NOT about all the things you do or how wonderful you are.)

Resist the temptation to talk about what you do. This is *still* about them and their needs.

By having built a fantastic new friendship with your prospective client they are going to be hungry to pick your brain on how you are going to solve their problems and help grow their business.

Let me preface this with a truth-bomb though: This is not about you, it’s about them.

It’s your job to read between the lines.

We have people call up every day and say “I need a website” or “My website is ugly and I need a new one”.

And granted, that’s what they are saying — but that’s not what they really want.

So it’s your job to educate them on how websites work, how they can be successful online, what it realistically takes these days to get customers, what they can expect, how Google works, what they need and how they go about meeting their goals.

By this stage, your prospect now knows and likes you because you’ve spent the time to get to know them. And they trust you because you haven’t just told them what they want to hear, or sold your services point blank, you’ve shown integrity and knowledge about the web industry unconsciously positioning yourself as an expert.

After 40-50 minutes into the conversation, if you’ve followed the formula correctly, you should start hearing all the right signals that tell you to go in for the close, which brings us to…

Step 3: CLOSE your new client once you start hearing the right buying signals.

It’s really important to spend as long as you need in the first two phases before you move into phase three.

As a guide, if I was on the phone to a prospect for an hour I would spend about 20-30 minutes getting to know them in the LEARN phase, followed by 20-30 minutes in the EDUCATION phase, and the final 5 to 10 minutes doing the deal and answering any specific questions they might have about our offering in the CLOSE phase.

That’s how little time I spend talking about our services and what we can offer.

Compared to most of your competitors who probably spend 20 minutes talking about themselves before they end the conversation and the prospect hangs up feeling hopeless again!

Once you start hearing questions like the following, it’s time to go in for the close:

“So where do we go from here?”
“What are the next steps?”
“How busy are you?”
“How long does the process take?”
“What are your terms?”
“OK, how quickly can you get the project started?”
“So can you fit me in this month?”

Closing now sounds easy but it’s actually not, and many people part ways without actually doing the deal. Don’t be one of those people. Stick with me here!

Closing is a real art.

Making your prospect feel like it’s their decision and that they are in control is key. Bringing in high pressure closing tactics now (when all you have done to date is help and advise) is going to be completely out of character and will not end well.

So how do you close like a true trusted advisor?

All you have to do is ask:

“Would you like us to work together on your project?”

… then STOP and don’t say anything until you hear their reply.

9 times out of 10 they will come back with a positive response and you’ll start talking about the next steps, your payment terms, processing the deal and delivering the project.

Wohooo… you have a new client!

Now you know my sales hacks, sound off in the comments and share yours! What challenges have you overcome with selling yourself and your services?

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