Hello, today I am going to talk to you about the most important skill you are going to have to acquire to grow your business: learning the art of selling.
Don’t panic! Selling, the kind you need, has nothing to do with the stereotype of the profession: no need to become » Jean-Claude Convenant » or some other smooth-talking salesman.
If you are a freelancer, also forget the advice you read everywhere telling you that you need to » know how to sell yourself « . You are not trying to get hired, and that approach will be of little use to you, probably working against the very freedom you want.
So what is the art of selling, really? It is simply understanding what people really want, and giving it to them!
For that, you don’t need a metal rod in your shoe, lengthy descriptions of your services, a state-of-the-art website (except if you are a graphic designer, artist or designer), or hours of argument. Very often, you do not even need to travel: there are plenty of options.
In short, while face-to-face selling IRL (In Real Life) will always have a role to play, it has been far from the only option for many years. Since 1999 I have signed more than 99.90% of my contracts without ever meeting the person I was dealing with.
In practice, it mainly comes down to:
1) Understanding the needs and the expectations of your prospect and future client
2) Having a clear message that reassures your prospect and future client that you understand them (they need to know you have understood)
3) Presenting your services or products as a credible solution to their needs
The important thing to understand is that the client does not buy your skill nor your know-how: what they are buying above all is a result: the solution to their problem.
Of course that does not mean that your know-how is not important, because it is precisely what is going to allow you to solve your client's problem.
Do not forget that entrepreneurship is not a sprint: it is a marathon. I have seen all too often how « the Rocky effect » (all these people who start running like mad after watching the film » Rocky » then stop a few days later) massively affects entrepreneurs and freelancers in particular.
Suffering a » burnout » is not going to help you. Spending your entire day sending 500 messages on LinkedIn or by email is out of the question: send 10 or 20 targeted messages a day instead, but do it every day: do not forget, selling is a marathon that can only be won over time.
Not all prospects have the same expectations and depending on those expectations, converting them into clients will be easier or harder. Broadly speaking, you will encounter three profiles:
1) The prospect who wants to save time: they know exactly what they want and want to delegate a task so they no longer have to handle it themselves. For this type of request, speed of execution and the ability to work independently are often critical elements, while value for money will also remain an important factor when choosing a provider. They often compare bids from many providers.
2) The prospect looking for high-level expertise: they want to accomplish a task beyond their skills and the scope of their work. Careful; communication will be more complicated in this case, and it will be very important to use language suited to the client to reassure them and avoid expert jargon, because they do not know the field. You then need to focus on the expected result: ask the client what must be achieved for them to consider the job a success. The upside of this type of client is that price generally matters much less to them than the expected result, allowing you to sign more profitable contracts.
3) The prospect who has a problem: this is the easiest to convert. They have a problem and you have the solution to solve it: if the value proposition is sufficiently clear and matches the client's budget, the conversion rate can easily reach more than 50%.
So the aim is to identify as many prospects as possible who fit profile number 3. Unfortunately, this post is already too long for me to cover every case, but I will try to give you an example, applicable to other fields, of what to do and what not to do to point you in the right direction.
Let us imagine that you are a PHP developer: here is a bad example:
» Hello, I am a PHP developer specialising in WordPress and PrestaShop. My work involves building websites and developing and installing modules for them.
Please let me know whether you have any current or future needs in this area, and if so, let’s discuss your project.
Regards »
Why a bad example? Because you are talking about yourself instead of talking about your prospect. A prospect is interested above all in themselves and their own problems, not in your story…
« Hello Christophe, are you fed up with missed development deadlines for your PrestaShop and WordPress modules, and deliverables that completely miss the mark?
Thanks to a unique methodology I have developed, I design your PrestaShop and WordPress modules with the unique guarantee that you will receive a product that meets your requirements on the agreed delivery date.
Interested? Let me know when you are available and let’s discuss your project.
Have a great day. »
This is a good example: missed delivery deadlines are developers’ clients’ number-one headache, followed by deliveries that do not meet the requirements. So you start by talking to the prospect about their problems, then move on to the solution : I have the solution, thanks to my magic formula, and you are going to be able to take advantage of it.
To make your revenue take off, then, you need to:
1) Identify your target
2) Have a clear value proposition, not a catch-all
3) Talk about the prospect instead of yourself
4) Let them know you understand their problem
5) Show them you have a credible solution.
Feel free to subscribe to my mailing list for emails to help you succeed in business. Just email: brain@christophe-casalegnno.com, with the subject “homebiz”. You can also send me your questions or discuss them in my private Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/860925151027030/
Christophe Casalegno
You can follow me on: Twitter | Facebook | Linkedin | Telegram | Youtube
Leave a comment
Add a comment