Almost everyone has some talent or skill that they can use to profit as a freelancer. It can be anything from a passion for writing to enjoy coding. It is not magic, we all pick up experience and skills throughout or lives that we can use to become independent.
It does not matter if you’ve recently started with freelancing or if you have been doing it for several years, getting clients is and always will be one of our primary tasks. However, many freelancers either don’t know this or tend to forget about it.
Most of you have probably already seen what I am referring too on forums and various freelancing sites; People who cannot properly convey a reason to why a potential customer should hire them. Instead, it is a simple message with “Hire me” or “I am interested”, without any background info, no points and especially no pitch.
Now it is simple to realize that you are not good at selling, after all, most of us are behind a computer at home or in a cramped office. Not the friendliest place to learn sales technique. However, there are simple ways to improve your odds at getting a job.
Here on Freelancer, we have small boosts that increase our chances such as reviews, ratings and, of course, our rates. This does however only goes so far if you are new to freelancing, and there are four other newcomers with all the same rates and ratings you’ll end up at a standstill.
Here’s where the sales pitch will significantly increase your chances;
Who are you?
This might sound incredibly silly to some of you but who you are as a person will more often than not decide whatever a client will hire you. Freelancing often requires the employee and employer to have contact continuously. So if you are a grumpy, stiff and rude person, the client will more often than not rather go with the next person who seems a lot friendlier.
Remember to point out your strong points, even if it starts sounding cheesy. We all have something that makes us somewhat unique and helps us out in our job, don’t leave that out just because it is about you and not about the job.
Learn your ABC’s; always be closing
The term is famous from movies such as “Boiler Room” and various other films and books. While we are not doing telemarketing here nor conducting high-speed stock brokering, the idea is still the same.
Do not, I repeat, do not be afraid of taking the job. Don’t sit around idly waiting for a client to consider you for his project, demand it from him. This does seem silly and trust me, doing it on the phone as a salesman I often shivered from how embarrassing it felt, but it did work.
In your proposal, don’t be afraid of actually writing/talking in the same way as you would if you had already been awarded the project. Talk about how long it will take, how you feel about the job and talk in a decisive manner. This expresses confidence in yourself and does work just as well in text as it does over the phone.
Instead of offering a rate, give your client your amazing rate and the motive to why he just hired you (Supposedly). Lastly, don’t start overthinking regarding your competition. In the end you get hired because the project starter feels you're the best suited for the job, which is not necessarily because you happen to have cheap rates.
This is just some easy pointers for some of you and some may already be using sales technique in their work. I do hope I gave some inspiration and pointers that were useful to some of you.
