It’s a daily task for an agency like Endagon. But if you are continuously personable, do amazing work, and shift the market’s attention toward your abilities, you’ll win in the end.
Here are 13 creative ways for freelancers or agencies to receive a higher volume of inquiries. Please note that Jason Fried and 37Signals is used as an example throughout.
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Sell your service like a product by removing the barriers and unknowns about what you’re selling. Jason Fried created a service called 37express where he removed every unknown from what the client was buying. He sold a single-page redesign, for $2,500, and delivered it within a week. This was a lucrative service because it spoke directly to what clients wanted. “They don’t want huge, expensive, long-term projects where they don’t really know what they’re going to get. They want quick, clear, and affordable.” Speak directly to what clients want and address their anxiety about the project.
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Make your portfolio about ideas not pretty pictures of your work. Most portfolios focus on the wrong things. 37signals didn’t feature a single picture of their work on their website. Why? Because Jason wanted ideas to set them apart. Instead, the 37signals website was a list of core beliefs. You too can put your best ideas out there to attract your best clients. Those people will appreciate your thinking more than people who are attracted to the pretty picture of a website you made.
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Take a shot at being yourself. Instead of trying to hide how they were different, 37signals put it on display and called attention to it. They made their differences deliberate. “The real risk isn’t that you’ll hurt your reputation or lose all your clients. That’s fixable. What you actually have to lose is not being yourself — that’s a bigger risk than not getting traction.”
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Don’t try to act bigger than you are, if you’re a freelancer use the word “I” instead of “we.” When you’re starting out it’s easy to feel like you have to be overly professional. But you don’t have to act like a big company if you don’t want to. Be you. Leave out the “we” in your proposal and just say “I”.
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Write and sell with short 1-page proposals. Clients hate reading 20-page proposals just as much as you hate writing them. Want proof? Watch a client read your next monster proposal. They skip to the last page because all they care about is how much it’ll cost and how long it’ll take. If they’re getting a proposal from you, they’ve already vetted you. So why waste time on a long proposal?
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Think about what you can get away with NOT doing. At the end of Jason’s freelance career he was doing single-page proposals (without losing any business over them) which made him realize, “holy shit, I don’t need to do what everyone else is doing.” That’s where he gave himself permission to ask, “What else don’t I have to do that everybody else is doing?”Give yourself permission to ask the same question.
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Get things done without worrying about layers of red-tape. When 37signals was making a website for HP they had a meeting to discuss a specific change to their site. Rather than continue discussing the idea or putting the change into a long queue of followups and processes — Jason pulled out his laptop and made the change right then and there. A few moments later he reloaded it and everyone was able to see what the change actually looked like. His clients cheered and called him a genius, but really, Jason just removed a layer of procedure that shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Most companies have these layers all over the place. Removing it is a great way to deliver value.
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Hire yourself and be your own client. This allows you to experiment with new ways of doing things. That’s how Basecamp was created and in a year and a half it was making more money than client services. Be your own client.
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Don’t rush away from client work until it’s clear it’s the right choice. A lot of client service firms rush to create products, because of what it represents. It’s a move away from selling time for money. That’s great but don’t rush it. Jason only went all in on Basecamp when it was making more money than his client work. Up until that point, clients took up 80% of his time. “We continued to do client work until Basecamp (the product) was earning more money than our client work was. Then the switch was easy. There was no risk in that switch.”
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Get a solid budget before you create a proposal. If a client won’t give you a budget, they’re not serious. Be blunt. Ask: “What’s your budget or budget range for this project?” If they say “we don’t have one yet” or “we’re just looking right now” or “we want you to tell us how much it will cost” they’re lying. Everyone has a number in mind. They have a good idea of what they can spend or they wouldn’t be shopping in public. Jason trick for getting this number was to say, “Oh, ok. So a $100,000 solution would work for you?” Clients would quickly reply… “Oh no, probably something more around $30K.” And he’d have his budget.
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Don’t work with bad clients. This is a lot easier to say than do, but you have to mean it. Who you work with is your choice and has a huge impact on your happiness, productivity, quality, and the future of your business. Working with the right clients is absolutely critical.
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Know when to say no. The wrong client can kill morale, force good employees out, and cost you big opportunities. Working with the right client isn’t work at all — it’s a pleasure. Saying Yes or No to a client is a business decision just like any other business decision you have to make. Don’t be afraid to turn down work, a lot of times that’s less costly than taking on the wrong client.
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Hire your clients. Most freelancers and agencies approach client’s like they have all the power. They’re paying you, so they decide, right? Jason discovered that in many ways his future was tied to the performance of his clients. It was a lot like hiring an employee. He wouldn’t just hire anyone. He had to enjoy being around them. He had to hire someone he was proud of. It should be the same with clients. Approach the process more like hiring an employee. Give as much thought to the clients you work with as the people you hire and the spending decisions you make. You’ll be better off in the long run because of it.