March, 3 2009
Q: How can I sell my consulting services to new clients?
Posted by Liz Greene
From the consulting question box:
I’m looking for new clients for my freelance web design business and want some advice on sales approaches. How can I find and reach marketing decision makers? Do marketing people find it obnoxious to be cold-called or receive mailings from vendors? What works – a phone call first followed by a mailer and then a follow up call? A mailer first and then a phone call? Thanks for any advice. -- Beth Z., San Francisco
Beth, great question. As a busy marketing professional, I hate cold calls. I get several each day. An incoming cold call has never led to a productive business relationship in my experience. I also don't want mail. It’s a tremendous waste of paper and contrary to both my personal and our corporate Green Vision. Unless I’m buying printed materials/packaging from you and have asked for samples, don’t send me paper. Try this approach instead; it’s not the “conventional wisdom” for sales technique, but it is what I want to experience:
1. Find.
As a marketer, I want to be reached, and you may find the same holds true in other companies. I am on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. I am also the contact on company press releases, and you can try reaching people like me by filling out a Contact Us form on a corporate website. I get all emails coming into the company related to marketing. Your email will cross my desk, and I much prefer this method to having you cold-call our receptionist or try to fish through our directory.
2. Email.
Email should be very brief and tell me in a nutshell what you can do. Spell my name and company name correctly. Include a link to fresh, relevant samples of your work. Avoid attachments; I want to see your portfolio online. You can ask in the email if we can set up a time to talk. I may or may not reply right away. I generally do if I can make the time. If I have a need for your services I may set an appointment with you to discuss the project. [Note for those on Twitter: a portfolio link and brief hello accomplishes the same thing, although on Twitter you can also flirt with a company’s marketing crew by retweeting or posting/recommending the company link out to your followers. We love that. I’m at http://www.twitter.com/lgreene93.]
3. Give it time.
If I do not reply to your first email, after two or three weeks, you can softly try again. Don't email a third time, or if you do, wait several months until my business situation has changed. If I liked your work, I foldered your email, and when I need someone I will go to that folder, review the work, and start connecting. People just don’t need new website design work every day -- this is a long cycle. Softly checking in every six or nine months could be a good approach.
4. Don’t assume.
Please do not make assumptions about what I need, and don’t convince yourself you understand my challenges and objectives before we’ve even spoken. The most annoying type of vendor email I receive is the sort of communication that says, “I looked at your _______, and you have x, y, z problems. You should be doing ______.” Providing cold, unsolicited feedback – no matter how right you may be – is not the best way to build a relationship with me as your potential client. Better to leave it open and say, “I have ideas that will enhance your programs. Here are my areas of expertise, and click here for examples of what I’ve done for past clients.”
5. Avoid manipulation.
Intelligent marketers are familiar with sales tricks and verbal manipulation. The quickest way to sour a potential business partnership with a marketing decision maker is to use manipulative sales techniques that you may have picked up at some seminar. Ultra-long “direct response” emails, fear-based persuasive techniques, aggressive/controlling phone questioning, “sales hypnosis” language, and tactics designed to keep me on the line longer are not only annoying, but are bright red flags that you’re not the person I want to partner with for our marketing programs. Not to gripe overmuch, but I get several deeply manipulative communications each week from salespeople, and I’m over it. We don’t use those negative manipulative techniques in our marketing at MBO Partners, and I have zero tolerance for it.
6. Take no for an answer.
Bottom line: I may not have work for you right now, even if your stuff was amazing. Or I may not have budget. You need to be able to take no for an answer, and take it gracefully. Don’t try to then go around me or sell your marketing services into another department. If you let me off the hook nicely and avoid annoying me, we might be able to do business down the line after the business situation changes, assuming I liked your work. Or I might refer you to someone else. I am an open networker, like many marketers, and people like me strive to provide real value to the network by making helpful referrals.
I suppose these tips go against the conventional sales technique grain . . . but what can I say? I’m just being honest about my own side of the story. So while I cannot speak for other potential clients out there in the world, I hope this gives you some insight into what this feels like for at least one client. Here at MBO Partners, we are passionate about helping independent consultants and freelancers succeed, and that ethic flows down to the way we do business in our day to day operations. I love working with small independent vendors when I can. I am willing to look at your portfolio. I'll meet you more than half way. And, it saddens me when a potential connection is ruined by an overly aggressive or fumbled approach.
Send your questions about freelancing, contracting, or operating your own consulting business to Liz by emailing lgreene (at) mbopartners.com. Each week Liz will select at least one question to answer on here on our consulting blog. Let us know if you wish to remain anonymous.
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