Full credit to Home Business Magazine for tipping me off to this idea in a recent article. The article is in their September/October 2009 issue and may be available on their website. The article is called, Turn Your ‘No’ Client Into A ‘Yes’ Client.
The idea of seeing yourself as a peer was one of five points in the article. It took up just a few sentences, but I’d like to expand the idea here and apply it beyond just making a sale.
It’s completely natural when you’re starting out as a freelancer to have a bit of an inferiority complex. This all goes back to something I’ve mentioned before: As employees, many of us got used to being told what to do and how to do it. There was a very clear chain of command and it’s likely you weren’t at the top of it any more than I was.
Now, as a freelancer, you’re the whole chain. Yet when talking with clients, a freelancer can easily revert back into that employer/employee mode.
True, the client is technically your boss for the duration of the project. But he’s hiring you for a reason… usually to do something he can’t. So he needs you. Likewise, as someone who would like to put food on the table and pay your bills, you need the client. Seems like you’re on equal footing. (And don’t tell me that he can hire someone else, thus giving him more power or leverage. If he’s in a hurry and you choose not to accept the job, his life won’t be going too smoothly at that point. Don’t ever underestimate the challenge a client faces finding a skilled and reliable designer, especially one that understands direct market design principles.)
So let’s agree that you are actually peers. That being the case, are you acting like a peer?
To me, peers are confident and comfortable with each other. Their expertise may not be in exactly the same area, but they respect each other for the knowledge each other has and the work it took to gain the knowledge.
I work with clients who sell a variety of products or services. There’s no way I could be an expert in everything they sell. But I do know what I’m doing when it comes to using the tools of my trade. I also have marketing experience gained from projects I’ve worked on.
For a beginner, you may lack the “project experience,” but you should at least have confidence in your ability to use your tools. Believe me… put a non-designer in front of InDesign or Photoshop and see how far they get. You’re the expert in comparison and you have an important skill-set to bring to the partnership. To me, that puts you on solid footing as a peer of your client… he knows things you don’t, you know things he doesn’t. By combining what the two of you do know into some sort of marketing material, you both benefit.
But being perceived as a peer in the eyes of your client is more than just knowing how to use your design tools. It’s in the way you present yourself whether in person, on the phone, or via e-mail. If you hem and haw, throw in a few dozen “uh’s” in the space of two sentences, or barely speak above a whisper, you’re not really showing confidence, are you?
And if you’re telling yourself over and over that maybe you’re in over your head with this freelancing stuff, that’s going to seep through; the client will pick up on that. If nothing else, you’re going to feel a bit intimidated by the client and that kills any chance of thinking of yourself as a peer. If the client is picking up “bad vibes” from you, that will affect your shot at getting the project.
So, what to do…
1. Get confident with your tools. Do every free tutorial you can find, or subscribe to a service like Lynda.com. Your confidence will jump a few notches when you can navigate through the endless menus and options in your software of choice without even thinking about it. And that just comes with practice.
2. If you’re shy or uncomfortable talking to other people, get over it! It’s kind of amusing how shy people generally aren’t shy about telling other people how shy they are. Sorry, but no one cares. And if you didn’t tell us you’re shy, we probably wouldn’t notice anyhow. So instead of going through life reinforcing your shyness by advertising it to people, fix it. Join Toastmasters or some networking group. I live in a small county, but I just checked the Toastmasters site and even my small county has four meeting spots. You really have no excuse to continue going through life as a shy person, especially if you want to be a successful freelancer.
3. Read books in your field or the field of you ideal clients. Do yourself a favor… turn off the TV and pick up a book or magazine that will teach you something useful. Bonus points if it helps you better understand the needs of your clients or their customers.
Before I wrap this up, let me talk just a bit about the flip-side of this: Your client is intimidated by you. Sometimes it’s the client who sees himself as a bit inferior and definitely not as a peer. I get clients like this from time to time. They know nothing about the design aspect of their projects and feel embarrassed asking any questions.
Don’t let them feel this way!
Welcome them into your world and let them know it’s OK that they don’t know much in the area of design. Tell them it’s your job to know all those boring, yet important, details and you’re happy to either explain things to them, or take care of it all so they don’t have to give it a second thought. Believe me, that kind of helpful, positive attitude is going to help you stand out from way too many designers who look down their noses at clients.
Tags: Home Business Magazine, lynda.com, peer, Toastmasters