I’ve worked on building a freelance marketing business or marketing agency for awhile now. Unfortunately the most I’ve ever gotten paid for a freelance gig was around $200 for a single project. Not only is this much less than I would like, it’s a result of one thing: I’m terrible at selling my services and closing the sales.
This is probably fairly common amongst many marketing professionals, who enjoy promoting products but don’t enjoy “sales”. I know that selling is a valuable skill to have, and once it’s established it can continue to pay-off for an entire career.
How Do I Find Clients Who Are Looking for My Skills?
My skills are mainly SEO, content writing, and graphic design. I often come across businesses and their websites or social media account and think “I could really help this person.” I reach out to these businesses quite often, but haven’t been able to close clients consistently. I’ll have a conversation about how I can help and the person, and in many cases they are interested.
This is where I drop the ball. The client will say they’re interested and I will confirm that I will do the work. Then I find myself unable to get another response or they simply lose interest.
I need to optimize my sales “funnel” to move people from interested prospects to paying customers. I think my sales process kind of loses a “professional” feel once it reaches the time to lock clients in and collect money. I’ll get this worked out in the coming months and hopefully will check back in with a couple new agency clients.
If you have any tips for a “young” marketing freelancer/agency feel free to reach out to me on Twitter.