If you have great sales skills, but lack the right foundations, you'll struggle with freelancing. And here's why... the most important thing when it comes to selling intangibles (like most freelancing services) is credibility.
Why?
Because you can't touch an intangible. There's no way for you to know, beforehand, if you're buying, say, sales copy, if it will work or not. Sure, if it's terrible, you'll know. But the difference between good and GREAT isn't so clear cut for someone who isn't a professional before it gets tested.
So with intangibles, clients have no way to know what they're going to get, except by relying upon your credibility. And credibility consists mostly of two things:
• Results you've obtained
• What others say about you
Therefore, the best marketing is whatever builds your credibility, and the worst marketing is whatever destroys it.
Nothing destroys credibility as fast as bad testimonials/reviews, and disappointed customers. And the reverse... nothing builds credibility as fast as happy customers, positive testimonials, and results.
The other thing is, that once credibility is destroyed, it's very hard to rebuild. Once you've cheated or disappointed someone, it's an uphill battle to get them to trust you again.
Which means that two things are absolute must-haves to even get to sit at the table, and they come BEFORE your sales skills.
They are:
1. Technical Capability
and
2. Integrity
Please note that I'm speaking specifically about freelancing. Getting a job and then outsourcing the implementation to a subcontractor - that is a different business model to freelancing - let's call it an agency business model for now. There are, of course, both advantages and disadvantages to the agency business model, but we're not going to discuss it here.
But when it comes to freelancing, you are the one responsible for the delivery. And if the delivery sucks, don't even bother with the rest, because it won't make much of a difference in the long run.
While running my agency, I've worked with a lot of freelancers over the years. I've hired over 100 people, spent of $60,000 hiring and I've noticed differences between those who end up becoming very successful and those who fail.
Those who fail - and I count failure as moving to a different business model as well - are typically those with weak fundamentals. They either lack integrity - meaning that they do NOT do what they say they're going to do - OR they lack technical capability to do a good job.
Typically, lack of integrity is associated with lack of technical capability. Maybe because, wanting to make some money faster, people who lack integrity don't care very much about developing technical expertise first.
So what happens in such cases?
If they're lucky - and that's a big if - they get paid as much as originally agreed, but never get hired again and are left with a stinking testimonial that's guaranteed to destroy their reputation and keep them slaving away for $5/hr. If they're NOT lucky, they may not get paid anything or paid less than initially agreed upon.
And what about the best freelancers? Those who I've worked with the longest, and who have built real careers out of freelancing, making $80,000+ per year out of it... their technical skills and integrity were spotless. They went above and beyond to deliver what I needed or wanted. They did not give me a crap job to review, just to give something. They had previous experience and practice with the skill they chose to deliver. Their rates were continuously increasing. I had to wave goodbye to some great people because I couldn't pay them anymore.
When it comes to knowledge about freelancing, everyone is promoting sales skills. They'll teach you how to convince people to give you money. And that's appealing... easy money right? Except that, in all honesty, it's not the first thing you need if your goal is to build a career out of freelancing, and make a meaningful amount of money that can replace a high-paying job.
First you need a solid foundation.
Learn to perform your skill, and always work on improving it. If it's design, take courses on design. Read books on design. Investigate how you can increase performance through design. Always be learning... If it's copywriting, read books on copy. Copy sales letters by hand. Analyze what other marketers do. Hone your craft.
And then never let your customer down. You CANNOT fail them. Don't send them crap work, knowing that it's crap, and thinking you'll get away with it. It's honestly better to not send anything, apologise for wasting their time, and give their money back. Don't try to trick them. BE HONEST.
And once you add sales skills to this solid foundation, you'll be able to go from the $80,000 to $200,000+ per year. I've known people who have done that. It wasn't instant... it took YEARS. But they've done it. They now live a relaxed life, working on their own terms, getting paid very well, and they're happy with that. And all because they worked on building a solid foundation, and a solid foundation is the key to credibility, and credibility is the key to more and easier sales.
If you want to do freelancing long term - don't DABBLE in it. Go all-in - get your foundation right, and then add sales skills on top of it. People who have the right foundation can create partnerships with their clients, where they get business sent to them. They don't even need to market themselves anymore. And you can get there, but not if you just want to be a good sales guy and make money really quick and easily. It's simply not going to work out for you that way.
Why?
Because you can't touch an intangible. There's no way for you to know, beforehand, if you're buying, say, sales copy, if it will work or not. Sure, if it's terrible, you'll know. But the difference between good and GREAT isn't so clear cut for someone who isn't a professional before it gets tested.
So with intangibles, clients have no way to know what they're going to get, except by relying upon your credibility. And credibility consists mostly of two things:
• Results you've obtained
• What others say about you
Therefore, the best marketing is whatever builds your credibility, and the worst marketing is whatever destroys it.
Nothing destroys credibility as fast as bad testimonials/reviews, and disappointed customers. And the reverse... nothing builds credibility as fast as happy customers, positive testimonials, and results.
The other thing is, that once credibility is destroyed, it's very hard to rebuild. Once you've cheated or disappointed someone, it's an uphill battle to get them to trust you again.
Which means that two things are absolute must-haves to even get to sit at the table, and they come BEFORE your sales skills.
They are:
1. Technical Capability
and
2. Integrity
Please note that I'm speaking specifically about freelancing. Getting a job and then outsourcing the implementation to a subcontractor - that is a different business model to freelancing - let's call it an agency business model for now. There are, of course, both advantages and disadvantages to the agency business model, but we're not going to discuss it here.
But when it comes to freelancing, you are the one responsible for the delivery. And if the delivery sucks, don't even bother with the rest, because it won't make much of a difference in the long run.
While running my agency, I've worked with a lot of freelancers over the years. I've hired over 100 people, spent of $60,000 hiring and I've noticed differences between those who end up becoming very successful and those who fail.
Those who fail - and I count failure as moving to a different business model as well - are typically those with weak fundamentals. They either lack integrity - meaning that they do NOT do what they say they're going to do - OR they lack technical capability to do a good job.
Typically, lack of integrity is associated with lack of technical capability. Maybe because, wanting to make some money faster, people who lack integrity don't care very much about developing technical expertise first.
So what happens in such cases?
If they're lucky - and that's a big if - they get paid as much as originally agreed, but never get hired again and are left with a stinking testimonial that's guaranteed to destroy their reputation and keep them slaving away for $5/hr. If they're NOT lucky, they may not get paid anything or paid less than initially agreed upon.
And what about the best freelancers? Those who I've worked with the longest, and who have built real careers out of freelancing, making $80,000+ per year out of it... their technical skills and integrity were spotless. They went above and beyond to deliver what I needed or wanted. They did not give me a crap job to review, just to give something. They had previous experience and practice with the skill they chose to deliver. Their rates were continuously increasing. I had to wave goodbye to some great people because I couldn't pay them anymore.
When it comes to knowledge about freelancing, everyone is promoting sales skills. They'll teach you how to convince people to give you money. And that's appealing... easy money right? Except that, in all honesty, it's not the first thing you need if your goal is to build a career out of freelancing, and make a meaningful amount of money that can replace a high-paying job.
First you need a solid foundation.
Learn to perform your skill, and always work on improving it. If it's design, take courses on design. Read books on design. Investigate how you can increase performance through design. Always be learning... If it's copywriting, read books on copy. Copy sales letters by hand. Analyze what other marketers do. Hone your craft.
And then never let your customer down. You CANNOT fail them. Don't send them crap work, knowing that it's crap, and thinking you'll get away with it. It's honestly better to not send anything, apologise for wasting their time, and give their money back. Don't try to trick them. BE HONEST.
And once you add sales skills to this solid foundation, you'll be able to go from the $80,000 to $200,000+ per year. I've known people who have done that. It wasn't instant... it took YEARS. But they've done it. They now live a relaxed life, working on their own terms, getting paid very well, and they're happy with that. And all because they worked on building a solid foundation, and a solid foundation is the key to credibility, and credibility is the key to more and easier sales.
If you want to do freelancing long term - don't DABBLE in it. Go all-in - get your foundation right, and then add sales skills on top of it. People who have the right foundation can create partnerships with their clients, where they get business sent to them. They don't even need to market themselves anymore. And you can get there, but not if you just want to be a good sales guy and make money really quick and easily. It's simply not going to work out for you that way.
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