10 top tips for pitching to new clients
You’ve identified a hot list of potential clients. Now it’s time to make that pitch count. Here’s my 10 top tips for pitching to new clients.
1. Create a pitching habit
A solid pitching habit is the best way I know to find new clients and keep your pipeline healthy, both when you’re starting out and when you’re an established freelancer. Book a regular slot in your diary to pitch for work, whether that’s a particular morning each week, an hour at the start of every day or a full focused day per month. Protect that time as fiercely as you would for a top client. And keep pitching. It may feel like a hard slog at times but it definitely does pay off.
2. Use your contacts
Freelancing often seems to be all about who you know – and it’s certainly true that you’ve got a stronger chance of being noticed if your approach comes with the backing of a name your client recognises.
Don’t despair if you’re not best pals with your target client’s MD though (although make the most of it if you are!). Look for connections in the company via LinkedIn or other social media platforms and ask if they can put you in touch. If you still draw a blank, you can even try asking the HR department for details of the correct person to contact – and then mention the name of the person who replied when you make your approach. It’s amazing how much difference even the most tenuous connection can make to whether you get a second glance.
3. Approach a person not a company
Even in the biggest multi-national companies, ultimately, it will be an individual person who makes the decision to hire you, not some faceless machine. Before you make your approach, find out the name and contact details of this decision maker and then approach them direct. If you’re unsure who it is, call the head office or search on the company website for details.
When you make contact, address the decision maker by name and, ideally, personalise the approach further by referring to something specific they’ve done, such as an article they recently published on their website. Everyone loves a compliment!
Unless it’s a super-traditional company, keep your language professional but not overly formal – the better the connection, the more likely you are to get a response.
4. Make it easy to say ‘Yes!’
If you try to force a brand new contact into a decision about whether or not to buy your services the first time you’re in touch, chances are pretty high that they’ll say, ‘No’ - most people don’t respond that positively to an obvious hard sell from a stranger. And once you’ve got a ‘No’ it’s tricky to turn that into an ongoing relationship.
Rather than pushing the potential client into rejecting your offer early on, offer them something that it’s easy to say, ‘Yes’ to – whether that’s a suggested time for a follow-up call or being sent a piece of research you’ve published that is relevant to what they do. Once you’ve established that initial contact, you can present an offer that they may actually consider buying. After all, it won’t be a cold call by then because you’re already been in touch.
5. Focus on the client
News flash: potential clients are generally not interested in you and your services (sorry!) They’re too busy trying work out how to overcome their own challenges and achieve their specific work goals. What can catch the attention of a potential client however is a practical solution that will help them deal with those challenge or reach their goals more quickly, simpler or cheaply.
Rather than simply describing your services, demonstrate how your offer will help the client achieve the things that matter to them. You’re far more likely to get a positive response.
6. Tailor your offer
When you’re starting down the freelancing route and struggling for leads, it’s super tempting to bang out 100 near-identical emails to potential clients. After all, it makes you feel like you’ve actually achieved something with your day. However, always remember that it’s clients you’re after, not simply a list of people you’ve contacted – and one strong, customised approach is far more likely to win you work than 10 generic ones.
The more you personalise each approach and relate your pitch to your client’s specific needs, the more likely they are to consider it. It shows you’ve spent time understanding who they are and what they’re looking for - plus it makes it easy for them to understand how what you deliver will help them achieve their goals.
7. Keep it clear and simple
Unless you’ve got an established relationship with a client, you need to grasp their attention within the first few seconds or it’s too late. If you waffle or pack your approach with jargon, they’ll simply move on.
Use language that make sense to them, stick to the point and be clear about what action you need them to take, whether that’s confirming a time to meet or approving your project costs.
8. Provide evidence you can do the job
Clients are far more likely to hire you if they see evidence that you can do the job. However, this leads many newbie freelancers into that age-old dilemma of how you can get the experience you need to convince your first paying client to take you on, when you’ve not yet got any previous examples of work to show them.
The good news is that what clients really want is evidence that you know what you’re doing and that your work will be up to the standard they need. This means that they’re generally less interested in whether you were paid to deliver a piece of work than if it’s relevant and of high quality. And chances are you’ve already produced something in the area you’re planning to work in – whether that’s articles you’ve written for a personal blog, a piece of work you delivered as an employee or a project you did at unit. As long as it’s your own work, it’s good quality and it’s relevant, it counts.
And it’s definitely better to include links in your pitch rather than crossing your fingers tightly and hoping the client won’t notice you’ve not given any evidence to back up your proposals.
9. Include testimonials
Personal recommendations are hard to beat when you want someone to do a piece of work – whether that’s fixing a leak in your bathroom or designing a new website for your business. When you’re looking for your first paying client, you don’t have tons of satisfied customers to shout about your work but this doesn’t mean that you can’t have a solid testimonial to back up your pitch.
Rather than limiting your testimonials to paying clients, consider who can objectively confirm that you’re worth taking on. It might be a past employer who can comment on your ability to manage projects and meet deadlines, it might be a university tutor who can provide a quote about the standard of work you deliver or it could someone who knows you in a voluntary capacity and can confirm that you’re a good communicator or that you’re brilliant at time keeping. These are all super valuable testimonials that build up the picture of you as a reliable freelancer for the client.
10. Be patient
It takes time to build up a regular client base and chances are you’ll get your fair share of knockbacks along the way. That’s ok! Even the most experienced freelancer gets turned down now and again – and in some industries, it’s perfectly normal for even the best of the best to hear ‘No’ far more frequently more than ‘Yes’.
Rather than seeing anything less than a 100% sales rate as failure, focus on improving your success rate – so if you currently only get one positive response for every 10 pitches you send out, see if you can increase that to 2 or 3. Look at every approach to a potential client as a chance to improve your pitching. Keep a record of who you’ve contacted and the outcome so you can see if you’re getting a better response from any specific type of contact or group of clients. Whenever you get turned down, ask for feedback so you can improve your pitch next time around.
Above all, keep pitching. It does take time but you’ll get there as long as you keep going. Good luck!
Take a peek at How to find your first freelance clients for even more tips on finding new clients.
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