When you get in front of a client who wants to give you an assignment, will you know what to say and do? You may not be comfortable (at first) using the techniques presented in this article, but you’d better use them anyway. Walking out with an assignment may require some finesse. It will certainly require some backbone.
If you’re following the 5 Steps to Freelancing Success, then by the time you get to the point of presenting your proposal to a client, several things will have happened in your favor:
- The client will have shown a certain amount of interest just by agreeing to meet with you.
- The client will have taken the time to tell you about the organization and its problems.
- The client will have agreed to consider a proposal from you.
- The client may very well have participated in the development of the proposal by offering some reactions to your preliminary thoughts.
By the time you return to the client’s offices to present your proposal, you have every reason to expect that your proposal will be given careful consideration. Indeed, you have every reason to expect it to be accepted, unless you’ve made a fundamental error in its preparation.
In delivering your presentation, you have two objectives:
- To resolve any business issues the client may have with the proposal.
- To resolve the emotional issues of inertia, and ask for the assignment.
Business issues that have to be resolved by the client include: Do we have a problem? Does the freelancer understand the problem? Does the freelancer have a good idea of how to solve it? Is the freelancer qualified? As the freelancer goes about solving this, will he or she remain under my control? Can I be sure that the freelancer will be responsive to my needs throughout the process and not run off on a tangent somewhere or get stuck out in left field? Will the freelancer get out of control or become inflexible due to an inordinate need for independence?
At the same time, you must deal with the emotional issues of inertia and fear of action. You must get the client to move toward a commitment. You need to provide the nudge that will move the client past the human tendency to take no action. (If you’re like most freelancers, this is the closest you will ever come to being a salesperson.)
So how do you nudge your client past the human tendency to take no action?
You have to be the one to suggest that action be taken. You have to ask for the order. You have to say something like, “Shall we begin on Tuesday?” Or, “If you give me a check today, we can begin on Tuesday.” Or, “Would you like to begin this right away tomorrow, or should we meet next week?”
Offer the client a hard choice which will force a decision, regardless of which way your question is answered. Of course, there may be a period of silence after you ask that kind of a question. So be prepared to wait the client out and sit through the awkward silence, while the client deals with the forces within that inhibit the making of a decision or the taking of action. (If you’re off the mark from a business standpoint, your clients are not going to be dealing with personal forces; they will be dealing with the business issues and will reject any alternative that you propose. They are not going to take a course of action that is against their understanding of their self-interest.)
Remember the principle of five NOs. The client’s first reaction might be to do nothing—to just let the situation sit still for a while. People have a built-in inertia. They don’t want to change. The answer to anything new is always no. You’re doing the organization an injustice to take the first “no” seriously. If you take a second “no” seriously, you may still be doing an injustice; you’ll probably need to give the decision maker an opportunity to turn you down at least three times, responding to each objection as it is offered.
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