Selling with some soul
People don’t seem to like sales people, being forced into buying something is a horrible feeling. The guy selling mobile phones or the IT recruitment tele-seller that calls puts me into a bad mood pretty quickly. Hard selling is pretty grubby and although I have seen people manage it with a web project it usually ends in terrible results. I would argue that the personal touch really helps tease out what is needed – even on larger projects.
It seems to me that people don’t talk about this in the industry – maybe to avoid giving some magic tips away?! Whilst I am no master (or magician) I wanted to share some of the things that I do.
Be nice – people buy people so if you are friendly, stay yourself and have a good company then it should be easy. Try to offer as much help as possible and make it clear that even if they don’t choose you they should be able to use the information anyway.
Be quick to get back to people – even if it is only to say you received the email and will get back to them next week – this lets them know you are interested.
Be available – often people working on startups have a regular job that means meetings or calls can be tricky in the day. We currently have two clients who are very busy and so I just speak to them either in the evenings or at the weekend. Of course this is important as the project begins.
Be generous with time – having an hour or two to spend on the phone with a potential client means they can go through as many questions as they want to without feeling that you are rushing them. I appreciate that a small business might not be able to afford the luxury but it definitely pays off.
Be super honest – do this with everything and you will do better. I would gladly tell a client I don’t think they need something done rather than just do it. I want the businesses I work with to succeed in the long term and honesty helps this.
Be firm – don’t be afraid to say no, this is a tricky one but very important. If a brief sent to you says the client has a £50,000 budget but you really think that you will need £70,000 then tell them don’t try to cram things in or be desperate. Sometimes clients are aware that their budget is tight and are happy to talk it through. If you can provide ideas and justification for the increase in cost then often it can be increased.
Be direct – get an idea of budget up front, clients usually don’t like to do this but you can ask. Make them aware that it isn’t so you can quote just below their budget it is to get a quick idea if you can work together and saves time on both sides. I used to put proposals together for every potential project but found a lot were not in the same area with regards to the budget. So work out a ballpark figure and if that works for them then you can do a full proposal.
Only do a more detailed quote when you have some kind of brief that explains how the site should work.
Hope that is useful to some, comment away with any tips you may want to share.
