Land new & better paying jobs!

With a growing freelance market and AI making it possible for anyone to create strong sales pitches, it's safe to say that it's becoming more and more important to stand out from the crowd!

In other words, companies need to know WHY they should choose YOU over someone else.
And they need to know it fast! (the 7/11 rule claims it only takes 7 seconds for someone to form 11 impressions of you).

So HOW do you do it?

One way is to build a strong personal brand (professional image)!

The process of building your personal brand (called personal branding) involves:

1. Finding your uniqueness (your unique skills, experiences, personality, know how, etc.)
2. Building a reputation on the things you want to be known for
3. Allowing yourself to be known for them

Intentionally shaping your personal brand takes time and effort. Yet, we highly recommend that you work on it as freelancers with strong personal brands usually get more gigs, are able to charge more, and can be more selective of their jobs and clients.

Need help? 

• Watch our Free Freelance Preparation Workshop to get practical tips and exercises that will help you find your uniqueness
• Take Module 3 "Establish Your Freelance Brand" (399 sek/€39) of our "Freelance Foundation Course"
• Sign up for our Grow Coaching Package to get group coaching on how to improve your sales as well as access to our growth video library (499 sek /€49 per month)
• Get 1-1 sales-coaching for individual guidance on how to improve your offer and land new and better paying deals (990sek/€99 for 3 sessions)

Once you've laid the foundation of your personal brand (what makes you unique and what you want to be known for), you need to show and tell others that you have the capabilities to do it.

In other words you should aim at backing up what you're saying by giving "proof of your ability" to deliver on what you're selling. Without this, it's hard for others to trust you, and they might just choose to go with someone else.

So HOW can you do it?

You can use one of the below tactics to showcase your expertise:

• Build your portfolio
• Ask for and display references whenever possible
• Create and share content
• Participate in discussions online
• Go to events
• Guest speak

If someone discover you online, in a talk, through a reference, or any other way and like what you do, they're likely going to look you up and get in touch.

Need help? 

• Take Module 6 "Create Awareness & Generate Interest" (399 sek/€39) of our "Freelance Foundation Course"
• Sign up for our Grow Coaching Package to get group coaching on how to improve your sales as well as access to our growth video library (499 sek /€49 per month)
• Get 1-1 sales-coaching for individual guidance on how to improve your offer and land new and better paying deals (990sek/€99 for 3 sessions)

Networking is another great way to meet people and to let people know that you exist and what you offer.

You have the chance to tell your story and connect with people on a more personal level, which is highly valuable. If you connect with someone and they like what you do, the chance that they want to meet with you to discuss a potential gig or collaboration increase a lot.

AND even though a new connection made through networking might not lead to an immediate job, it has huge potential to pay off later on, or even to have a ripple effect. It's not uncommon that people will recommend you, or reach out at a later stage when they have the need for your service.

So get out there and talk to people! If you want them to know how you can help, you need to tell them!

How and where can you network?

• Join communities
• Go to events (online and in person), both business and personal
• Online in social media (LinkedIn etc)
• Forums

Tips! Do a little research before so you understand that the events you go to, people you reach our to or discussions you jump into are relevant for you and that the audience you want to connect with is right.

Need help? 

• Network & connect with people in our Discord community
• Check out events for freelancers in our event calendar
• Keep track on industry events on event sites such as Eventbrite, Meetup, etc.

First thing first, you need to know who you want to contact before you can start reaching out.

If you're able to answer the questions below you can move on to the next step:

1. My target audience is _______________________________ (ie. e-commerce startups in the Nordics)
2. The contact person is _______________________________ (ie. the CEO or CMO)

If not, start by figuring out the answering to these questions.

You can identify your target audience by ie.:

• Looking at and talk to your current customer
• Auditing your social media
• Analyzing website visits
• Reviewing your competitors taget audience
• Identifying your dream customer

 And pinpoint common demographic and psychographic traits.

Need help? 

• Watch our Free Freelance Preparation Workshop to learn more about how to identify your target audience
• Use a Free template to create your Target Audience Persona, ie from:
  • Upbeater's Buyer Persona Template
  • Hubspot's Buyer Persona Generator 
  • Miro Target Audience Template
• Take Module 4 "Develop an Attractive Offer" (399 sek / €39) of our "Freelance Foundation Course"

Once you know who you would add to your contact list, you can start to create a lead list!

A lead list is a list of collected contact information of potential customers and opportunities that can be converted into sales.

Your lead list can be a simple excel list, a Notion (ie. this Leads Management Template) or you can use a CRM system such as Hubspot to manage your leads.

You lead list should preferably include:

• Company name
• Contact person
• Email address/phone number
• Link to website and/or LinkedIn
• Contact date
• Interaction history
• Next steps/actions
• General comment field

Your goal should be to compile a solid list of leads (potential customers) that could have an interest in your offer so that you can easily contact them when you're ready, and keep track on your engagement with them.

Need help? 

• Use Upbeater's Free Lead List/Pipeline Template
• Take Module 7 "How to Prospect & Find Clients" (399 sek / €39) of our "Freelance Foundation Course"

Got your lead list ready? Great!

Now all you need is a message to send to the people on your list.

We recommend that your message:

1. Focus on what the audience what to hear, rather than what you want to say. In other words, your audience should quickly understand that you can help them "solve X", "reach X", or "save X amount of money".
2. Clearly explains why they should hire You over someone else. Make your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)/Unique Value Proposition (UVP) clear and add proof, ie. of previous achievements.
3. Is easy to read, both in terms of length and language used
4. Ends with 1 clear Call To Action (CTA), in other words that you make it clear for your audience what you want them to do next (ie. go to your portfolio/website, check out a video, buy a product, etc.

We also recommend that you create a few different messages and test them to understand which message resonates best with your audience (Hint, it'll be the one that has converted the most ;).

Need help?

• Check out the articles:
  • 11 Cold Email Templates Sure to Attract Hot Leads by Semrush
  • 27 unique sales text message examples for every part of the sales cycle by Textline
• Use ChatGPT or another AI tool to create different sales pitches/messages for you
• Take Module 7 "How to Prospect & Find Clients" (399 sek / €39) of our "Freelance Foundation Course"

Messages ready? Awesome! Now it's all about getting the word out there and start testing. It doesn't matter wether you'll do it through emails, LinkedIn messages, Social Media DMs or snail mail, as long as you get going 🙂

Final tip: Don't (just) sell, offer value!

We often see that being generous pays off. It's not just likelier that someone will open your message if you're giving them something of value, but it also shows proof of your ability.

So give first, it's a great approach! But don't forget or be afraid to also tell the person you contact what you do and can offer (we do need to sell as well).

Need help?

• If you want feedback on your message or anything else before you send it out, you're welcome to share it in Discord and ask for feedback
• If you prefer to automate your outreach, you can use an AI tool such as Leadvio to help you send LinkedIn messages.

While actively reaching out and making yourself seen are important first steps, it's equally important to work on your leads once you've got the foot in the door.

A key to get them to warm up to you is to show them that you understand their pain point, their problems, their dilemma and their needs.

You can do so by trying to understand, or better yet, asking straight out:

1. What they want to achieve (what their goals are)?
2. What's holding them back from achieving it (what their challenges are)?

When you understand your future client's challenges, you're able to present your offer in a way that help solves their problems and help them reach their goals, which they're more likely going to be interested in.

Need help? 

• Watch our Free Freelance Preparation Workshop to learn more about how to identify your target audience needs
• Take Module 4 "Develop an Attractive Offer" (399 sek / €39) of our "Freelance Foundation Course"

Another way to get your potential clients hooked is to focus on presenting value!

What value means can look different for different companies depending on where they are at the moment, but by the end of the day, everyone want to make more money (or save money)!

So if you can present how your offer can contribute to your client making / saving money, you'll have a greater chance of getting them hooked.

Note. Even if what you're selling is "increasing visibility", "a better customer experience", "more efficient management", "better data insights", "engaging content", etc., remember that these are just subgoals to the end goal of growing the business (aka making more money ;)).

Need help? 

• Sign up for our Grow Coaching Package to get group coaching on how to improve your sales as well as access to our growth video library (499 sek /€49 per month)
• Get 1-1 sales-coaching for individual guidance on how to improve your offer and land new and better paying deals (990sek/€99 for 3 sessions)

If you've got your potential client to a point where they are interested, congrats!

Now you need to make them feel comfortable and ensure them that, if they decide to work with you, they're making the right decision.

How can I do that?

By creating trust, and calming their worries! This can be achieved by:

• Sharing a portfolio/website or similar showing cases of your previous work. This gives your potential clients not only a better idea of what you can do, but also shows them that you have done something similar before (in other words that you walk the talk).
• Quantifying the outcome of your work whenever possible. Presenting numbers and results related to your cases will help people understand that your work adds "real value".
• Including and sharing references whenever possible. When someone else can back up what you say that you can do it adds weight to it. So ask for quotes and referrals whenever you can.
• Asking others to share an endorsement or comments about how they experienced working with you. Having ambassadors in your corner usually work wonders.
• Offer a guarantee. Sounds scary? It can be. But if you are confident in what you offer you should be able to offer a guarantee. It can for example be something like; "I'll deliver X in 3 days or you'll get you money back", "You only pay when X happens" or "50% money back guarantee if you haven't met goal X in X time".

Need help? 

• Take Module 6 "Create Awareness & Generate Interest" (399 sek / €39) of our "Freelance Foundation Course"
• Sign up for our Grow Coaching Package to get group coaching on how to improve your sales as well as access to our growth video library (499 sek /€49 per month)
• Get 1-1 sales-coaching for individual guidance on how to improve your offer and land new and better paying deals (990sek/€99 for 3 sessions)

When a potential client say "let's do it", or at least indicates that's their intention, it's easy to think that it's a done deal. But if they say yes followed by the question "so how do we proceed?" and you can't answer it, you're at big risk of loosing the deal.

We're mentioning this because it's more common than we think. We tend to focus a lot on getting people to the finish line, but forget that we need to get them over it to seal the deal.

So how can you avoid losing an "almost done deal"?

1. Package your offer clearly so that new customers quickly understand not just what they'll get from working with you but how you'll work together and what it's going to cost.
2. Have a sales process in place. In other words know the steps that you'll need to take to sign the deal (i.e. 1. Quote, 2. Questions, 3. Sign, 4. Start up workshop) and guide your new customer through it. You'll look professional and they'll feel like they're in good hands.
3. Create a clear proposal (or contract draft) that summarize what's been agreed and that is clear and easy to understand, making it easy for your client to sign it.

Need help? 

• Take Module 8 "How to close the deal and sign new clients" (399 sek / €39) of our "Freelance Foundation Course"
• Sign up for our Grow Coaching Package to get group coaching on how to improve your sales as well as access to our growth video library (499 sek /€49 per month)

Getting specific client requests or clients trying to negotiate the price, delivery or something else is common. When this happens, we recommend that you:

1. Don't panic! If your clients is not content with something, it's better to talk about it up front. As long as the discussion is respectful (they're not asking you to do a lot of things for free etc.), there is usually a way to find common grounds.
2. Understand what your clients is not happy with. If you understand what's holding them back from signing the deal, you can often times find and offer a solution.
3. Don't just think about money. If your client think it's too expensive, ask what their budget is and adjust your offer (amount of hours or work to be done) so that you get enough paid for your work but within the clients budget.
4. Wait for OR present a counter offer. Sometimes your client comes back with a counter offer, sometimes you need to present a new deal. Either way, do this until you're both in agreement and ready to get going 🙂

Need help? 

• Take Module 8 "How to close the deal and sign new clients" (399 sek / €39) of our "Freelance Foundation Course"
• Sign up for our Grow Coaching Package to get group coaching on how to improve your sales as well as access to our growth video library (499 sek /€49 per month)
• Get 1-1 sales-coaching for individual guidance on how you can manage a specific client requests (990sek/€99 for 3 sessions)