An Ex-Freelancers Guide to Getting Your First Clients
Tags: career, webdev, productivity
Published: 2019-09-09 08:43:53

I was a freelancer for nearly five years of my life.

One of the things you learn fairly quickly, is freelancing isn't just about being an awesome developer, it is about becoming a good salesperson.

That's right... a salesperson 😬

Typically when I think of a salesperson I think of this guy:

![Alt Text](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/b7dkdk91c864a7ncwe4r.jpg)

A typical snake-oil salesperson. Someone who will pounce upon you and bully you into buying something.

But it doesn't have to be like that at all. In fact, my partner works in sales, she is shy and introverted however she excels at her job. She is the sales manager of a large company and has won many high-brow projects.

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When I first started freelancing and realized that no one was flocking to me to chuck their cash in my face for my awesome skills, I realized sales were going to be key to my success.

I spoke to my partner and we had a good conversation about what she would do in this situation. She gave me these tips:


* Go where the market is.
* Find a problem, and offer a solution - If you try and sell someone something that they don't necessarily understand will benefit them, they won't go for it.
* Find a way to be competitive without under-selling yourself.
* Build long-lasting relationships.


I am going to tackle each of these points below in a dedicated section.

Enjoy! 😉 

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# 🤝 Go Where the Market Is

It's tempting to say "Everyone is on UpWork, I will go there"!

However, after spending a couple of weeks on the platform there are a few things I decided.

* It's too competitive.
* There is too much noise.
* Lowest cost of living (often) prevails. 
* I am unable to build relationships because clients details are kept largely confidential.

I fell into a bit of a trap and mainly spent the first two weeks writing detailed proposals. I only heard back from one, a fairly basic website to be made for £100. I went through the process, spent a couple of days putting together some designs. The client was really happy, paid me my £15 as agreed and I carried on building only to never hear from them again.

**I needed to rethink because this wasn't sustainable. All of this for £15!**

### ✅ So what works?

I decided to follow my partner's advice. I needed to find somewhere where there was going to be work, but not a lot of competition.

Then it hit me. **Instagram**.

Take five minutes to look up small companies, tradespeople and other professionals in your area. There are LOADS.

Plumbers, electricians, window fitters, make up artists, hairdressers, cake makers, dog groomers, wedding videographers, photographers... They are all on there plugging their services.

I felt I was on to something.

These people have taken the time to set up an Instagram account to try and promote their business where peoples attentions are at. They understand the importance of being present on social media, yet many of them have websites that are not mobile responsive and therefore cannot convert sales from Instagram.

I'll repeat that - *many of them have websites that are not mobile responsive and therefore cannot convert sales from IG.*

We have found our audience, and we are starting to find they have a problem that needs fixing.

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# ⚒ Find a Problem - Offer a Solution

I'll repeat the line I left you with for a third and last time...

**Many of them have websites that are not mobile responsive and therefore cannot convert sales from IG.**

This automatically gives you a hook that you can get people in with.

"Let me build you a website that looks nicer than the one you have now" will not work.

Business' are tough. They have margins to meet and often making things look pretty comes much later. However, if you can find a problem, and then offer a solution to that problem and tell your potential client exactly how it will benefit them, then you are on to a winner.

This is the tactic I took - I would look up small companies in my local area, check their website, if it was good I would move on, if it wasn't mobile responsive, or if they were selling a product and would benefit from E-Commerce, then I would use that as a selling point as well.

Here is an example of a DM I would send:

_Hi 👋🏼 I was just looking through your page and you have some awesome products! I couldn't help but notice though that your CTA/website is not able to be viewed on mobile. It seems a shame that you will potentially be missing out on the people visiting your website who are viewing Instagram on their phone!_

_If you want to have a chat about sorting a solution for that, then feel free to give me a ring or we could chat over coffee._

_Thanks for your time!_

The ultimate aim here is to get the person speaking on the phone or meeting the client in person. 

Sure it won't work for every single message sent, a lot of people will refuse or at least will keep you in mind for future.

When you have a client on the phone, however, the next stage comes in to play 😀 Converting!

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# 💸 Find a Way to Be Competitive - But don't undersell yourself.

As many people as I ask will always take payment upfront for a website. Sure, they will split the payments down into different stages of the build, but it is still a lot of money upfront. 

Being competitive will mean trying to undersell everyone else around me, and there is nothing to say that a potential client won't check online or elsewhere for a price check.

That got me thinking... Is there another way to be competitive without knocking my prices down?

**Monthly payments.**

Not only does this make the barrier to entry lower than an upfront cost, but it is also a tactic that makes you much more accessible for business'. 

Would you rather pay £2000 upfront, or split the cost to £500 and then smaller monthly payments over the year. 

I was sceptical at first, would it work? 

I can safely say that this was possibly what transformed by freelancing to new heights. Clients were much more happy to sign a contract to pay me monthly, whilst I updated and maintained their website. 

Rather than going through the complications of a hand-over and trying to work to using a CMS that the client knows or understands, then the ball is kept in your court. Use the tech-stack you like, keep the website on GitHub. Awesome 🤙🏻

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# ❤️ Build long-lasting relationships.

This is made slightly easier than the fact you will be keeping in contact with the client because they are paying you monthly but still needs to be mentioned.

Now that the client knows you are trustworthy and offer a great service, they are more than likely to come back to you, or even recommend people to you. I had a client once who recommended me, and in the space of two months, I had three more clients purely from the fact he had mentioned what I had done for him.

It doesn't need to be anything special, but dropping in a phone call every now and then or meeting up for a bit of lunch will help build those relationships. If you sell your client a website and then drop off the face of the earth you are going to come across as being untrustworthy.

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I hope this helps some of you in the same way it helped me! Ultimately there will be a lot of failures and you will get things wrong at times. 

Freelancing isn't easy! It likely never will be either!

But hopefully, with these few tips, you will be able to get yourself a few clients and start generating that income!