Ask Rezzz

First let me say that if you are still working your full-time job or have less than 2 years under your belt as a business owner, this may not be the ideal opportunity for you to try and sell strategy.Simply because you don't have that experience yet. No doubt you have the skills, but to differentiate yourself as a consultant rather than a developer or designer comes with a proven track record of success.I'm not saying that you can't sell strategy, in fact, I would suggest selling discovery phases which are strategy sessions of a different sort.-------------------

Are you providing a solution that allows a potential client to work with you at a lower risk?Custom work is often times a big ask. It's a big investment for someone to not just pay, but also to spend time on.Here's why I like having a smaller, more productized option.Reduces the risk for the leadReduces the risk for youAllows both you and the client to get quick resultsThis especially works nicely if you are just starting out.-------------------

I want to thank Sara Dunn for asking this question. In her video, she on her YouTube Channel she talks about how she's setting goals for the year over 12-week periods based on the 12-Week Year.This year, I created themes for myself and the business. The reasoning behind this is simple. If I have a project, decision, or question where I'm suddenly faced with the option to go one way or another, the theme will highlight the right choice.I've created each theme based on who I want to be and the purpose and value of the business.I've created 3 themes for the year and they are "intentional community", "commitment to my marriage," and "ship new products".-------------------

The features of what the application has are exactly what I need for myself and clients.Yes, I have some [e-commerce clients](https://rezzz.com/services) who may fit better with Drip as their platform, but I have other clients who are non-profits, service-based businesses, coach, and other individuals who are selling only a handful of products that ConvertKit is a perfect fit for.-------------------

Over the years, I've been known to specialize in a few different platforms, Ruby on Rails, PHP, WordPress, WooCommerce (and a few other plugins), and Drip. Anytime I switch from one to the next, I get asked a lot of questions."Why did you switch?""What happened with X that made the decision for you?""Did you switch because of Y?"For myself and my clients, I try and look at platforms as a tool. -------------------

I was talking with my new neighbor over the summer about cutting the grass since he saw me out there cutting the grass with my brand new battery powered mower. He shared this with me."If you are looking for a landscaper, I'd be happy to give you my guys' number. He's a bit expensive, but I haven't paid him in 14 months and he's still showing up every week."Now whether that's the fault of my neighbor or the landscaper, in the end, the landscaper is sending the wrong message here.Before it gets to 14 months, let's see if we can nip this in the bud as quickly as possible, shall we?-------------------

Bottom line is that you don't. You can't convince anyone of anything if they don't have an open mind about it.To be honest, it's actually better for you to refer the project off than to spend the energy working at someone who has already decided not to work with you.With that being said, sales are all about helping someone make a decision.If you are looking for someone to do something that they don't really want to do (and that's to spend money), you need to find a legit reason that is big enough for them to do so.-------------------

All too often a client will ask you for something that you are skeptical about.They are convinced that it will work for whatever you are trying to accomplish, but you have some doubts.Your doubts come from 2 places. The first is your experience and the second is from your ego.-------------------

In episode 233 you learned about how to make a productized service. It makes sense that the next question is how do you sell it.To be perfectly honest, knowing how to sell the productized service really should come before you make it, and here's why.-------------------

How are those goals, those habits for your business working out for 2019?Are you still focused on them or has the reality of 2019 and life, in general, pushed them aside and you are no longer as focused as you were 4 weeks ago, now that it's Feb 1?-------------------

I don't know about you, but I'm constantly bombarded with ideas on making this, and creating that. Thinking that the product will help diversify my revenue and make my business more stable.I'm not wrong. And I don't say that because I'm arrogant. I say that be it is a fact.-------------------

Last week you learned [how to review your sales process]([https://rezzz.com/ask/how-to-review-your-sales-process/](https://rezzz.com/ask/how-to-review-your-sales-process/)), just as important as that is, so to you should be reviewing each and every project that comes through your business.Ever feel like you finished a project and felt like the weight of the world lifted up off your shoulders. Suddenly you have this sense of relief that is so strong you wonder how you got sucked into that mess in the first place?-------------------

As a business owner, as a salesperson, which if you are freelancing I hate to break the news here, but you are in sales, you need to close the open loops in the decision making for your leads and clients.We don’t have control over the decision-making process anyone has, but we can lead them to that decision.We can create a path to that decision that makes it easy for them to make a choice.-------------------

I was asked a question on a Twitter chat I was a part of that said “A few of us are clearly uncomfortable with the idea of seeming like a nuisance. Have you received a negative response to multiple follow-ups?”Following up with someone after they’ve expressed interest in you is not being a nuisance or annoying or bothersome. Unless you are emailing them every day with “Just checking in.”If you have an email that sounds like “Hey Pete, I was thinking about your project a little bit more and came across this article that talks specifically about that one thing. Here’s the link if you have a few minutes to check it out. If not, the big takeaways were…Hope you find it useful. Best, Jason”-------------------

Let’s assume for the sake of brevity that you are segmenting your list at least to the point of people who have bought and haven’t bought from you.If you are like me, you are tag happy, they want to track everything someone on their list does and so they tag everything.This is great, but if you don’t do anything with the information, it’s just clutter in your CRM or email marketing platform.There really are 2 things to focus in on when you are segmenting your email list.-------------------

Are you sitting there thinking that you suck at sales?Maybe you say to yourself “I’m not confident in my selling skills.”Are you feeling like you are doing all the things in sales that the best salespeople are telling you to do? LinkedIn outreach, using tools for followup, even your [business coach](https://rezzz.com/coach/) aren’t 100%.You have the mechanics of everything in place, but still feel like you aren’t able to hit the stride or get enough clients to fill that pipeline.-------------------

Since Feb 26 in 2008, I’ve built my business without selling on Twitter.I have no qualms about saying that Twitter is my home away from home.Without Twitter, I’m not sure where I’d be right now to be honest.I can attribute the growth of my business, my network of friends and colleagues, my clients, and you listening to this episode right now to the effort and engagement of my Twitter account.-------------------

This is where there’s a mismatch between the value that you have for the work and the value that the client sees in the work.As the professional, you need to close this gap through education and focus.The education is on the potential of the return on investment. That return on investment is focused on the success of the project.Focus on the success of the projectThe first thing you need to do is ask your client “what does success look like 6 or 12 months time?”Here’s why this is important. It takes the focus away from you and what you are charging the client for the work and onto what they are looking to get from the project.Because that’s why they are talking to you in the first place, right? They didn’t come to you because they want to spend money with someone. They want their own problem solved.So if they answer with something like “we want to have 1000 new signups to our email list” or “we would like to have 100 new customers” or “we want to show up on the first page of Google for a specific keyword”, al

Maybe it’s the time of year where goals and aspirations are high, then reality sets in the fears, the hesitations, the mind games start to mess with those aspirations because over the past couple of weeks through email, through Twitter, and in some communities I’m in people seem to be asking this same question.How do you do the work and push past the fear of getting it out there.Things like podcasting and “going live” and just the general action of putting something into the world is scary. I won’t ignore that.-------------------

I’ll be honest, I’m not sure why I’ve been asked this. I’m honored, but I’m not in any sort of position to give a great answer.Simply because I’m one who studies business trends and not in that analytical type of position.With that being said though, I’d like to share an aspect of the business that I’ve seen grow and produce amazing results, not just in my business, but other businesses as well.-------------------