Knowing how to sell yourself is the number one asset to getting clients. It’s more than simply putting your name out there or building a profile and having the mindset that clients will automatically come to you. You need much more than that. Keep reading down below to discover the Top 9 Freelance Sales Tips that will help you land more clients.

1. Get High-Paying Clients
2. Commit To Success
3. Agree With The Client
4. Build Credibility With Clients
5. Show, Don’t Tell
6. Have Real-Time Data
7. Leverage The Power Of The Phone
8. Profiting Over The Phone
9. Call-To-Actions Steps
   

1) Get High-Paying Clients

Your goal as a freelancer is to get high-paying clients - High-paying clients are those in which you can charge a monthly retainer to. To have high-paying clients, you must get good at sales and understand that no matter what you're doing in life, you're always selling. Selling is an essential part of having a profitable freelance business and is the building block of everything else to come success-wise.

You can get good at sales by simply listening to the client's needs, struggles, and goals with the project they want you to help them with. When you are offering a service to a client, it’s important to get to know them, and the ‘Why’ behind what help they are truly looking for from you. To deliver exceptional service and make sales you need to fact-find to firstly qualify clients, and secondly to understand what the client's true needs are. Once you can figure out how you can best help the client, you will be able to deliver helpful value and ultimately get the chance to turn them into a long-term client.

2) Commit To Success

Commit to getting good at sales -To commit to success you must be consistent, which means to always show up and make the necessary sacrifices to get to where you want to be. That is how successful people get known, to where you know their name, and you know their story. Every successful person out there who's ever started a business from zero and scaled it to millions of dollars didn’t become an overnight success. They became successful by taking the consistent daily actions required and staying committed to doing whatever it takes to get to the next level.

A large part of a good sales person is someone who displays confidence in themselves and the products/services they provide. No one wants to hire a freelancer who isn't confident in their services or in their ability to provide the value.

More importantly, knowing how to sell yourself is the number one asset to getting clients. It’s more than simply putting your name out there or building a profile and having the mindset that clients will automatically come to you. You need much more than that.

To generate sales and be successful, first think about what kind of impression on social media you are giving off. What you put out online is a representation and direct reflection of who you are. To build credibility and trust with potential clients who may stumble across your profiles, you must:

• Clean up your social media accounts and make sure they look client review-ready. Your profiles create the first impression with a client and that is a personal billboard of you selling who you are. If done right, clients will see who you are, what you do, and ultimately if you’re the best fit for them to solve their problems.

• Have a professional headshot as your profile picture on all social media platforms to create a great first impression and build trust (and don't forget to smile!)

• Leverage your social media bio's by using them as a pitch for your business so potential clients quickly understand what services you offer. Example: "I help____ by doing ____."

As a freelancer, you will want to make sure that you have this in mind and you understand that you need to make the best first impression to everyone you come across.

Having confidence, consistency, and commitment to getting good at sales is what's going to open the doorway to your success as a freelancer and by getting other people to see the value in the actual services you provide and get them to trust you with their money.

3) Agree With The Client

Always agree with the client - You should always agree with the client and tell them you understand their perspective. The basics of selling are to always agree, no matter what. When you approach a client in a new situation, you need to focus on how you can be the most agreeable and not confrontational. If you see a problem or something is wrong, a way to approach this situation is with a helpful alternative solution.

You don't want to bring things up and disagree with them. Instead, you want to bring up the problem in a way that's respectful, professional and agrees with them, and understands where they're coming from. Seeing things from your client's perspective will show that you care about them and not just making money (which is going to help you land more sales.

4) Build Credibility With Clients

5) Show, Don’t Tell

Don't just tell them, show them in writing - A big way to build instant credibility with clients is to always show things in writing.  People tend to believe things that they see in writing a lot more than what they just hear because it's easy to forget what you hear, but when a client see's something in writing (such as an email or a message) it comes off as more credible and professional.

You can also use third-party data to show clients more things in writing. This is amazing if you don't have much experience because even if you don't have experience you can harness the power of 3rd party data. Anyone can go on Google and find reputable sources and make claims that are substantial but are from third-party sources. By doing this, you can then align yourself with the research other people have already done to sell more clients.

6) Have Real-Time Data

The more real-time data you have, the better - The more data and the more information you have ready in real-time, the better impression you are able to give to your clients. If you are on an interview call with a potential client and are able to use graphics, reports, and demonstrations based on the subject matter, you separate yourself from the competition. This behavior shows that you're engaged, that you're actively listening, and that you are well put together.

Data comes in many forms and can include:

- Reports

- Case Studies

- Analytics Charts

- Insights

- Projections

- etc.

Start having data ready to go in real-time as you communicate with potential and existing freelance clients to take your freelancing to the next level. The more value you are able to provide, the more sales you will make and the higher rates you can charge.

7) Leverage The Power Of The Phone

Leverage the power of the phone - The phone is a powerful tool which grants access to make profitable connections with others. The phone is something that never leaves most people's side. All great sales people understand this and use that information to further the sales process.

There are many ways to get in touch with people by texting, calling, emailing, or face-timing. There are also other options to get in touch with people to network, to find new clients, and to get new opportunities and that's the whole part of selling is using all the tools that are available to you like your phone. 

Ways you can profit over the phone - The first step is to learn how to communicate well and formulate a call script for your freelance services. You don't want to just wing it, you want to have a call script pulled up that has all the important things you want to hit on when you're on that call with the client. This will keep you on track and ensure you are able to ask all the appropriate questions needed to qualify the client.

You’ll also want to start practicing handling the most common objections you receive during the sales process over the phone. Start noticing what objections come up a lot and practice handling them by demonstrating why the value you offer will solve their problems and relieve their pain points.

9) Call-To-Action Step

Make sure to end every interaction with a call-to-action - Out of all the sales steps, this one is the most crucial to actually closing more deals and landing more freelance clients. Always make sure you end every interaction with a call-to action at the end. That means you clearly establish which actions each party needs to take next.

Without doing this, you risk getting forgotten and added to the pile of other proposals. Even if you had a great conversation with the client, it all is for nothing if you do not get to the next step and eventually close the deal. So at the end of every call make sure you clearly ask what the next best steps are so you can move the process forward and show you are professional and serious to begin working and providing value.

In Conclusion:

- Paul Mendes

 Founder of Profitable Freelancer