After Hours© 009: From incompetent to professional

There's many paths that lead to finding high-quality clients -- it's not just one thing.

Last week, we focused on looking for clients through marketing. But one important part of landing clients is finding the "serious" ones so you don't waste any time or energy on clients who aren't going to hire you. 
 
Today's topic: Landing high-quality clients
Estimated read time: ~4 minutes (Skim time: ~90 seconds)

What kind of problem is this?

Landing high-quality clients is a clarity (and pinch of confidence) problem.

The difference between landing serious clients and un-serious clients is based on your professional level. Not skill level — business level.

Do you think a big corporation or high-paying client is going to hire a creative with;

• A word doc as a proposal
• No booking system
• No clear prices, packages or process

No of course not.

The high-paying clients are always going to go with the seamless creative who is calm, collected and makes the whole process feel professional and easy.

Even if you're not an experienced freelancer or studio owner, you can act like one. Read on for our story or head to solutions for what you need to implement.

Boring Studios filtering

I won't lie to you, it is hard to filter through serious clients and unserious clients. And honestly, it's something that is unavoidable. But there are ways to limit it.

When we first started Boring Studios, clients were more serious because we had a lot of word of mouth marketing, which in my opinion is truly the best kind of marketing.

After our social media started to grow we would have an enquiry for branding work at least once a day. We would book calls with almost everyone and only about 30% would be serious clients. What a waste of time.

About a year later, every single client we had a call with was a serious client and we landed 100% of the clients we spoke to.

So what was the shift?

Our skills didn't change.
Our content hadn't changed.

The thing that changed?

Our systems; client process, booking link, call agenda, website/portfolio, our onboarding, proposals, contracts, services guide...

We went from looking like amateurs, to acting like a real professional studio.

Here's how you can too.

Solution

As I said earlier, it's purely about looking and acting professional — not through skills and not through social media but through the process of working with you.

How easy is it for a client to work with you?
If the answer is more than one button, it's not easy enough.

You need to have;

• Clear pricing and packages that you follow so you're not "umm.. I'm not sure" every time someone asks for a price and what you actually do
• A process and the steps on how you work for clients to understand before jumping on a call
• A booking system to book a call — dms don't cut it
• A call agenda that you follow so you don't choke up on every call
• Contracts and terms to sign
• A client process to follow from onboarding to offboarding

This week you will

Step one: Outline your pricing and packages

Clients want to see prices. There's no point hiding what you cost or tailoring your pricing per client. Work out what you need to charge here and create packages and stick to them.

If a client doesn't want something in a package, explain that it's an eco-system for creating good creative. e.g. Photography + editing. Brand Visuals + Brand Strategy.

Put these packages in your Services Guide or website. Link it in your bios across platforms.

Also include on your website or Services Guide — your client process, timelines for projects and key terms for working with you such as revisions, IP etc.

Step two: Create a Booking link

Have a Calendly (or similar) call booking link. Include a drop down for the potential client's budget. The smallest number starts at your smallest package. None of this $0-$500 nonsense.

Email everyone who books in a call with a confirmation email like this:

Subject: Confirming your booking

Hi [client name],

Thanks for booking in a call with [business name/me].

Please confirm your attendance for the call on [date+time].
Unconfirmed calls will be released.

Kind regards,
[your name]

If they don't reply, cancel it.

For your call, have an agenda to follow so you know exactly what's next in the call. If you don't know something on the spot "a simple, I don't have an answer for that off the top of my head, i'll find out and get back to you."

Step three: Have a professional and clear client process

• Proposal
• Contract (always sign before starting work)
• Branded Invoice
• Onboarding document
• Client portal
• Offboarding document

Remember, it's not your skillset or your social media content going viral. It's how you present and act in a professional way that lands you the "good" clients.

Act professional (even if you're faking it).