“You don’t have to be great to start,
but you have to start to be great.”
Zig Ziglar
Hesitant to get on a call with a stranger and see if you should work together?
That’s OK! We all were at some point.
But established freelancers know something you don’t know: you’re not there to sell. You’re there to help. Sometimes you can, and sometimes you can’t – and you get to say so!
Prospecting calls seem like they’re about selling your services, but they’re really about connecting the prospect with the best person to help them. This is why it’s so important to be growing your network of peers as much as your network of potential clients. The more experience you get and the deeper you niche, the more you’ll be referring work to others and having work referred to you as the universe of work “sorts itself out”
What follows are general guidelines for running a prospecting call from that lens: figuring out if you’re the best person to help them, if you even want to help them, and then getting a preview of what it might be like to work together.
GET READY FOR THE CALL WITH QUESTIONS
Prospect Call Questions
In your “operations” folder, keep a list of go-to client prospect questions you can refer to if you ever run out of something to say. These questions are appropriate for marketing project contexts, less so for employer branding or thought leadership (though they still might uncover some interesting conversation threads if you use them anyway).
You might use all of these or none of these, or you may skip around — use them when it helps you get more information.
| Prospect Call Questions WARM-UP What has you looking for a writer right now? What’s most important to you in the writing partnership you want to have? What kind of outcomes are you looking for from the content we’d create together? What types of content formats or deliverables are you hoping to create? ABOUT THE PRODUCT OR SERVICE What is the most pressing problem that leads clients to talk to you? What is a common misconception clients often have about your product or service? What’s the biggest roadblock clients have to moving forward with your product or service? What are your clients pleasantly surprised by when they’ve used your product or service? ABOUT THE CONTENT What are some of your favorite/most trusted resources you’d like to see featured? How do you see this piece of content being different from your other resources? What do you want it to be the same?What role will SEO play in these projects? Do you have a separate contributor or team taking care of that? |
Client’s Client Questions (The Second Degree😉)
These questions may or may not be relevant, depending on how much strategic help the prospect needs. But these are handy questions to be thinking about as you step into the call — questions for your client’s client. Remember, this is the “second degree” of B2B. You’re not writing for your client (first degree) – you’re writing for your client’s client (Second degree).
| 10 Questions to Ask Before You Write A Word of Copy by Dan Kennedy B2BWI Note: Ask your prospect these questions about their customers. Not about themselves. 1. What keeps them awake at night, eyes up at the ceiling? 2. What are they afraid of? 3. What are they angry about (or who are they angry at?) 4. What are their top 3 daily frustrations? 5. What trends are occurring and will occur in their business or lives? 6. What do they secretly desire most? 7. Is there a built-in bias to the way they make decisions? 8. Do they have their own language? 9. Who else is selling something similar to their product, and how? 10. Who has tried to sell them something similar, and how has that effort failed? |
TAKE THE CALL
It’s ok to be nervous — you just have to do it nervous. I still shake my hands out, dance weird, and yelp before and after important calls. Find things that work for you to help you feel like you can get through the time, and that someday might allow you to enjoy the time.
FOLLOW UP ON THE CALL
Follow up within 24 hours to say thank you for meeting and confirm the next steps. Follow up with a project proposal within a business week (or whenever you said you will). Following up is not annoying if they have invited you to correspond with them. It’s professional, timely, and helpful because they are likely very busy!
The Best Sales Calls Are About Helping
Remember, your goal is to find out if you’re the right person to help them — that’s it. There’s no twisting their arm, convincing them, or begging them. They either need a solid writer (which you are) or they don’t — end of story. The sooner you can practice that posture and attitude, the easier it will be to feel that way and send those vibes during the call.