How Not to Pitch for Work

June 24, 2009 By 13 Comments
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Communicating what you do and how much you charge is imperative, especially if you’re just starting out as a freelancer. Here’s a word of warning post that I might also have entitled: How Not to Give Away Your Skills for Free.

If you’re starting out as a freelance consultant be wary of people looking to hire you. Seriously.

Many successful business people are adept at getting things for nothing and if you’re new to pitching for consulting work you could find yourself dishing out valuable skills and information – for free!

Be Wary of “Come and have coffee”

Let’s say you meet an prospective client at a social gathering. You tell them what you do and you feel that buzz of excitement when they mention “My company is actually just looking for some of that as a matter of fact!” You hit them with your elevator pitch, a stylish business card and a smile and low and behold a few days later they get back to you.

“Why don’t you come into the office for coffee? Let’s have a chat about what you can do?” they might say.

To the eager novice consultant this might sound like potential business.

“What a fabulous opportunity to pitch my skills and services, and grow my business. Right?”

Wrong!

Well, only possibly.

Don’t Be Too Eager

The risk is that when you get there, all dressed up in your glad rags, seated in a leather chair and supping a frothy cappuccino, you’ll fall for one of the oldest tricks in the book. Giving away your skills for free.

“So we’re thinking about improving our SEO?” the charming, friendly CEO says. “What are the problems with our site? Do you think you could help?”

Having researched Potential Significant Customer’s site dot com before your get-together because you want to know something about them, want to impress them a little, you spill a few of the beans.

“I can see there’s stuff you need to improve: the title tags across the site don’t work and you’re not making the most of title tags. You should definitely reduce your duplicate content. Google treats www.yourdomain.com and yourdomain.com as separate sites.”

“Really?” wonders the CEO, encouraging you to take a couple of M&Ms from the candy jar on the table, still smiling, still friendly. “Is that easy to fix?”

“Oh, sure you just need to tweak your htaccess file.”

Before you know it the CEO is enthusing about your skills, the easy way you communicate your ideas and how you’re just what they’re looking for. Add a touch of mild sexual tension to the mix, maybe the CEO is flirting with you, and your ego’s glowing. You’d be only too happy to help.

“I think we really need to use you,” the CEO says, before hitting you with the sucker punch. “Could you just put together a brief outline on paper about what we’ve talked about and give me a quote for the work?”

So then off you go, type it all up and wait eagerly for their response, dreaming of that big fat deal you’re about to sign.

The Brush Off

And here’s when the brush off will come. Only trouble is you won’t see it as such at first.

Dear (Naive Consultant, they’re thinking),
We really like your ideas and skills. You’re obviously just what we’re looking for.
Unfortunately, right now we have to budget carefully as we’re hiring new staff/purchasing new equipment/behing hit with the recession, etc, etc.

I would still like to use your services but what we’d like to do is carry out some of the work in-house and then call you in to give us an outside view.

Best wishes,
Successful Business CEO

Maybe if you’re super naive you’ll write back gushing that: “You look forward to working with them” but later, on reflection, when your Inbox remains empty and full of crushing silence, and you take a cursory glance at their site and see they’ve actually changed the things you mentioned, you’ll realise that you’ve been had. You gave away an hour’s free consultation in person, plus the time it took to prepare, get there and put together a written proposal that by the way took you a couple of hours to really get right because you wanted to really earn this job and impress the client with your skills – and especially because they seemed so nice !

Battle Strategy

Don’t get burnt. Think through this kind of scenario before it happens. Essentially, if you’re just starting out as a freelance consultant (whatever your field) plan how to handle Mr Tricky CEO, Ms Flirtatious Can-You-Just-Explain-To-Me, et al.

Maybe try something like this:

“Thanks for the coffee,” you’ll say. “It’s delicious.”

But when the CEO asks you what you think of their site / communications strategy / marketing / logo (or whatever it is you consult on!), you hit them with a very polite:

“I think there are a number of key issues we need to look at. But I’m more than happy to discuss the previous work I’ve done and give you an insight into my portfolio of skills. But if you’d like me to discuss your whatever in detail, I charge a XXX fee.”

As they shift uncomfortably in their leather seat, maybe looking a little hurt that you’re playing hardball, you can soften them up a little.

“Of course,” you say, giving them your best smile, “if this meeting leads to a confirmed project I wave that initial consultation fee.”

Similarly, if you’re asked to write up “those valuable comments” you dished out as part of a potential bid for a job, remind the CEO that you bill a cursory flat fee for this service that you wave if it leads to a major job.

A Few Take Aways for Newbie Freelance Consultants:

Be careful. Some business folks are supremely skilled at getting something for nothing.

Don’t give away your skills or valuable insights for free – even if you’re starting out. Have a strategy to avoid this.

Politely inform prospective clients that you charge for your time and skills above and beyond any pleasant chit-chat.

Be clear upfront about waving your initial fee should prospective clients agree to hire you – it softens the “blow” of having to pay for an initial consultation

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Filed Under: communication
About Jon

Owner of Jontus Media, marketing consultant, lifelong Liverpool FC support and podcaster. Guarded by basset hounds .

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  • http://www.wrightcreativity.com Kirsten Wright

    wow. just wow. Jon, you have done a phenomenal job with this post. I definitely had the ‘been there, done that’ feeling. Wish it was years behind me, but unfortunately, this happened just a couple weeks ago for me. I can not tell you how much I wish I had read this a month ago. But at least now, I know better. And this post reassures me that I’m not the only one who has fallen into the trap…

  • http://www.suburbanmama.com Marcie Taylor

    Thank you for telling it like it is. I will definitely be more conscious of the things I say and do during these initial meetings.

  • Kalle

    It’s no secret you excel in this field, and I can vote for this, having had the privileged of being one of your students! Funny thing is that I, two years ago, was in a very similar situation. Close to the end I felt that something was rotten so I blew of the deal by asking for payment for my future services, in a manner very similar to the one you described. The deal ended in them not paying me squat, and in me already finished a partial web page that included a logo.
    Later on I got them to take it of the web, threatening to sue as I had never, verbally or in writing, promised them the page, thus making it mine.
    Still a lo of hard work for nothing.

  • http://www.angelaneal.com Angela

    Great post Jon. I was very guilty of this but now charge a consultation fee. This initial consultation includes an action plan. If they choose to have me complete the work, they know exactly what they are paying for and I have already given myself a roadmap. If they choose to do it in house, at least I have been paid for my time and expertise. I find most clients hire me to carry out the work.

    I started this plan because of another risk factor for freelancers: the time-sucking client who will spend hours of (unbilled) time on the phone, IM or email asking countless questions about what I could be doing for them.

  • http://www.jontusmedia.com Jon

    @everyone
    Thanks for the positive feedback. It’s funny because I was mulling over whether to post this here for over two weeks. Your positive comments are very much appreciated. It is SO difficult to establish yourself as a freelance consultant – particularly when businesses are looking to save money. I got the inspiration for this from an old diary entry from last year when I was furious at myself for falling into this trap. Thankfully I’m getting better but there’s always more to learn.

    @Angela
    I like the sound of charging for “an action plan”. Great phrase and a brilliant strategy. That’s exactly the sort of thing I would have needed to konw about when I was first starting out.

  • http://www.jontusmedia.com Jon

    @kalle
    It’s a tough one, isn’t it. Especially as here in Sweden a lot of companies don’t like paying any money up front. Working for the state is even harder as an independent freelancer because they take 2 months to pay out.

    I think the main thing is to try to think through potential scenarios and have strategies in place that you can turn to to ensure you don’t get taken for a ride.

  • http://www.twitter.com/pc4media Peter Caputa

    Great post, Jon.

    There are way too many freelancers with piss-poor sales skills out there, giving away the appetizers.

    They’re doing noone any good by doing this, including the CEOs that think they’re getting free advice… I’d suggest that the CEO in your story (we’ve all encountered them and we’ll all been “had” by atleast one in our careers), is actually not benefiting at all.

    As I’m sure you know, It’s impossible to detail a full “how to be successful online” plan into a one time document. Successful online marketers continuously analyze what’s working, make conclusions from data, adopt new approaches from reading and testing, measuring everything and repeating what is working. It’s a rare CEO or in-house marketer that can do that amongst all of their other responsibilities.

    I recently had a guy email me after a full year had gone by since our last conversation. A year ago, I had given him some free advice even though he told me he couldn’t afford my service. (I try to help the people that are atleast willing to tell me they can’t afford to spend $.) He took the advice and tried to implement it, but made two fatal mistakes (duplicate content, no lead conversion process) and has wasted a lot of time and some money (on ppc). I asked him in our first call this week, “Why did you call me after a year?” He said, “You’re the only one that seemed to know what you’re talking about.”. I said thank you and then asked him what he’s been doing. I pointed out the mistakes he had made and asked him if he wanted to continue making mistakes or if he wanted a proven process that he could follow? He opted to spend some money this time and do it the right way.

    As sales professionals (or freelancers who have to sell), I believe it’s our responsibility to do the right thing for the prospect or customer. Proposals are usually a waste of time. Most CEOs will buy something if they are confident that you can help them and that it is a worthwhile investment. If you can’t first do that in a conversation and agree on scope of work, budget, timeline, who needs to do what, etc, than guessing about it on paper is a waste of everyone’s time. The details about “what you’re going to do” or “how you’re going to do it” should be less important to them if they trust you can help them. So, your proposal should be less about this and more about the time, money and goals issues.

    Often times, getting to this point involves asking difficult questions about their budget, business problems, personal goals, as well as setting expectations that what you do requires years of learning and practice, as well as months of experimentation. And that it can’t be boiled into a document for a novice to understand. If he still wants a document without telling you when he wants to buy, why it’s important to him, how much he wants to spend, how he wants to benefit, then buy him “Internet Marketing for Dummies” and tell him “good luck”.

    My sales coach used to tell me to book a meeting with anyone who asks for a proposal. Then, ask them what they want in the proposal. Take notes while they talk, then have them sign it at the end of the meeting.

  • http://www.jontusmedia.com Jon

    Fabulous response Peter. I really enjoyed your comments. I loved the idea of your sales mentor’s approach. Brilliant.

    As you rightly say, many CEOs like this won’t get what they’re getting anyway even if they turn it over to someone in-house.

    I think the other important issue you raise here is trust. Proposals and outlines don’t guarantee the quality of the work that will be done. They’re more like a road map.

    And on a personal level, I think those of us working freelance, selling our services, could do with a sales coach. Just because you’re a first rate copywriter, translator or SEO expert doesn’t mean you know how to sell your skills.

    Thanks for joining the conversation.

  • http://www.twitter.com/pc4media Peter Caputa

    Glad you appreciate my response, Jon. I learned most of what I know about sales from Rick Roberge: http://www.omghub.com/therainmakermaker/

    I wish more people would hire quality sales coaches. Too many freelancers, are hung up on sales. If I had a dollar for every freelancer or small business owner that said, “I’m not a salesperson. I’m an xyz expert.”, I’d be retired. What any business owner (solo or with employees) should realize is that sales is job #1.

    Just like their craft, it takes constant learning (and coaching) to perfect sale s skills. And they should realize that getting good at sales is the same as getting good at helping people. Many people equate sales to selfish pursuits. But – when done right – it is all about helping others in the right way.

  • http://www.jontusmedia.com Jon

    Thanks so much for sharing the link to Rick Roberge. I’ll check it out. And I’m sure anyone else who is lurking around this post will do likewise.

    As you say, we’ve all got to realise that sales is job #1!