Comments on: 10 Things You Need to Know About Your Prospects

By: Helvetica, Doctypes, Lemurs and more! - AdventuresInWebDev

Helvetica, Doctypes, Lemurs and more! - AdventuresInWebDev — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:50:37 +0000

[…] 10 Things You Need to Know About Your Prospects On the freelance side, it’s always good to know a little about the people you work for. […]

By: Brandon

Brandon — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 23:08:27 +0000

I think #9 is especially important if most of your business comes from your local market. Chances are your primary contact at a business will have a similar position at a different company sometime in the future.

By: kristen

kristen — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:56:43 +0000

Yay Ilese:)

By: Mark H. Abucayon

Mark H. Abucayon — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:23:11 +0000

Now I know, when I read the article so nice. Thanks for this one

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 02:04:08 +0000

Great excerpt.

For #2, I refer to this as “make your client a hero for hiring you.” Hiring you must seem like the act of a genius, so that the person hiring you gets kudos for being so smart as to hire you. In other words, you screw up, it looks bad for them, so don’t screw up.

For #3, it’s what I’ve been preaching a lot out here: be VISIBLE. Figure out who your client is and make sure that your marketing information is going to be right where they’re going to look when they’re ready to look for someone like you.

By: Chad

Chad — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:20:35 +0000

Awesome article.

I especially liked #10 - by following that alone, you’ll be much more successful in dealing with clients and prospects.

By: Philip Arthur Moore

Philip Arthur Moore — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:58:48 +0000

Excellent article. I particularly agree with point #1. Although a potential client may already be locked into a current project with another freelancer, it does not mean that they are not looking to jump ship or simply move on to other projects. I have built relationships with a number of clients who, for whatever reason, were unhappy with their current freelancer or ready for a change.

I approach the freelancing market the same way that I mentally approach the dating world - should I fear asking someone out because I think they have a partner already? That’s crazy talk. I’m much happier putting myself out there and either getting shut down or smiled at and given a phone number. It’s no different with clients.