Love it or hate it (and it’s usually one or the other) a successful freelance writing business has to involve sales. You need to find clients who want to pay you to write if you’re going to stay in business.
Accordingly, you want to make as many sales as you can. That’s a given. But you may be going about it all the wrong way.
Here are a few tips to get you pointed in the right direction when it comes to maximizing your sales potential:
- Just do it. If you don’t get out there and try to sell, you won’t sell anything. Whether it’s submitting queries to magazines or wading through one of the online freelancer websites, you need to spend some time each week trying to get new clients.
- Don’t get comfortable. When you have a large, steady client, the need to sell doesn’t seem as pressing. Recognize, however, that few clients last forever. Eventually, their business model changes, or they go out of business, or they may even hire someone else. If at all possible, no one client should make up more than 30 percent of your business.
- Expand your market. When you’re first starting out, it’s easy to get hooked into one particular freelance writing niche. If you’ve only written online, try some magazine writing. If you’ve only done articles, try some blogging. I’m not saying you shouldn’t specialize, I’m just saying that you should at least test the waters in other types of writing.
- Believe in yourself. The key to successful sales is a belief in the product. Recognize the true value your writing brings to your clients and it’ll be that much easier to bring in new ones.
- Consider getting help. Sales just isn’t a strong suit for some folks. If you can work out the details, a salesperson or agent can be the most effective sales tool you can have.
