How To Pitch Services To People Who Are CLEARLY Spending Money But Still Have Rubbish Stuff
It’s 2018, and you want to live the freelance dream. You’re probably pretty good at something and possibly even good enough that people want to pay you for it.
Bear in mind that people pay for junk from China, there’s a good chance that you can sell something.
Let’s take the easy route and suggest that you can sell a service like web design skills.
Maybe you’re something like this guy:
He’s in a quandary. He knows that these companies are spending money and also knows that his service is valuable to them.
Yet he doesn’t know how to approach these companies and can’t see why they have terrible websites and yet spend thousands on inferior marketing methods.
There are about fifty billion freelancers and small businesses out there that have the same problem – they don’t know how to get clients.
For our guy above, wouldn’t it be crazily helpful if there was a science towards getting people to buy your service and a bunch of methods and techniques that’d help convince potential buyers that your service will help them out? Wouldn’t it be even better if that mixture of science and method combined to create a client-getting system that took virtually no effort and yet provided good results without the need for spending a ton of money?
Luckily for that guy… it exists.
Imagine A Market…
Imagine you own a market stall that sells the best produce in town.
Your produce makes everyone healthier and it tastes better than your competitors.
Moreover, you’re selling tomatoes in the midst of a tomato revolution where every new recipe seems to include tomatoes.
In fact… it’s like you couldn’t make a single dish without a tomato anymore!
What would you call this imaginary scenario?
If you were an American of a certain age, you might call it a slam dunk.
Who wouldn’t want to be selling the best tomatoes at the best time in history to be a tomato seller?
But listen, what if I told you there was a snag?
What if I told you there was a fly in the ointment or trouble in paradise?
What if I told you that despite the above, there were still a crazy amount of people who needed your tomatoes, but didn’t know it yet?
Would you give up?
Would you cry?
Probably not.
You’d probably say to the people who like tomatoes and need tomatoes, “Hey… I’ve got the best tomatoes in the business!”
Then you’d get some customers.
What about the people who said; “I don’t know if I want tomatoes or if yours are any good”?
You’d probably tell them the reason that they needed tomatoes was X and the reason that your tomatoes were the best is Y.
Then they’d buy your tomatoes.
Why Don’t You Just Tell Them?
Here’s the crazy thing about direct response marketing and general sales.
All the above silly little story is designed to tell you is that it’s that simple.
Direct response marketing and copywriting are considered these weird niches of entrepreneurship that are mostly unknown yet many times frowned upon.
Meanwhile, the same people who frown upon the “sales stuff” are the people asking for help with getting clients.
Copywriting isn’t a weird niche of entrepreneurship. It’s the art of getting people to part with their money in exchange for your offer.
It’s the most fundamental and basic element of entrepreneurship.
How do you exchange your services for their money?
Moreover, if you don’t tell people why they should buy from you, how do you ever expect them to do just that?
If I’m sat on my computer minding my own business watching puppy videos, then I’m not sitting there wondering why I haven’t bought some product I’ve never heard of.
If I’m wandering through a shopping arcade and none of the shops have window displays or some annoying sales guy to tell me why I need a new phone contract, I’m probably going to walk right on through.
You need to sell.
Sometimes that’s easy. Sometimes it’s tough.
What blows my mind are the scenarios above.
“Hey. I have a bunch of companies who need my service and are spending thousands on stuff that’s less effective than my product. What do I do?”
It’s like the teenage boy who tells his friends, “Hey… this girl keeps hugging me and kissing my cheek. She texts me every night and bought me a new car and I really like her but I don’t know if she’s into me!”
Come on.
If People Are Spending Money And You Can Provide A Superior Solution… Then It’s A Case Of 1+1=2
So what should our web designer do?
He should write a simple letter to a hundred companies that have terrible websites but marketing spend in the thousands.
In his letter, he should say something like:
Hi.
I’ve noticed you are spending a lot of money. There’s a way you can get a much better return on your investment.
I’m Bob the Web Designer. I’ve worked with A, B and C and I’ve used what I’m about to tell you to help fifty companies to increase their revenue by X amount per month. That’s a huge return on investment.
But let’s talk about your business.
You spend X and if you’re anywhere near the average then you get Y return.
Yet you have a terrible website.
If I told you that you’re losing around X per month, then you’d be horrified or sceptical. But that’s the statistical truth.
I’d like to help you make that money by offering you a new website.
This is an efficient process and will take just a matter of [weeks]. By doing this, you’ll:
- Have benefit one
- And two
- And three
You can have as much or little input as you want.
Etc.
My goal would be not just for you to have a fantastic site, but for that site to make you more money by making it easier for customers to find you, easier for them to order from you, and [whatever else.]
Then he could finish with a call to action that’d vary depending on his workload, rejection tolerance and pricing.
He could schedule a call for a couple of days later. He could arrange a person meeting or supply an order form (for cheap website builder type stuff.) Or a follow up letter. Whatever he fancied.
The Point Is… It’s a Simple Letter
That admittedly is a terrible first draft. Still, encapsulated there are a few things that’d make it work.
Like the fact that you’re establishing why he’s reading that letter, what you’re going to do for him and what it’ll give him in return. Throw in some “These are the facts” things and some pain points and you’ve got a good skeleton for an initial letter.
The crazy thing is that you don’t have to work all that hard in situations like this. You’ve got a paying audience who need your product. You have a simple two-fold task: Get in front of them and then deliver the benefits.
This isn’t rocket science, it’s not some dark art of persuasion and above all, it’s not at all impossible.
Just get out there and do it.
See you next time.