10 Tips on Freelance Writing Sales from Zig Ziglar

A successful freelance writing business means being able to sell. You need to sell yourself and your product, and you need to be able to close the deal. If you can’t sell your freelance writing effectively, you’re eventually going to have to look for other work. That’s just the cold truth.

In the world of sales, there are few names bigger than Zig Ziglar. Over the past four decades, Ziglar has traveled more than five million miles giving his messages of life improvement and his perspective on how to win over the customer. He has shared the platform with three presidents, and figures as divergent as Paul Harvey and Dr. Robert Schuller. He’s also been recognized in congress for his dedication to the free enterprise system.

Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned from Ziglar over the years:

1. Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude

How you approach your business on a moment-by-moment basis will play a huge role in whether or not you succeed. Positive thinking doesn’t make sales, but negative thinking can kill them.

2. If you don’t see yourself as a winner, then you cannot perform as a winner

Self-image is key. If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else is going to believe in you, least of all not potential clients.

3. Focus on relationships and not transactions

This is especially true in the freelance writing business. Your customers are not just buying a product: they’re buying you. Freelance writing is a very personal skill, and you need to be able to establish trust and reliability if you’re going to seal the deal.

4. Interpret your benefits, not your features

This is part of basic copywriting principle, yet many freelance writers forget about it when it comes to promoting their own services. Your customer doesn’t want to hear about how your writing is readable; they want to hear about how it will increase their sales, or establish them as an authority in their niche.

5. Every choice you make has an end result

Some choices in your freelance writing business will be good, others not so much. You can’t always predict the result, either. The main thing is being aware that your actions have consequences and doing what you can to make positive, beneficial choices.

6. Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street

Selling means getting rejected. Sometimes, customers pick the other guy. Depending on how competitive your particular niche is, you might experience a lot of rejection. Getting back up on the sales bicycle after a failure is essential.

7. People don’t buy for logical reasons, they buy for emotional reasons

Part of sales is being able to appeal to the emotions. You need to be honest here, of course, and not promise that your product can do something it can’t. But you need to be able to connect with customers on a level that makes them feel something good about you and your product if you’re going to succeed.

8. Success is dependent upon the glands – sweat glands

Yes, you need to learn to become more efficient, to work “smarter.” That’s even one of Deb’s mantras here, and I don’t disagree. But real results require real work. Learn better ways to sell, but don’t forget to sell altogether.

9. When you do more than you are paid to do, you’ll eventually be paid more for what you do

Going the extra mile isn’t just good customer service; it’s also a sales tactic. Don’t let customers abuse your generosity, but do try to do a little bit extra if you can.

10. The way you see people is the way you treat them

If you see your clients as ignorant schmucks, you’re going to treat them that way. People aren’t dumb; they can tell when you’re looking down at them or despising them. Your clients aren’t schmucks, and they aren’t just a meal ticket, either. They’re people, good people, who need your help and who are willing to pay you for it.

Want to get more Zig Ziglar? Here are a couple of places to start:

Zig Ziglar’s Secrets of Closing the Sale

See You at the Top: 25th Anniversary Edition

A New Take on an Old Business

Hi there.

I’m Bob, and I’ll be your host for the foreseeable future here at the Business Tips for Writers section of FWJ. I won’t waste your time with a long post about how grateful I am to the FWJ staff for the opportunity (and I am), or what big shoes I have to fill in James Chartrand’s former column (and they are big shoes).

Instead, let me tell you a little about myself. I’ll try to make it at least a little relevant to the freelance business, or at least marginally interesting.

I’ve been a professional freelance writer for several years now. I started out writing pregnancy and parenting articles for a dear friend who desperately needed some content. It wasn’t entirely a selfless endeavor; I needed the cash. I’d recently quit my job in the Information Technology field and was working on my Master’s degree in Humanities, and student loans weren’t enough to cover all of the bills.

From there, I spent some time writing as a work-at-home mom (that’s another story altogether, which you can read at Freelance Folder). I’ve done just about every type of freelance writing work since then, too. Since I picked up the virtual pen, I haven’t looked back.

If you want to know more about how I fell into the freelance writing career, and about my own personal philosophy of writing, read my highly self-indulgent and sometimes tedious Bang the Gong series over at my blog.

So, how am I qualified to give you advice on the writing business? I could go into my academic training, or I could tell you about seminars I’ve attended or professional organizations I’ve joined. Really, though, I don’t think those things will impress you. They don’t particularly impress me.

No, here’s why I think I might have something useful to say, and why I am qualified to give you business tips: I make a living with my writing today. My writing business is successful enough to provide for my family and even give us an occasional vacation. Oh, and pay taxes.

I should also tell you a little bit about how that business is structured. My wife, Angie, is not only the world’s tastiest food blogger, she’s also my business partner. She does the sales and management stuff, I do the writing. We also employ a handful of other writers on a part-time basis. As I mentioned, we do all sorts of writing, from sales pages to web copy to blogging.

Blogging is probably my favorite medium, and the medium whose style I seem to excel at. I’ve been published here, as well as at Freelance Switch, Freelance Folder and other blogs. I do a lot of blogging for other folks, too, as a ghost blogger. One of the reasons I took this job is because here I can blog as me, without having to fit someone else’s voice and style.

I’ll be posting here twice a week, usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Make sure to come back this Thursday, as I’ve got a truly kick-butt post on the top mistakes work-at-home freelancers can make.

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It’s all anonymous, we’re not collecting names. By filling it out it will let us know a little about your habits and your thoughts about this network.

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Thank you so much for your time!

- Deb

Do The Projects You Work On Let You Sleep At Night?

Do you sleep well at night? When you finally leave the keyboard, are
you doing so with a clear concience that you’ve done the best you
could, done right by yourself and done right by others?

It’s a question worth thinking about. In the web world, you’ll face
many tough decisions. You’ll be propositioned to work on
less-than-ethical projects, and you’ll get potential clients that ask
you to chose between doing what you feel is right and taking the
money.

Not a comfortable place to be. When work on a project that conflicts
with your personal values and beliefs, you may feel upset. You might
feel bad at having said yes. You may feel guilty that you could hurt
someone else. You might feel an inner resentment or disgust.

You might have to stop the work and tell the client you can’t finish.
By that time, though, you’ve put in the hours and done the time – and
you’ve lost money.

Why not prepare? Avoid the value-conflict situation by deciding what
you want to work on and where your comfort level ends before you find
yourself in this position. If you know ahead of time which projects
you’ll work on and which you’ll turn down, you can make better
decisions for your own best interest.

Here are some questions to consider:

• Are you okay writing about religion, sex, medicine, politics or the military?
• Will you agree to rewrite copyrighted material without the author’s knowledge?
• Do you mind altering credited work knowing it will be republished
under another name?
• Do you care about creating duplicate content or writing PLR articles?
• Are you comfortable ghostwriting without credit for authorship?
• Do you mind if someone takes your work and changes it to their tastes?
• Will you discount your rates in exchange for royalties or revenue sharing?
• Are you open to negotiating, bartering or giving volume-based
discounts to clients?
• Will you accept to work on projects that force you to write with a
biased opinion?

Decide your comfort level in regard to certain topics and subjects
matters now, before you have to decide on the fly. Starting to work on
a project and realizing halfway through that it conflicts with your
values or beliefs isn’t fun, and it puts you in a bad position.

Too, consider the role that money plays. Cash is a powerful motivator
to do something you normally wouldn’t. When someone starts waving
dollar bills your way, will you bend? You might. It’s easy to say you
won’t right now, when you’re not in that position.

But when you’re offered the job, you might find yourself wavering.
With your won’t-do policy handy, you’ll be able to run down your list
and remind yourself of the reasons you don’t want to take on the
project.

How about you? Have you ever been in a tough position like that? What
did you do? How did you feel about your choice?

Freelance Your Speciality… or Diversify?

I recently asked readers about their writer specialty. Do you have one? What is it? Is it special enough? With all the competition in the freelance writing world, specialization matters a great deal towards success. But is it enough?
Read more

Don’t Call Yourself a Freelancer

Freelancing can be a great way to enjoy the career you want on your own terms and time. You benefit from more freedom and do what you’d like to do every day, all the while balancing work and life in a way that suits you best.

But when you tell people what you do for a living, do you call yourself a freelancer? If you do, you might be doing your career more harm than good.
Read more

How Friendly are You With Other Freelancers?

Your peers are as important, if not more important, than your paying customers. Peers offer a huge support for your freelance writing career. They can help boost your business, bring in clientele, get you out of a sticky spot, offer advice, suggest improvements, lift your morale and provide that break you need for success.

So how are you treating them? Are you enjoying their company and making friends? Or are you condescending to them, showing off or being the know-it-all? Worse, are you coming off as the snotty diva, the argumentative witch or the arrogant SOB?

You could be, and that’s a problem. If you alienate your peers, you won’t get any of that good stuff they offer.

Read more

How to Answer Why You Want to Work

“Why do you want to work for us?” The question crops up frequently in business interviews, and it should also become a standard in every pitch you write.

Knowing how to pitch why you want to work with someone (or for someone) is a valuable tool to have in your arsenal. It can help you land a gig that you really wanted, get you working for a better employer or help you become part of a team business.

So just how should you answer that question? It can be a tough one, because the obvious doesn’t really sound very good: You want a better job. Or you want more money. Or you want to be famous. Or you want more freedom.

You want, you want… Yes, true, it’s all about your wants, but your potential employer doesn’t want to hear what you want. He doesn’t really want to know why you want to work for him, either.

He wants to know how you’ll make his business better. He’s really asking, “Why should I hire you and not the next person? What are you going to get out of this, and why should I care?”

Here are tips to help you give a winning answer:

1. Know who you’re going to work for. It’s a given that you apply for work or pitch a gig and you don’t know anything about the potential client or his business, he’s not going to be interested in having you on the team. Check out the company website, read the About page, and learn what you can.
2. Know what the company stands for. Business owners love to hear that other people resonate with their mission. Mention that you believe in the same and compliment the mission of the company.
3. Talk about a project you know the company has going on and mention how you’d like to be involved in its development.
4. Demonstrate you know where the business problems might be and that you want to solve them. Even better, suggest a solution (which should involve your presence in the company eliminating the issue).
5. Show ambition. Point out that you’d like to learn so that you can work up to a certain position in the company – and also point out you know you have a ways to go before you get there, so that no one feels threatened.
6. Get excited. Show interest. Nothing makes a business owner feel better than seeing his or her passion firing up someone else’s passion too.
7. Be honest and forthcoming. If there is something you want from this job or project, such as better skills or an opportunity, say so – but also demonstrate that this desire to improve benefits the company. They’ll have a go-getter on the team.

For more of an idea of answers you could try in your next pitch, here are some suggestions of what I’d personally want to hear from a prospective employee:

“You clearly know the business of writing. I know writing but not about the business. I also know that you could probably use the extra hands so you could work on your projects. I want to help you work less, and at the same time, learn more about the business side of things so that one day, I could have a business of my own.”

“You’re a growing business, and I know you’re not done growing yet. I think that’s fantastic, and I’d really like to get in on that instead of having to always be a solo. Plus, we can work together now and I’ll be perfectly trained for later when business gets crazy.”

Those are just my suggestions, though (but they did land Taylor a full-time job at my business). If you owned a business, what would you want to hear? And if you were a writer pitching a company, what would you say?

Want to learn more about how to make yourself a valuable asset to any business or team? Get The Unlimited Freelancer and get into great business.

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How to Turn Off Potential Clients With Just One Glance

March 26, 2009 by James Chartrand  
Filed under Other Good Stuff

14 Comments

How to pitch for a freelance writing job is an art… But if you have nothing to show your potential clients, you’re out of a job from the get-go.

No matter whether you’re just starting out in your freelance writing career or if you’re established and rolling along nicely with a good client base, you need a credible-looking portfolio page, blog or website.

I’m not pushing this idea because of my business – I’m pushing it because I’ve often considered working with certain writers…and been totally turned off ever hiring them, no matter how well they write.

Think about it. You’ve attracted the attention of a potential employer or client. You write well, you’ve pitched well, and the person is contemplating paying you for some work he or she needs done.

In the contemplation stage, people gather information. That’s important. So your potential client casually check to see if you’ve mentioned a website. He idly glances at email signatures, maybe a link you’ve shared…

There is a link, right? Somewhere? Anywhere?

No link? You can’t be serious. This is 2009, people. If you can’t be on top of even basic technology, how can you be expected to be a credible web worker? Stop right now. At the very least, get some cheap free service with a basic template to build a small site with a bit of info about you and your work.

Ah, there’s the link. Whew. That employer almost thought about taking the other writer. But he doesn’t. He clicks through to see what type of businessperson you are – and winces.

It’s a visual assault. Alright, there’s a site, and the information is there, but the aesthetic appeal is a total mess. Colors are horrible, overly bright or clashing badly, Adsense riddles the page, and there are so many advertisements that the person begins to wonder what kind of business you run.

An ugly one, that’s for sure.

Visual appeal has a huge impact on how potential clients may perceive you. Your site puts your best foot forward, and if it’s a cheap and ugly one, that’s your best foot. You’re giving people a silent message that you’re a mess, unprofessional and are going to perform work up to the standards of what you show off – and your standards are obviously not very high.

That’s not what your potential client wants. CLICK! He’s gone – and you just lost a job.

Don’t lose jobs. Learn how to make more money doing what you love (even while working less) and put your best foot forward to land those gigs. Check out The Unlimited Freelancer today.

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Your Usual Quality of Work and What to Do About It

March 12, 2009 by James Chartrand  
Filed under Other Good Stuff

8 Comments

Have you ever had a day like this? Your client says, “This isn’t your usual quality of work,” and you get a bad feeling in your stomach.

Maybe you know he’s right. You know it wasn’t your best. You delivered anyways – because it was the best you could do for the moment. Quality has been dropping off because you don’t like the job, or you’re tired and overworked, or your heart’s just not in the gig anymore.

What do you do?

Or, maybe it was your usual quality of work, and you feel hot indignation. Does the client not see how well you wrote? Is he blind? Why, he wouldn’t know quality if it reared up and bit him with fangs!

What do you do?

In both cases, the answer is the same. Here’s what to do:

First, apologize. It doesn’t matter who is right – the client isn’t happy, and you need to convey that you heard his complaint. That doesn’t mean you have to tell him he’s right (because he could very well be wrong), but you need to show that you understand his disappointed and dissatisfaction.

Second, find a solution.

You’re going to have to offer to redo the work and do a better job, even if you did a pretty good one the first time around. It’s crucial to your reputation and it shows you care about your client. (Yes, even when you don’t care). Getting indignant or defensive doesn’t help anyone, and it doesn’t make you a better professional.

If you can’t redo the work because you’re just not up to it, you need to find someone who can. Fixing problems isn’t the client’s work – it’s yours. Ask someone to edit and polish what you’ve written. Hire another writer to start over from scratch. Do what it takes to replace the work more up to standards.

When it’s all said and done, you have a choice to make. You may decide to take a break for a little while. Maybe you’ve been struggling and need time to rest so that you can get back on track. Maybe you didn’t like the work or the customer anymore.

In either case, part ways politely. Announce that you’ll be taking a break (don’t mention whether it’s permanent or not). Tell the client that you’re sorry for having to leave at this time. (In truth, you are sorry. You don’t have to say what you’re sorry about.) Offer a brief explanation if you’d like, but keep it short and simple. Dramatic justifications are for divas, not writers.

Then offer a referral to another writer. You may be taking a break, but that doesn’t mean someone else wouldn’t like the work or wouldn’t get along better with the client.

Also, a referral gives the client an option so that he’s not left high and dry, which means he’ll think better of you. You don’t want a bad reputation of being the writer who ditches customers.

Your turn: Have you ever had a client tell you that your work quality had dropped? What was causing the problem? What did you do about it, and did it work out in the end?

Find out how to maintain top quality and make more money while working less with The Unlimited Freelancer. It’ll teach you the tricks you need to know to really break the limits of your freelance career.

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