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FREE ARTICLES
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article in your creative association newsletter, magazine, or
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www.MyCreativeBiz.com website link.
Increase Your Income and
Eliminate Wasted Consultations
Creative professionals often meet with clients
for "free consultations" with the hopes of
turning that consult into a paying client.
Though this thought process is common and may
make sense on the surface, it's actually
contradictory to the behavior of great paying
clients.
By giving away the initial
consultation for free, you are diminishing the
value of your talents and your services, and in
turn hurting your chances of closing a great
deal. Potential customers who get the
initial consultation for free are less likely to
value what you do and will more likely balk at
your fees.
You should absolutely charge a
healthy amount for your initial consultation.
This approach will help eliminate "bad clients"
or clients who are just price shopping or
looking for free advise. It will also
increase the value of your creative services in
the mind of the prospect. Any potential
client who is "offended" by paying for the
consultation was most likely never really a
potential client in the first place.
Turning away these types of people will help
reduce the number of wasted consultations you
present.
If you are already charging for
your consultation, you should re-examine the
amount you charge. If you are not charging
at least $100 for the consultation, you are
probably going out on far more wasted meetings
than you should. Increase your
consultation fee and tell the prospective buyer
that you will put the consultation fee towards
their project should they choose to hire you.
This approach reduces resistance to the higher
amount. It also increases the quality of
your potential client and your chances of
closing the sale.
Try this approach out on the
next person who calls to set up a consultation
and keep in mind that a major part of effective
marketing and sales is weeding out bad clients
and wasted initial consultations. Stop
giving away your consulting and you will change
the value of your services in your mind and in
the mind of your clients, which will help you
increase your income, decrease your wasted time,
and get better clients.
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