Have you considered offering test projects to your potential freelance clients? Trial projects are an extremely valuable tool for helping you determine when clients may not be the right fit for you, and when they are the right fit will set you up to get the contract because the client will already trust your work.
Today I will share five reasons that a test project is a win-win for you and the client. I will give you tips on how to present the project to your potential client, how to determine if the client may not be a good fit, and how to communicate with the client when the test project is complete.
Here are some things we covered in this episode:
- Why test projects are so valuable for freelancers
- How a test project can result into a yes when a client is on the fence
- Tips for a creating test project for your potential client
- Why test projects can help you stand out against other freelancers
- How the opportunity allows you to weed out clients that aren’t the right fit for you
- Why the trial project lowers the risk for taking on projects that you cannot deliver on
- The test project allows you to see the entire project end to end
- The value of seeing what it looks like working with the client before the contract begins
- Communication becomes easy after the test project is delivered
- How to set yourself up for a huge win with potential clients
- How to use feedback to use for social proof
- Why you should use the feedback for marketing and where to use it
- Ideas to put your client’s fears at ease
- Laura’s quote of the week: “I hope you’ll consider using test projects as part of your strategy to onboard new clients and turn those smaller projects into ongoing work when they’re done properly. It is a beautiful thing to see how easy it is to sell this client into the next package up because they already love working with you. They have already had a positive experience. And probably you even exceeded their expectations if you did it well.”
- Laura’s Takeaway: ”So the fourth reason I love trial projects is when you do them, right, it makes a conversation about working together again, very easy, especially if you are going to pitch them to bring you on retainer, you just blew them out of the water with the quality of your work. Ideally, you did an amazing job you were easy to work with and you delivered everything on time. When you can give that good client experience. You should never underestimate the power that that has. They are already imagining what it is like to work with you in a bigger way. Simply being easy to work with and professional goes a lot farther than you think it does. And when you have them in that position of going, Wow, that was easy. Wow. I didn’t have many edit requests. Wow, I really enjoyed working with this person. They turned in things on time. They were so professional to work with. They asked great questions on our kickoff call. It is so much easier for them to just say hey, I’ve got more work for you. How do I give it to you? How do I get that process started?”
After listening to this episode, share your action steps and take-aways with our group:
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Laura Briggs is empowering the freelance generation. Through her public speaking, coaching, and writing, she helps freelancers build the business of their dreams without sacrificing all their time, family, or sanity. Laura burned out as an inner-city middle school teacher before becoming an accidental freelancer with a Google search for “how to become a freelance writer.” Since then, she’s become a contributor to Entrepreneur, Business Insider, and Writer’s Weekly. She worked for more than 300 clients around the world including Microsoft, Truecar, and the Mobile Marketing Association. She’s delivered two TEDx talks on the power of the freelance economy for enabling freedom and flexibility and how it’s being used to address the technical skills gap in the U.S. Laura is the host of the Advanced Freelancing podcast, a sought-after public speaker on the gig and digital freelance economy, and a freelance coach focused on aspiring six-figure freelancers. Laura’s books, courses, and coaching have reached over 10,000 people.
As a military spouse, Laura is passionate about serving her community and founded Operation Freelance, a nonprofit organization that teaches veterans and military spouses how to become freelancers and start their own business.https://oembed.libsyn.com/embed?item_id=19656152