Managing your clients’ expectations
Lesson 13 from: Sales Mastery Bootcamp for Freelancers: Sell More ServicesScott Lancaster
Managing your clients’ expectations
Lesson 13 from: Sales Mastery Bootcamp for Freelancers: Sell More ServicesScott Lancaster
Lesson Info
13. Managing your clients’ expectations
Lessons
Getting over the fear of rejection
04:23 2Why you should leave a Zoom call after 3 minutes
04:24 3How to never chase clients ever again
04:13 4How not to feel nervous on sales calls
05:23 5How to not take it personal
05:46 6Slow & Steady vs Fast & Many
06:11 7The importance of being accountable
04:12 8The importance of being invested and excited
04:56Understanding the difference between features VS benefits
04:48 10Assignment - Mindset & Motivation segment
02:39 11Helpful Doctor Approach
03:58 12Breathing method for better sales calls
02:40 13Managing your clients’ expectations
07:41 14How to smartly discover your clients’ budget
05:29 15How to come across as more confident
09:18 16How to improve your pacing
04:19 17How to structure a sales call
09:28 18Ghost Opening Method
04:18 19High converting sales funnel
09:17 20Shock Method
04:41 21The Halo Effect
03:04 22Organizing portfolio to win more clients
03:23 23Build trust using science
02:42 24Showing calendar during call
03:57 25Building unbreakable rapport
04:33 26Sharing relevant stories
02:44 27Using numbers to make prices make sense
03:21 28Using urgency and scarcity
04:38 29The parrot and captain technique
03:31 30Using FOMO
02:51 31The power of mirroring
04:38 32Always put your clients’ needs first
03:34 33Assignment for sales techniques
01:53 34The one who cares least wins
03:27 35How to price your services
06:38 36Handling clients who are bullying you
04:11 37Connecting with clients’ dreams
04:07 38How to use trial closes and assumptive selling
03:17 39How to overcome challenging objections
08:20 40When to mention pricing
03:59 41Assignment for negotiation techniques
01:22 42How to get video testimonials for your website
03:53 43Setting up automated Calendly meetings
02:35 44How to strategically improve your website using Hotjar
02:23 45How to get more clients
05:02 46How to get clients to pay more
04:34 47Do you need to be liked as a salesperson?
02:56 483 reasons why freelancers lose sales
05:27 49What makes a good vs bad salesperson
02:44 50How many options should you give clients?
01:32 51How to know when a client just wants a discount
02:40 52How to know when a client is interested in your service
02:00 53When a client doesn't reply
03:28 54How to practice your sales techniques
03:04 55How to ask high-quality questions
02:48 56Which social media platform is best for getting clients
03:54 57Which social proof is best for winning new clients
03:27 58How I sold a 10k website with one single email
02:58 59How to manage prospects and follow-ups
04:14 60What to do when you screw up on a project
02:38 61How to handle a client who wants a refund
04:10 62When a client wants lots of revisions
03:32 63How to spot a nightmare client
02:17 64How long should you small talk?
01:07 65Should you spend time creating proposals?
01:35 66How to get a sale without being too pushy
01:22 67What to do when a client says you are too expensive
03:46 68Assignment - common questions
01:32 69Realizing who your most valuable customer is
03:32 70How to use discounts to charge more
01:53 71Price anchoring technique
02:43 72Creating product flow and product expansion
02:34 73How to win client loyalty for the long term
01:09 74Last assignment project
04:14Lesson Info
Managing your clients’ expectations
Now, within every single sales process since the beginning of time, expectations have been set and not only have they been set but they have also been managed. So how can you manage and set the expectations of your clients better? Well, it all starts with setting the expectations in the right way, strategically in the first place and this can be done correctly by setting the expectations for your clients correct level where there's still room to exceed those expectations. Now let me give you a couple of examples as to how this can be done. So within my brand and agency, I do brand naming and within the brand naming process, I have three different packages. The most common package that most clients go for is the seven name package. So that means I'm going to give you seven brand names that you can trademark and use for your business for your particular circumstances. Now, within that presentation, there are seven brand names as promised. But then for each of those brand names, we also g...
ive three additional names that are focused around the same approach and the same idea as the original name. So basically the clients receive the presentation and they don't just get the seven names that they already secured, but they also get three additional names for each of those names. So basically, overall, they end up with 28 names altogether, which they can choose for, for their brand. Now, those additional names are over and beyond what the client expected. And there are tons of different ways that you personally can do this for your services exceed the client's expectations and win their long term loyalty. For example, if you're a website designer, and you've just built a website for a client, you could potentially add some blog posts to the website before you actually present it to the client. This is going to show the client that not only do you really care about the project, but you went above and beyond to make their life easier and already add blog posts so that when they make their website live, the blog posts are there and the website looks and feels more credible. Let's look at another example for logo design. So a client could buy a logo package includes two logo ideas. Now a way to exceed expectation which I'm sure you've already probably guessed already is to present the two ideas and then maybe present two more variations of those I ideas to choose from which a little bit more minimal or simplistic or abstract. Now, there are tons of different ways to exceed a client's expectations, but it all starts with setting that initial expectation. First and foremost, you see when a client expects a certain promise or thing and then you exceed that promise and you over deliver, this is an extremely positive experience for the client. However, if a client was about to secure the seven package with me and then I actually tell them, listen, within the seven name package, I'm also going to present to you three additional names on top of that for each of the ideas that we have, then the surprise isn't going to be as effective. They're going to know what's coming. And this is one of the things you should keep up your sleeve when it comes to exceeding client expectation, always over deliver in some way, shape or form. It doesn't have to take you a ton of time, but just going that extra mile and just adding extra value to the client experience is super, super beneficial for both you and the client because the client gets a really happy experience and you get a loyal client that's going to stick with you for the long term. Now, in regard to managing expectations, this is a little bit different. So for this example, let's look at deadlines, ok? So when I am setting deadlines for a client, I always give myself an extra two or three days minimum. And this is because I do work in a creative industry. So I need that time just to kind of let ideas settle. So I can pick the best ones and then develop it a little bit further. On the other hand, things can go wrong. And I want to make sure that I have enough of a window to not only manage life if something comes up and I need to either go to hospital or take care of family or do something that is more important than work, ultimately. But another thing that having that window of time allows me to do is to basically make sure I can always deliver the end result to an extremely high standard within the time frame that is expected. And even before, so I can present and deliver on what was promised a day or two before it was actually expected. And this just shows the client that I'm sharp. I'm always on time and I'm prioritizing their project. That is one of the most important things that a client wants from a service provider who is going to help them to solve a problem. I am going to be on time. I'm never going to let you down and I'm going to make sure that whenever I can, I go above and beyond to serve you, basically, when you're managing expectations, make sure that you're extremely clear in communicating what is expected and what you're going to be doing, make sure you give t enough buffer room to exceed your client's expectations and also deliver the project earlier. But Now, how do you manage expectations when something comes up and you cannot meet the deadline or provide the service that you promised? This may seem like super basic advice. You need to make sure that you start to get used to being super honest and direct with your clients. Let me give you an example before I actually share the method with you. Imagine you're waiting for a train and you have no idea when the train is going to arrive, there's no sign boards. You have no idea if it's going to be 10 minutes, one hour, five hours, you're just waiting for the train to arrive and you have absolutely no idea how long it's going to be. Now, that experience is going to feel a lot longer. There was a board on the train station which was counting down the minutes to when the train was going to arrive. Now was actually a famous study that was done by a UK marketing agency, Ogilvie. They basically helped the UK train system to basically not make the trains faster, but essentially manage the expectations of the people who were looking to ride the trains. So instead of making the trains faster and having to re engineer the entire train line, they simply managed the expectations of the passengers so that they were more patient waiting for the trains. And you can do the exact same thing with your clients and the way you can do that is by simply keeping them up to date as frequently as possible. In fact, as I'm recording this course, I literally have a client who's waiting to get a navigation bar fixed on their website. Now, it's taken me a little bit of time to hire the right person and find the correct expert to fix the navigational issue. But I've been keeping the client up to date every single day with what's happening. So he knows exactly where we are and he knows exactly when the solution will be in place. And by doing something simply like just keeping your clients up to date and making sure that they are constantly in the know about what's happening with their project. This is going to be a game changer for you. If you're not doing it already, the worst thing in the world for a client to do is to have to ask you for a update. So always make sure that you set extremely clear deadlines for the project. And then also throughout the project, make sure you keep your client up to date with what's happening. These updates should become a little bit more frequent. The closer you get to the deadline, I remember you should be delivering before the deadline anyway, because you should have enough buffer room to do that. But anyway, I hope this lesson was valuable and I'm really looking forward to seeing you in the next one. So I'll see you soon.