But basically, here's the trick to close more deals and make more money: Become an investment, not an expense.
Spending money on technology (Rails, Wordpress) is an expense that implicitly doesn't correlate with any business "win". For most businesses, that win is making more money. However, when you get past the reason someone approaches you ("I need a website") to the core pain they're experiencing ("I need more customers!!!"), you can tailor everything — your proposal, meetings, execution, handoff — toward that end.
Instead of, "I will build your restaurant a website in Wordpress" — which doesn't answer the questions, "Will I make more money than I'm spending on this guy if I do this?"
Try, "I will tailor your website to get you more walk-in customers.", which conveys that you're going to be focused on getting them more business.
I've talked about this in length in my books, but I've also covered this on my podcast, most notably with the recent episode (#8): http://brennandunn.com/category/podcast/
parent also has a reasonably-priced e-book that is fantastic, and dives much deeper into the concepts outlined by this blog post: http://doubleyourfreelancingrate.com/
(no relation, just a happy customer)
Comments
patio11 and I had a great conversation about this a few months back: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/10/10/kalzumeus-podcast-3-grow...
But basically, here's the trick to close more deals and make more money: Become an investment, not an expense.
Spending money on technology (Rails, Wordpress) is an expense that implicitly doesn't correlate with any business "win". For most businesses, that win is making more money. However, when you get past the reason someone approaches you ("I need a website") to the core pain they're experiencing ("I need more customers!!!"), you can tailor everything — your proposal, meetings, execution, handoff — toward that end.
Instead of, "I will build your restaurant a website in Wordpress" — which doesn't answer the questions, "Will I make more money than I'm spending on this guy if I do this?"
Try, "I will tailor your website to get you more walk-in customers.", which conveys that you're going to be focused on getting them more business.
I've talked about this in length in my books, but I've also covered this on my podcast, most notably with the recent episode (#8): http://brennandunn.com/category/podcast/
parent also has a reasonably-priced e-book that is fantastic, and dives much deeper into the concepts outlined by this blog post: http://doubleyourfreelancingrate.com/ (no relation, just a happy customer)
+1 for Brennan Dunn (he has a great blog for web design / creative firms)