With economic conditions rather on the grim side, it makes sense to look for ways to distinguish yourself from the competition, to strengthen your appeal to existing and potential clients. This goes beyond just a general increase in marketing activity. It is a matter of enhancing your value to your customers, of showing them how doing business with you can stretch their tight budgets a little farther.
Most freelancers can add value to the services they offer by tapping an area of expertise they may not realize they have. The fact is that as you work with clients and complete projects, you become more and more knowledgeable about the world your client contacts live in: their constraints, their needs, their preferences, their goals, their habits, their procedures, their biases and assumptions about working with people just like you.
That knowledge can give you an edge if you apply it to make their lives easier.
Get an Edge . . .
How do you leverage your knowledge of both sides of the client relationship?
- As you apply your own expertise to serve the client’s needs, you also accumulate . . .
- A lot of knowledge about how the client operates, particularly in regard to managing projects like yours.
- Turn knowledge into an additional service to offer your clients, and you will find that . . .
- Clients prefer to work with contractors whom they actually see working to save them time and money.
Your relationships with your clients, especially the ones you work with again and again, give you a two-edged sword of knowledge — knowledge about your own work, and knowledge about how your clients do work and should work to achieve the best results. Formalize what you have learned in tools your prospects and clients can use to be more cost-effective in their use of freelancers in your field . . . including you!
Past projects have probably taught you a few tips for clients about how to control costs, including the costs of doing business with you; how to get the most out of everything they spend on your services; how they can work with you so it takes less of their time to manage the process; what they can do to get a higher return from the same investment in you. When you share those ideas with your clients and prospects more visibly, more explicitly, you significantly enhance your perceived value.
For example, you might offer:
- A free consultation at the end of a project you are just finishing to suggest ways they could have been more efficient in working with you, saving them money.
- A short document describing the most common mistakes companies make in hiring, and working with, freelancers in your field, something they can use to avoid those mistakes before they start their next project.
- Templates, planning and tracking forms, and similar tools to help them manage their project with you more effectively, saving them time and money.
- Opportunities for savings, usually by bundling: if they are looking at doing two closely related projects, show them how they could spend less by doing them together, rather than one after the other.
The Competitive Edge
You are in a position to see opportunities for efficiency and savings that they might not be aware of. When you offer to share those insights for free, that builds trust and helps your clients see why investing their budget in your services is more likely to pay off, to produce a return, than investing in someone else’s services.
Of course, all the freelancers pitching to your clients promise to save them time and money. In most cases, that amounts to no more than assurances, good intentions, promises to try hard.
Deliver on those promises in advance to really impress your prospects and clients. Point them to savings before they sign on the dotted line.
When you give your clients clearly defined steps they can use to improve cost-effectiveness, and back them with convenient tools (documents, forms, web pages, software) to support them, that separates you from the crowd. Indeed, a good guide to working with freelancers in your field provides a lasting benefit to your client.
That’s return on investment. That’s competitive advantage.
译文:
努力在经济寒冬中保有一席之地
随着经济状况越发的严峻，于是想法设法使得自己在竞争中脱颖而出、或者加强在现有客户或潜在客户群中的号召力就显得尤为重要。这不仅仅只是要普遍提升市场活跃度的问题，更加是要加强客户对你的评价和好感，换言之，就是要展示给客户看，与你合作，就可以在原先紧缩的预算基础上获得更大的利润。
通过提供一些专业领域的知识，大多数自由职业者都可以为其所提供的服务增值，但是很有可能他们自身都没有意识到已经具备了这些专业知识。事实上，在与客人洽谈并且随之完成方案的过程中，本身就在不断提升，变得越来越能贴合合同的主旨、同样，也越来越能满足客户的需要，并且通过接触和磨和，对于他们的限定、需要、参考、目标、习惯、过程、喜好以及预期设定方面都了若执掌。
如果能够把所掌握的这些信息运用到工作中去，让客户感到如鱼得水，那么，就能在如此的经济寒冬中也能保有一席之地！
保有一席之地！！！
如何运用自身所掌握的信息与客户关系之间达到有效平衡呢？
- 在运用自身专业知识满足客户需要的同时，也要消化客户的意见，使之成为自身信息的一部分。
- 客户的运营模式，尤其是在管理方案方面的经验，其实都蕴涵着大学问。
- 把知识和经验转换成一种额外的服务提供给客户，你会发现……
- 客户永远喜欢和那些他们亲身所见是为他们省时省钱的人合作。
与客户，尤其是那些再三合作的客户之间的关系，就赐予了你一把知识的双刃剑，不仅可以通过合作来积累自身的经验，更加是要运用这些经验来满足客户达到双赢。将自己的所知所感都运用到计划书中，客户就能感受到运用自由职业者，其中当然包括你，是多么的划算了。
过去的那些计划书可能早已教会你一些方法，包括如何控制成本，当然其中也涉及与你合作的成本；包括如何让客户得到你所提供服务上支出的最大化回报；包括让客户觉得与你合作是多么的省时又省力；还包括让他们明白同样的投资在你的身上会得到如何大的回报如此等等。把这些观点与客户交换，并且把计划书做的更加明确直观的过程中，就是赋予了过去的这些经验最大化的价值。
比如说，你可以这样做：
- 在计划书完成之余，可以提供一些免费咨询，这样就会让客户觉得与你合作是多么的有效又省钱。
- 准备一份小档案，把所有雇佣过、合作过的公司，或者是其他相同领域的自由职业者所合作过的公司普遍犯下的错误描述一下，并且在客户开始下份计划书之前把可以避免这些错误的方法也简要提点一下。
- 提供模板、计划、追踪方法以及其他类似的方法来帮助客户完成计划方案，同样会另他们感到你的工作效率颇高，并且合作省事又省钱。
- 多多提供一些节约方案，不过通常都是采用捆绑式的，也就是说，如果客户正在预备两份关系比较密切的计划书，那么就可以告诉他们，如果选择两份一起完成而不是一份一份的来做，就可以省下不少时间和金钱。
各行各业，都充满竞争
你，是要更多的预见和提供一些省时和省钱的选择，而这些正是他们所没有掌握的。所以，当你免费提供这些方案时，就会要在你与客户之间建立一种信任，并且也要让他们自己感知到在你身上而不是在别人身上的投资是多么的赢利和高回报。
当然，所有的自由职业者都会向客户保证与自己合作是多么的省时和省钱，但是在大多数情况下，往往允诺要更加努力的工作才是最最重要的。
所以请事先把这些承诺给客户，并且让他们对你的计划产生不可磨灭的影响，在他们最终同意与你合作之前就把所有的好处都展示给他们看。
提供给客户清晰的步骤，他们就可以以此来提高成本效率，另外，也可以提供给客户一些简单的工具（比如文档，窗体，网页和软件）帮助他们，也可以令你脱颖而出。事实上，一位好的向导，可以提供各种领域中与自由职业者的合作经验，这本身对客户而言就是一种最大的收益。
这是一种投资的回报，也是一种竞争的优势。