Sales Conversion Strategies to Fill Your Sales Funnel
All of a sudden, I’m getting a flood of requests for my writing services.
There have been “feast or famine” conditions like this before, but this recent tsunami is simply unprecedented.
Where New Clients Have Found Me
I received one over-the-transom request at my website. I also look for work via two freelance portals (Thumbtack and Upwork). I win one in about twenty of those because I don’t offer bargain basement rates: I expect to be paid handsomely for the measurable value I deliver to clients.
Here’s What I’ve Done Differently Recently
Instead of bypassing projects I’m interested in because their estimated budgets are low, I now send a cover letter explaining the value of good copy and content plus several attachments:
- a document that proves standard prices for professional evergreen copy and content
- a 6-page document with scores of testimonials from former and present clients
- an article I wrote that explains what evergreen copy and content is
- an article I wrote explaining that good writers don’t take your money, they make you money
- a document with links to online copy and content I’ve written, edited or enhanced
- a document with links to online articles that have been written by or about me
My cover letter for the projects with anemic budgets is slightly different than my standard one. Here’s the start of it:
Hello!
I would love to help you with your project, but your stated budget is inadequate for evergreen copy (content) that will be carefully crafted to bring in bucket loads of money in perpetuity for as long as you use it.
If there is wiggle room in your budget for a true professional with my writing chops to tackle your projects for you, please send me the parameters and the source materials or talking points for this first/pilot project so I can get back to you with a reliable Fixed Price quote to tackle it for you. (I need to factor review time of source materials into a reliable Fixed Price quote.) Thanks so much!
I can usually write upward of 500 well-crafted words per hour after I’ve reviewed and digested the source materials. Please review the attached “2018 Writing and Editing Rates” to verify for yourself what a boon this is to my clients, since most professional copywriters charge one to three dollars per word and UP for evergreen copy and content.
Please read the attached “Copywriters Don’t Take Your Money” to understand the value of professional writers and the evergreen copy and content they write for you.
My “Good Copywriters Don’t Take Your Money” article includes this helpful insight:
A copywriter’s job is to make our clients money.
Unlike a content or features writer, whose goals are to inform and/or entertain, a copywriter’s job is to make sure that the words we write get the result our clients want—which is more money in their pockets by way of what we wrote for them—whether it’s an ad, a landing page, a commercial, a video script, a brochure, a letter, or something else.
So, when hiring a copywriter, instead of thinking about the price of their services, think in terms of the number of conversions it will take to cover the cost of enlisting one, and then think of the additional years of conversions you’ll receive after that point.
By the time they’ve gone through this material, they’re on board.
I won a $1200 project recently because I sold the value of what I bring to the table using the above strategy.
The other candidate–and my only competition for the project after the client had rifled through a slew of sub-standard cover letters–quoted $325 for the same project, which was simply insane!
The client and his partner realized this, too, after comparing her writing chops to mine and realizing that I had fully demonstrated my value in the way I presented myself using documentation that proved I know what I’m doing and that I feel confident I can deliver a positive, enormously-valuable outcome for them.
(Note: A single conversion in their case will cover the total cost of hiring me for the project. Yeah, I’m nuts for writing it for that. BUT they’ll be writing a testimonial that will help attract more clients! AND they plan to hire me for additional work if they’re delighted with what I deliver to them this time out…so their Customer Lifetime Value is potentially enormous!)
I look forward to working with this client and his partner because they have adopted a fiduciary mindset when it comes to serving their customers. They’re committed to making sure that whatever they do will be a 100% win-win situation, as opposed to being a predatory pursuit where what they get out of transactions is what matters most to them.
I LOVE serving clients who actually help people without gouging them! (Considerate, empathetic hearts think alike!). To me, value includes embracing a fiduciary mindset with clients and customers. (Yeah, I know. What a concept! Doing the right thing for people. Right?)
The client who came to me via my website needs to have her articles ghostwritten to make them easier to understand until she learns how to write them herself without coming across as a multi-syllabic, long-winded academic.
I’m totally on board with her because she offers crucial mental health insights to schools and the students they serve. If you can remember yourself as a teenager, you know how valuable having a professional to help you navigate those turbulent years can be.
She has an amazing grasp of the subject and she’s passionate about helping, so I’m very glad to be teaming with her to help her share what she knows. (Thankfully, I have a prodigious vocabulary, too, and am well-read on the topic, so I can understand what she writes well enough to be able to clarify it for her readers.)
Sassy and Sentimental Slogans
Another client has committed to paying me $100 for every sentimental or sassy slogan I come up with (that he accepts) to put on his products (wallets, phone cases, t-shirts, mugs, etc.). What a FUN project!
I’ve already come up with about fifty ideas but I haven’t presented them yet. I’m sitting on them all weekend to see if I can come up with more or if I can finesse some of the ones I’ve already written for him.
In addition to the above three confirmed clients, I have other prospects in a holding pattern, waiting for my availability or for my commitment to serve them. (I need more information from them to decide in the second instance.)
I’ve declined a few other invitations either because I’m not interested in the topic or because my intuition suggests that the project or association isn’t a good fit.
I’m a bit of a gatekeeper as a copy/content/features writer. I, too, have embraced my fiduciary responsibility when it comes to who I’ll serve. If their product, service or cause isn’t up to snuff, or if they aren’t fiduciary-minded themselves, I decline the opportunity. I want to hire myself out to people who are doing what they’re doing for all the right reasons. (Sadly, not everyone is!)
If sales conversion strategies are among your challenges, I hope what I’ve shared above will help you tweak whatever you’re doing to ensure greater success because feast or famine is no fun! I’ve been there and done that, and what I’m experiencing now is a far cry from that!