Number twenty-nine: Do not call
Good day, I'm Troy Dean from Video User Manuals and Agency Mavericks. This is the 101 Ways to Elevate Yourself and Demand Higher Fees, a practical guide for WordPress consultants to start attracting better quality clients, work on better more interesting projects and get paid better fees. Now, let's go elevate.
Number 29. Do not call. This is one of my favorite things to talk about when it comes to web consulting. I see this happen all the time and I was guilty of it for years. You go and meet with a client, you take a brief, you go back to your office, you write a proposal, you pitch it over the fence, you crush your fingers and hope for the best.
A couple of days goes by. You don't hear anything. Maybe a week goes by. You're pretty keen to get the business, so what you do is you pick up the phone and you call them. You say something like, “Hey Shawn, just wondering if you got my proposal and just wondering if you had any questions or if you had any feedback.” In that moment, you lose so much power. You give the client all the power in the relationship and it's really bad positioning. Do not call your client and ask them for feedback on your proposal or to follow up.
There's two things I want to mention here. First of all, it's like dating. When you start dating someone, we all know that he or she who calls first after the date loses all their power. I'm sure that you have counseled your friends through this. Don't call, don't call just be cool. You know, just play it cool. It's not about playing hard to get, but it's about just playing it cool. If you're too eager, you might scare the other person off.
The second reason that you shouldn't call is you're a WordPress consultant and I don't know if you know, but WordPress powers are almost one-sixth of the internet. That's right. Almost one in every six websites on the internet is powered by WordPress. So, you should be in demand and if you're not in demand because you're starting out and you're still building your client base that's okay, but you at least need to give the perception that you are in demand. So, really you shouldn't have time to call and follow up on a proposal. You should be busy working on projects and writing new proposals. So, don't call.
In the next video, I'm going to start to explain what you should do instead. Until then, go elevate. Make sure you subscribe to the 101 Ways Podcast in the iTunes store. Just search for 101 Ways to Elevate or visit us at wp101ways.com and download the free 101 Ways ebook.
