About a year ago a young girl came to my door selling fruit. The girl, who couldn’t have been older than a grade schooler, explained it was part of a fundraiser to help support her school. She had a brochure with pictures of various fruit baskets and her mother trailed behind in a car as her daughter went door-to-door.
I had an extra 20 dollars in my pocket, and having been in her position myself as a kid, I wanted to help out. The girl explained that she didn’t have the fruit with her, I’d have to sign an order form and she’d deliver my basket within a few weeks. I picked out a moderately priced basket, signed my name and address on the order form and handed her the twenty.
Needless to say I never got my fruit. In fact, I had completely forgotten about it until just the other day when I spotted another young girl canvasing my neighborhood, no doubt trying to sell something else.
Looking back I realize I was scammed. I’m sure the little girl’s mother put her up to it. (I’m more cynical than most, but even I don’t think an eight year-old would go
door-to-door scamming people on her own.) I’m also sure if I would have offered to pay by check I would have been told it was cash only. That red flag never popped up because I never asked.
No way I'm buying your pumpkin. I'll bet it's full of bees.
I’ve been thinking about this incident a lot over the past few weeks. There’s a lesson here that both buyers and sellers can learn from.
As a freelancer I’m always trying to sell my services, but how do I assure my clients up front that they’re getting what they pay for? Since I don’t sell inventory, my clients don’t walk away with a finished product after they cut a check for the down payment. They simply pay me to get started and I bill them for the rest after the job is finished.
There’s a lot of trust involved in a relationship like that. My clients trust me to understand their business, their customers and to provide professional copywriting that meets their needs. I trust them to pay me the remaining balance after I’ve completed the work.
Some of my clients have been burned by other writers in the past. They call me to help clean up someone else’s mess and they’re wary of paying for mediocre work a second or even third time.
That’s why I do try to offer something up front… expertise. I use this blog for example, as a way to prove that I know what the heck I’m talking about. I use the initial consultation with a prospect to listen to their concerns and offer some insight into how I would help. I always offer some level of advice, even if they haven’t hired me yet. That helps establish trust right away because the prospect knows my main goal isn’t just to convince them to hand over their hard earned cash.
It’s good advice for any small business owner, especially those who provide a service rather than a product. It’s important to offer something of value up front, something tangible. Take the time to listen to your prospects so they know you’re honest, professional and deliberate.
But it’s a two way street. It’s also important that I ask potential clients the right questions. When I first started out as a freelancer I met with several prospects who tried to hide important details from me until after I had started the project. Many of these folks were looking for something free. They left out specifics, and tried to change the terms or scope of the work after we had already agreed on a price. Clients like this are bad news, but it’s up to me to sniff them out. Clients that try this consistently are more trouble then they’re worth in my opinion.
The bottom line is this: Customers are often cautious because they may have been burned before. When you’re selling yourself or a service it’s up to you to help make them feel comfortable. That means building solid relationships. Both buyer and seller have to be on the same page and feel like they’re getting a fair deal. Otherwise it will be a contentious relationship from day one.
Chris Vanasdalan is a writer-for-hire with nearly 15 years of professional writing under his belt. He now only buys fruit after seeing it first. If you’d like more of this hard-earned folksy wisdom, subscribe to this blog. If you need honest advice or help with your next writing project you can contact him here.
