Love it or hate it, pitching is a normal part of winning business as a freelancer. It doesn’t matter if you do it by email, remotely over Skype, or with a bells and whistles presentation, it’s important you make the most of it.
These 5 mistakes could bore your audience and - even worse - cost you business. This is how to avoid them!
1. Under-researching your audience
If you want to give your target audience what they want, you need to know plenty about them.
Your pitch should be specific to the audience, consider their biggest problems and frustrations, what you can do to change them, and what that will do for their business. Potential clients want the relevant facts, and you need to know what’s relevant. The inevitable Q&A session will be much easier too!
2. Not selling your service strongly enough
The floor is yours and there’s a lot to say! Whether it’s a casual one-on-one in a coffee shop, or a big meeting with lots of stakeholders, you need to make sure they have the most compelling info and will take it with them.
Numbers and stats are great, because they illustrate your service well. Quotes from other clients are ideal too. As long as it’s concrete, factual, and not boring, they’ll be interested.
3. Lacking confidence
We’re not all natural public speakers, and even a face-to-face conversation can create some anxiety when there’s business to be won.
If you’re confident in your service and your pitch, your audience will see that. To minimise any added stress, make sure you’re prepared, a bit early, and have your laptop fully charged!
4. Your goals and projections are difficult to believe
If you’re a marketer, social media expert, or do something else that’s designed to get specific results, your pitch will include the very important ‘What I can do for you’ bit.
Businesses are used to seeing projections, and they generally know when they’re unrealistic. Your potential client will have trouble trusting you, and the numbers will cause problems later on when you’re trying to achieve the unachievable!
5. Going on a bit too long
It’s a myth that our attention span is just a few seconds, because we can all concentrate when we care about something enough. If you’ve got someone’s full attention - even for just 10-15 minutes - it’s really valuable.
By the time your audience gets fidgety and restless, they’ve probably already started thinking about their next appointment. Keep the conversation reciprocal and engaging, keep it concise, and try to leave them wanting a little bit more.
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in LND