Prior to my family emergency, I promised you the results of my recent new client pitch — the culmination of several posts about picking and pitching the clients you want to work for (instead of letting clients pick you).
We started back here — the post where I suggested getting your foot in the door of high-value clients via a lumpy mailer.
Lumpy mailers have gotten a bad rap; some feel they’re misleading (a sheet of bubble wrap in credit card mailers is generating bad press), but in this case, we’re delivering something of value (even if it’s just fun), and I’ve never once heard a complaint.
In the age of badly written email and hair-trigger attention spans, a lumpy mailer is pure power.
This time I sent two high-value prospects a pair of chattering teeth (yes, it’s a communications theme, and yes — I have a box of the things sitting on a shelf).
Attached to the teeth was a card laying out the benefits of my proposed program.
One prospect immediately called for a meeting, and last Friday, we met.
I pitched an engagement/membership program, and at first, the client was skeptical. Then she grew very interested.
Frankly, you have to be prepared for this; unlike the clients who seek you out — presumably after identifying a need for your services — prospecting on your own means pitching people who don’t necessarily think they need your help.
In short, the prospect requires a little education, and you don’t have much time to do the educating.
In this case, the client liked what she heard. At the risk of bragging, I wasn’t that surprised.
Copywriters often fear they have little to offer (it’s the most common fear among newer copywriters).
They’re typically wrong about that, but in my case, I’m very comfortable pitching engagement marketing to marketing professionals. This client responded to that pitch.
How do I know?
For starters, our one-hour meeting ran 2.5 hours, and the walk back to the office (from the cafe) was repeatedly interrupted by stops (she wanted to go over more possibilities).
I didn’t walk away with a signed work order, but I’m now the proud owner of a prospect deeply interested in the kind of project I want to write — one who asked me for a detailed proposal.
How about you; have you picked a small handful of clients you want to work for and then pitched them?
If not, why not?
Let me help; take 60 seconds to sit down and hand-write a list of the four companies/organizations/causes you’d kill to work for.
There. You just started the process. I already laid out the next few steps. So what are you waiting for?
Keep writing, Tom Chandler.
Comments 5
My company name is Keylocke so I have a successful little promo where I send a skeleton key with a letter about how the solution is always hidden within the problem. The key offers to help them “unlock new solutions to_______.”
It has worked rather well and I have a drawer full of inexpensive but suitably lumpy keys.
Nicole: Sounds great, and I’m glad to hear you’ve developed something that works.
Your idea is sound, and the ability to quickly get something in the mail – containing a custom message designed to fit the situation — is helpful.
My personality suggests I add a smile to the equation, which is why I usually prefer a toy or other “fun” goodie.
My experience has been completely different. When a client wants to spend an hour or so “just talking,” they tend to be a high maintenance client…if they become a client at all! Usually they take my ideas, shrug and say, “Well, I’ll think about it…”
So I prefer to offer instead a no-pitch, no-sales copy diagnostic/jumpstart. If clients hire me afterward, they can deduct the fee. If they prefer to do-it-themselves or hire another writer, no problem.
I also sell my own products and am working on some classes and group products. So when times are slow, I become my own best client!
Cathy: Good points. You don’t want to give away the store, and heaping your good ideas on the conference table and walking out is a bad idea.
In this case, I wasn’t pitching copywriting. I was selling the benefits of a long-term engagement marketing program, an act which requires some education.
I like the diagnostic idea, but if I’d simply laid such an offer on the table (and they weren’t looking for copywriter to begin with), I’d have wasted their time and mine.
I approach this kind of pitch the same way a salesperson might view selling enterprise-level software to a company. It’s not something that happens overnight.
At one point, the client asked me to attend a conference call with her consultants, and I cordially backed away, suggesting I’d be happy to educate everyone involved once I was being paid to do so.
Selling to bigger businesses often demands you tell half the story. The last thing you want — as you pointed out — is for all your ideas to be handed over for free, so a client can start shopping for the best deal.
Sell the benefits, but keep the details and technology largely to yourself.
Thanks for the thought-provoking comment. There are so many levels to this stuff, and I think it’s helpful for folks to see differing viewpoints.
You’re right – Glyphius is a great option for fine-tuning all of your copy. I used to run with what just felt good and sometimes your gut just ain’t right. Glyphius (www.glyphius.com) has helped guide me to know what is really effetive online
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