Drumming up Business -

Sales Tactics for Freelancers

Darren Fell, founder Pure360.com, Freelanceadvisor.co.uk & MD of

crunch.co.uk

Setup Pure in 2001, by 2008 had over 45 employees and 850+ customers, inc FT, EMAP etc (>3000 users)

No money, so forced to sell product fast and brought on 160 accounts in 9 months (on my own) !

Darren Fell – the story

Next, commission scheme designed and targets created to bring 5 sales people on in 5 months

Sales team recruited and trained whilst managing 160+ accounts and still bringing in monthly target

Not a recommended path as highly stressful but ‘All Out’ method certainly produced results!

Pure went on to sell for $7.8m to a NASD US firm in April 2008

Darren Fell – the Pure story

Approached by 2 friends in Aug 2007 with idea for amazing Accounting service for freelancers

Whilst doing due diligence for Pure’s sale I worked started to build the then Accounts4you into Crunch!

Launched freelanceadvisor.co.uk Feb 2008 to help freelancers and contractors

FreelanceAdvisor now has 1,000’s pages of advice and 12,000+visitors & Crunch 200+ customers

Darren Fell – Crunch & freelanceadvisor.co.uk

Sales is the ‘crux’ of your business! Without it your business will wither and die!

Can you sell? Firstly set a mission statement:

E.g. Overarching Crunch Mission: ‘To be the no1 accounting service in the freelancer, contractor & independent consultant marketplace, offering the best service offering, the best support and at the most competitive price.’

The Sales Steps…

Does the business have a clear goal? E.g. UX Designer;‘To produce outstanding user experiences for my clients, generate an amazing set of word-of-mouth referrals and start generating £80k within 18 months’

Remember the key rule: ‘Always be closing!’

Anyone can learn to sell! Read a ‘basics’ book:‘Selling to Win’ – Richard Denny

The Sales Steps…

How good is your website? Does it rank highly on SEO? Does it have a ‘call me / quote me’ button on homepage?

Can potential customers always reach you? Try a 24hr service like All Day PA (www.alldaypa.com)

Have you honed your elevator pitch? E.g

‘Crunch is an award winning online accountancy service for freelancers and contractors – backed up by real accountants for only £59 per month’

Getting ready to sell…

Tell everyone you know everything about what you offer

Doing an exceptional job will lead to creating an excellent ‘word of mouth’ referral for you

Sales professionalism; call back quickly, get quotes back fast: 1 day max & always do what you promise! Get on every key directory, particularly locally and get networking at all appropriate events

The Sales Steps – tuning up…

Cold calling is a necessity. All good sales people should at least spend 1-2 hours a day doing it (don’t leave message)

How do you sell? Could you do it remotely and save time and travel costs?

Everyone loves targets (Set achievable targets)

Build a pipeline of customers, spread across small, medium & large (FT Group took me 18 months!)

The Sales Steps – advice I

Map out pipeline using software – list out contacts, place in expected sales

Don’t fall into trap of a new large project and forget to keep topping up the pipeline!

Find excuse to have conversation every few weeks/month so they don’t forget you! Know your industry, product and latest news inside out!

The Sales Steps – other advice II

Go for it, and ALWAYS BE CLOSING !!!!

….And remember you will never fail if you never give up!

The Sales Steps – final advice

Interactive Session – your situations…

www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk - get ‘Go Freelance’ guide

‘Winning new business’ article: www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/managing-your-business/winning-new-business

Book: ‘Selling to Win’ – Richard Denny

Software to manage sales/pipeline: ACT (£180), Highrise ($24pm)

Reading Material & Software

Next Seminar – 24th March…