Treasa Edmond: 0:00

Welcome back to the Boss Responses podcast. Today's episode is all about turning those one-off gigs into long-term client relationships. I know this is a big topic that I've been hearing more about lately. I hope our discussion today really helps you. If you're dealing with this issue as well, let's get into it. If you're a freelancer, business owner or anyone who deals with clients, you're in the right place. I'm your host, teresa Edmond. I've been dealing with clients and running my business for nearly two decades and in that time I've dealt with my share of doubt, imposter syndrome and not knowing what to say when a client asked a question I wasn't ready for. I created this podcast to empower you with the boss responses you need to grow your business. Each week, my guest co-host and I will bring you five episodes packed with practical insights. Monday through Thursday, we answer your questions, and Fridays, we dive deep to explore how our co-hosts embrace their role as the boss of their business. Welcome to Boss Responses. We are back for day two with Jamie. Jamie, what's the question for today?

Jamie Brindle: 1:15

All right, trace you ready for this one? Yep, this is coming from Jen in Denver, colorado. Jen says I've been freelancing for about three years and I do well with one-off projects, but I really want more long-term clients. I find that even when clients are happy with my work, they don't always come back. What's the best way to turn short-term gigs into ongoing work?

Treasa Edmond: 1:40

I love this question. You need to become a strategic partner with your clients, rather than a task completer. If you are just completing tasks, they will have you complete the task and then they move on with their lives. And we have to realize our clients are busy people In the corporate world. They're stuck in meetings for like seven of the eight hours a day. It's horrific for the poor in-house people and I'm sorry for them, but we don't have to do that.

Treasa Edmond: 2:10

We focus on one client at a time. To us it seems like we've done a really good job on this thing. We've put in a lot of time. We focused entirely on their project. To them it's like I gave them an assignment. They did it. Now I can move on to the next assignment and you might not be the right person for that. If you become a strategic partner and you make yourself valuable and you ask them the right questions that gets them asking questions in-house, which raises their stock in-house you're going to be the first person they think of every time they're going to say we have this new project. I'd really like to get Jen's insights on this before we formulate everything, or we'd really like to bring Jen in to help us develop the brief on this project so that we can make sure we're hitting it right. So you're providing a little bit more strategy work and in the process, you're getting paid more, and then you're also getting paid for the actual project that you're completing.

Treasa Edmond: 3:05

I think that's about the only way to do it. The other thing is to offer ongoing retainers, and I still do that by showing value. This is what my clients get when they work with me. As a retainer client, I become more familiar with your brand. I require less oversight. I turn in well-edited, ready-to-go turnkey content every single time.

Treasa Edmond: 3:28

So you need to talk about the problems you're solving for your clients and the value you're bringing, instead of just saying I write blog posts. So it's a messaging thing, it's a marketing thing and it's solving problems for your clients. If you want to go into the strategy work, then that's one way to do it. If you want to do deeper consulting work, that's definitely, I think, the strongest way to do it, but you can also do it by forming relationships with your clients, letting them know from the get go I work with all of my clients long term, because this is what you get in return with all of my clients long term because this is what you get in return. And then they go into it thinking, ok, I don't need to hire five writers, I only need two or three, because she's going to take on the work of the others and do it really well. And then gradually you become their go to person for the more important projects. But how do you approach this, jimmy?

Jamie Brindle: 4:24

for the more important projects. But how do you approach this, jimmy? Yeah, no, I think all of that is spot on. Here's the thing the lifetime value of a client, optimizing for repeat business this stuff is foundational to a successful freelance business. Yeah, so it is something that you need to figure out, because what a waste if you go to all the effort of acquiring a client, of doing the marketing, doing the advertising, doing the sales, earning the trust. You go to all that effort to just do one project with them. It's a waste of effort, if you ask me.

Treasa Edmond: 4:54

I think so too.

Jamie Brindle: 4:55

It's optimizing for. Okay, after that project. How do I because, as you mentioned, they're busy, they're not thinking about how do I keep Teresa employed? How do I keep bringing her more stuff? How do I keep bringing Jamie more stuff? It's incumbent on the freelancer to say okay, after that initial project. How do I take them by the hand and walk them to the next project? And then how do I take them by the hand again and walk them to the next thing? This stuff needs to hire me again, and they might. But it might be eight and a half months from now when they remember that they've got you in the pocket.

Jamie Brindle: 5:37

You need to continue holding onto that mantle of strategic partner and bring them new solutions to problems or say, hey, usually, as you're handing them the deliverable for the first project, say usually once somebody's done this or once somebody's got this in hand. These are the next four things that they're solving for, and that's what I've seen in my business. And what do you think about these four? Are you coming up against any of these? It's like oh well, that one, well, great, I'm going to pull this solution out of the folder. Then here you go and we're moving on to the next one.

Treasa Edmond: 6:10

Yeah.

Jamie Brindle: 6:11

So it is. It's really about designing the process of yes. I mean, it's important to know how to make someone turn someone from a stranger into a lead, into a client, and that's what a lot of the content on the internet is about and that's what a lot of freelancers are solving for. But there's this fourth step over here. That's, I would argue, the most important, which is how to take them from a client to a lifetime client. If you can optimize for that, if you can build your business on that concept, I think you're going to be in pretty good shape.

Treasa Edmond: 6:42

And that's one of the main premises. What's the right word there?

Jamie Brindle: 6:46

I think I was an English major and I should know the answer. But I'm going to go with premises.

Treasa Edmond: 6:51

That's one of the main premises. We're going to just stick with that. That's one of the main premises of this podcast is, well, it's two things that Jamie said. One you're not just doing gigs, you're a freelancer running a business. Even if you think you're not running a business, you are, and if you don't embrace that, then it's never going to work. It's just never going to work out the way you want it to. If it does, it's accidental and then it's not sustainable. So you really do need to run your business like a business, which means planning, having processes, all of that.

Treasa Edmond: 7:23

The other thing turning those clients into lifetime clients I call that client management and it's something that I'm pretty passionate about. When we and this is a mindset thing, it's also a wording thing. So Jamie used the word hiring and I said this on the podcast before. I never say my clients hire me because I'm not doing a job for them. When I'm talking to my clients, I use partnership language from the very first communication. That means if we choose to work on this project together, this is what will happen. So I talk partnership language across the way. I never say hiring, I never say job, there are just certain words I've mixed from my vocabulary when I'm dealing with clients.

Treasa Edmond: 8:05

And it makes a huge difference in how they perceive me and that and I take control of our working relationship not them, but of our working relationship from our very first communication.

Treasa Edmond: 8:22

So I ask those pre-qualifying questions. When they come on the discovery call because they've met the threshold for the pre-qualifying questions, I say thank you so much for coming on this call. I'm really excited to talk about your project today. This is what the call is going to look like. I'm going to ask you a series of questions so I can find out more about what you want to accomplish, who your audience is, whatever the questions will be, and then I say and then at the end I will take any questions you have and tell you a little bit about my process. Does that sound okay? So they let you ask the questions and then, by the time they get to where they can ask you questions, you have already asked insightful, strategic questions about their project and found out information they wouldn't have thought to include. So they see you as the expert. They're ready to follow your lead. That means you get to be the expert in the business relationship and they get the freedom to be the expert doing what they do.

Jamie Brindle: 9:14

Absolutely.

Treasa Edmond: 9:15

It just makes it a more fulfilling relationship across the board, full of mutual respect. That's how you turn them into a lifetime client. You lead them by the hand. You make it so, so easy to work with you not for you or you for them. You make it so much easier to work with you, to partner with you, and I think it's a very slight shift, but when you make that, it changes everything in how your clients treat you.

Jamie Brindle: 9:42

Absolutely. Yeah, it is. I think a lot of folks maybe because they're coming from the nine to five world or just because that's what's most represented in culture what have you? A lot of people think of themselves as a product on the shelf as opposed to a strategic partner. A lot of people assume that the client knows what they want and that the client's got a plan, and that the client knows how much it's going to cost to do this. And all of that is fallacious. It's literally the client is renting your expertise.

Treasa Edmond: 10:15

Yeah, that's the starting point. That's all it is At the end of the day.

Jamie Brindle: 10:18

Yeah, you're coming in and there's going to be a big sigh of relief if you establish yourself as the expert here. It's not all right. We're on this call. What do you guys want from me? What do you want me to do for you? That's not it. They want you to tell them because you're the one that spends your working hours in this space. If they knew what needed to be done here, they wouldn't need you. So it's about asserting yourself as that expert and not thinking of yourself as a product of the shelf, for sure.

Treasa Edmond: 10:45

Yeah, one of my favorite examples to use in a situation like this, when we're talking about giving the client what they need instead of what they think they need, and then establishing yourself as an expert, becoming a street to geek partner, all of those things. It's very similar to the pricing issue from yesterday. You can be low priced and they're going to see you as a low priced writer. If you are a higher priced writer, they're going to say that there's more perceived value. Well, in a situation like this, let's say my water heater won't stay lit, because this happened to me recently. If my water heater won't stay lit because this happened to me recently If I call a plumber and say my water heater won't stay lit, I think I need a new pilot light, and they just come out and change the pilot light.

Treasa Edmond: 11:24

They're not a good plumber. Exactly, they're not good at what they do. If I say my water heater won't stay lit, I think it might be the pilot light. They might say what's the model number? And I'll make sure I bring the right one with me in case that's what it is. But I'm going to have to do some diagnostics to make sure I'm solving the right problem and then they do all of the things, I pay the very hefty fee.

Treasa Edmond: 11:46

My water heater now stays lit because, by the way, it wasn't the pilot light and then we it was some random thing and he did try changing the pilot light and it didn't solve the problem because he had to troubleshoot. So, yeah, it's a matter of showing what the client needs, because you have paid enough attention to the situation and you're not just giving them what they think they need, which is only ever a partial solution.

Jamie Brindle: 12:14

Exactly, exactly.

Treasa Edmond: 12:16

Yeah, I love this question. I love this question. Thanks, jen. All right, come back for day three tomorrow with Jamie, when we are going to talk about marketing, and this is one of those hot button topics. So I'm excited to see what Jamie has to say.