#072: How Should You Evaluate a New Prospect?

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia. Hey there. Thank you for joining me for episode 72 of the High Income Business Writing Podcast. My name is Ed Gandia and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to take their writing businesses to the six figure level or the part time equivalent. As a quick reminder, you can find detailed show notes for this episode by going to b2b launcher.com episode 72 there's a question that I hear a lot out there and it's a question I've asked myself many times before as a freelancer. And that question is, why am I losing so many potential new clients? And you know, I will tell you this, this is the wrong question to ask yourself. Let me just start with that. I think it's the natural thing to ask yourself, but it's also the wrong thing to ask yourself. And this became very apparent to me the other day when I got a email and then a call from a friend of mine who owns a small design agency. And you know, it's interesting, we always think that as freelancers we have kind of a unique set of problems, but I will tell you, agencies have the same problems. Many businesses, traditional businesses, have the same set of challenges. It's just different flavors and different nuances of the same problem. So anyway, let me, let me get back to the story here. So my friend calls me, she actually emails me, she said, look, I want to talk to you because I've been having, I've lost some really big opportunities recently and I think you might be able to maybe shed some light on it. You might be able to help me. Sure, let's talk. So we talked the next day and she was basically kind of freaked out because she just described these opportunities, these are really, really big deals that she felt she lost. And she really believed that the reason she lost them was because of her. She was looking inward and was just assuming that, you know, it was her. Is her personality something she said, something she wrote, you know, something she might have misspelled in the proposal. And it was very obvious to me as she started describing the situation that her frustration was based on the wrong assumption. And that assumption is that every opportunity is winnable. In other words, that every opportunity, when I'm talking about opportunity, I'm talking about a business deal, I'm talking about a new client, a new project, however you want to define it. But I like to use the term Opportunity because it's broader. And what she felt was that every opportunity is winnable, it's closable, that every opportunity has basically the same chance of success. Now, she wasn't saying this, but you could tell that was the underlying assumption. And that's simply not the case. You know, not every prospect, not every project, not every new client, not every opportunity is closable. Not every opportunity is winnable. So the real question is not so much why am I losing so many potential new clients, but rather, how can I ensure that I win most of the opportunities I go after? Notice the nuance here. It might. You know, at first glance, this might sound like the same question, but it's a very, very different question. Let me repeat that. The real question is not so much why am I losing so many potential new clients? The real question is, how can I ensure that I win most of the opportunities that I go after? Now, there are two ways to do this. You could figure out a better way to pitch the deal. You could figure out how to put together a better quote, a better proposal, how to have a better initial conversation. How to come across as more credible is the better option, right? All those things. You can name a whole list of things you could do. But the other option is you could just choose to pitch fewer deals, go after fewer opportunities, and specifically go after those that have the highest probability of success. This is the option that very few people think about. And I say people. I'm talking about freelancers, I'm talking about agency owners, I'm talking about salespeople in general. This is the option that very few people consider. But it's the variable, when you think about it, that you actually have the most control over. You could choose to do a better job with every opportunity that you come across, or you could be more selective and only go after those you feel you have the highest chances of success. And that's what I want to talk with you today about. So one of the most important skills you can develop as a freelancer is the ability to size up an opportunity as quickly as possible. If you don't do this, if you don't do this, well, you're going to make some really bad decisions out there. Let me give you an example. Let's say you come across a very big and very tempting opportunity. So you go after that thing with all you've got. Now, unfortunately, it's not a winnable opportunity. And you don't realize that at first because you didn't really give it too much thought. Maybe you kind of Know that in the back of your head, but it's not truly winnable. It's not something you can close. So you end up spending a ton of time, a lot of energy and focus and emotional capital on that opportunity and all that's going to go to waste. And this, if you don't, if you're not careful, can create a very dangerous downward cycle in self confidence, in your ability to win new opportunities. Because think about it, right? Especially if you lose a really big one. And sometimes, you know, when we lose one, it's not, I mean, it's bad, right? We don't take it well, but it sets us up for maybe a little bit more of another failure right after. And let's say that, you know, then we have another opportunity the following week and we lose that one too. Now it's starting to feel like a trend. And you start wondering, what's wrong with me? Like my friend was asking, right? She was, you know, what am I doing wrong? Is it me? Is it my personality? Am I coming across the wrong way that I misspell something? And that's what starts happening in your head. You're starting to think, well, it's gotta be me. I mean, I have a track record here. I have an amazing portfolio. I've, like, you know, I have experience, I have a great team. We've done this before, many times. And you really start doubting yourself. And guess what? That doubt starts showing up in your conversations with new prospects where before you may have come across as more confident, more sure of yourself and your team and your abilities. Now you're not so sure. And guess what, that lack of self confidence shows up, your prospect picks up on it, and somebody who would have ordinarily gone with you is now having doubts and they pick somebody else. So that means you get another no, which just exacerbates the situation. And you can see how this can become a vicious cycle very, very quickly. So what I want to do today, and this is going to be a shorter podcast than usual, but I think this is a very important topic. I want to talk about how you can size up opportunities a little bit better. And I'll just talk about how I do it. I have a whole process for qualifying new prospects and this is not it. I'm not going to talk about my whole process. That's just beyond the scope of this. I actually go through that in my, my home study program. Close the deal. But what I'm going to share with you today are the factors that I evaluate when I come across an opportunity. Let me just give them to you. And these are in no particular order. Some of them are kind of in order, but these are generally the factors. And there's eight of them, there's actually a few more, but generally these are kind of the bigger 8 lead source. And let's talk about each of these individually. Lead source. So what is lead source? Lead source is basically where this prospect came to me from. How did they find out about me? You know, was this, and I'll give you a couple of extreme examples so you can see why it matters that they come across my name through a Google search for a business to business copywriter or did they come across me or my name through one of my best clients who referred me to them? It's a big difference, right? Somebody who doesn't know anything about me and just come across my name, just came across my name 5 minutes ago as they were doing a quick online search is very different from someone who just got referred by one of my best clients. Now what happens is when you start tracking this stuff, when you start really thinking about this, when you start asking new prospects, this question is you're going to develop kind of a mental mind map of where your best clients come from. We'll talk more about this in a minute. But it's important that you get into the habit, if you're not already asking this, of asking prospects, how they found you, how do they come to you? In my experience in my own business, I found that somebody who's found me through Google search is nowhere near the quality of somebody who came to me through, let's say the example I gave you, a referral from one of my existing or previous clients. It's also very different from one who came to me through that. Maybe they saw my name in an association directory, you know, a very targeted directory. So all these have kind of their, their own level of quality. And again, we'll talk more about this in a minute, but this, for me it's important that I know this as quickly as possible in a conversation. Now obviously if you're the one approaching them, you already know the answer to this because they didn't find you, you found them. The second factor is the nature of the project. I want to know as quickly as possible what are we looking like here? What are they looking for? I should say, what's the project type? My case, I work on a project basis. And yeah, I do work in other, other ways with, with clients I do work on retainer with, but I never do that early on. I never do this as the initial way to work with a client. I always start on a project basis that might evolve into a retainer agreement. So, but for this particular opportunity, what's the nature of the work? What's the project type that goes into my next factor, which is what I would call expectations from the prospect. And that's kind of a big broad area, scope of work for this particular opportunity, creative direction. Then more tactical things such as deadlines, their timing to get this completed and so forth. So this is more the factual stuff. You know, what, what do you expect? What do you need? You know, the scope of work, deadlines, timing, creative direction, those, those sorts of things. I'm just trying to get a sense for what's going on there. What are the specifics? A fourth factor. The fourth factor. And again, these are in no particular order. How are they making a decision? You know, who, who am I competing against, if anybody, who else are they looking at? Who else are they considering? Who else are they approaching also internally, who's going to be involved in this project? How is this going to go down? You know, do they have a process? Do they have a team? Am I only working with an individual in the organization? What's going on here? I just want to get a sense for how they're making that decision, how they're going to be working this project. Another factor is long term client potential. By that I mean is there additional work, potential work here with this client? You know, what about their, their name? If I took them on as a client, could that have a very positive impact on my reputation? They're a big name in the industry. You know, that, that, that definitely weighs on a decision here. It also weighs on how I evaluate, of course, the, the prospect. Why are they approaching me? That's another factor. You know, I want to know why did they, they think highly enough of me to, to reach out, what is it about me? What do they like about my background, my experience, my portfolio, my style, whatever? And of course you can, for each of these areas and each of these factors, by the way, you can come up with questions of your own that you could ask at some point in the qualification process or as you're talking with a client or communicating with a prospect, I want to know about their budget or apparent price sensitivity. So if I can't get a budget, I want to get a sense for how price sensitive are they. Are they shopping around or do they sound like they've adopted more of a value mindset? They're not looking for the cheapest they're looking for the best value. They really are looking at a broader set of criteria. And then finally, I want to get a sense for their general attitude towards professionals like me, in my case towards B2B writers or copywriters. You know, what, what, how do they sound in terms of how they, they treat outside professionals like myself? What is their general attitude? I can size somebody up fairly quickly. You know, do they treat me as a vendor or do they think of me as someone who could be a potential partner? You know, somebody they could partner up with and work on a. And this ties to the other, one of the, several of the other factors, somebody they could partner up with for the long run. Right. So long term client potential, that's one of the factors I mentioned earlier. So, so this is, these are kind of the bigger factors that I'm focusing on is I'm sizing up an opportunity. And again, we'll talk about more or talk more about this in a second of why this matters and how you can use it. But first, I want you to think about your best three clients ever. And if you're new, you can maybe kind of create this image in your mind, you know, what would your best client be like? Or, you know, you could even look at your past work experience. What did your best employer or employers look like? So you could go that route if you'd like to. But if you've been at this for a while, think about your best three clients ever, the clients you enjoyed working with the most. And I actually encourage you, if you want to take this seriously, to go beyond three clients. Although I found that after three, they pretty much all. You've covered all the bases, but you can go up to five or whatever you'd like. And I want you to think about these and I want you to evaluate each of those clients and those eight areas that I just discussed. So where they came from, lead source, the nature of the project, they approach you with their expectations in terms of this project, how they were making a decision, their long term potential as a client, why they approached you, what was it about you they found attractive? Their budget or apparent price sensitivity in their general attitude towards professionals like you? And I want you to ask yourself, you know, how would you score that particular those three clients individually in each of those areas? You don't have to give it a number or anything, but how would they score? You know, what would be like the biggest areas, the areas or the factors they scored the highest in and the factors they scored the lowest in. And so that's going to give you a lot of insight, I think, when you do this and you'll start seeing why this is so important and you haven't already. But then I encourage you to take it one step further. And this is what I suggested my friend do. I said, look, interview your best three clients. So think through these factors first, but then approach each of them. This could take several months to kind of secure that interview. And some of them could be maybe dormant clients. You haven't worked with them in a long time. But arrange to interview your best three clients. This doesn't have to be a long conversation. I would say 30, 45 minutes tops. And ask them the following questions. Why did you approach me, Mr. Client or Mrs. Client, why did you pick me? So there's a difference there. Why did you approach me? Why didn't you end up going with me? What have you liked best about working with me? Or what did you. Did you like best about working with me? Why do you continue to work with me if they're still a client? And finally, where or how could I improve? Let me tell you, these questions are going to give you an amazing amount of insight. Some things you probably already know, some of the answers they give you, but many of the answers are going to shine a spotlight on things that you hadn't really thought about, things that are there, that clients are seeing, that they value, that they enjoy, that they appreciate, but you hadn't really given much thought to. Now, as a counterpoint, I want you to then think about your worst three clients. And don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to interview them or anything. But think about your worst three clients. The clients you thought, my gosh, these, these people, this is like, this, this was a nightmare. I, I never want a client like this again. Or maybe you don't have anyone that bad. But just think about your three worst. And I want you to think about how they would honestly answer the questions above. Why did you approach me? Why did. Why did you pick me? What did you like best about working with me? What did you know? And maybe you're still working for one of them. Why do you continue to work with me? How could I improve? And I want you to kind of visualize, you know, how would Jim or how would Susan or whoever it might be, how would they answer these questions? Not only that, but go back to those original eight factors that I talked about earlier and identify those. Identify where they came from, you know, those bad clients, the nature of the work, their expectations and so on. And so forth. Go through each of those factors and what's going to emerge here and you can tell this is a very organic process. So this is not a formula where you plug in numbers or anything like that. This is more of a self discovery thing, more of the kind of thing that you're gonna wanna take your time with and see what comes from it, you know, what kind of insights you gain from it. But what's gonna start happening is you're gonna see some patterns. You know, when it comes to your best three clients, you're gonna see the patterns in terms of those eight factors, what they all had in common. Okay, that's gonna be very important. The other thing is when you interview them, you're going to, like I said, it's going to shine a spotlight on some things you maybe hadn't thought about. It's going to underscore some things you maybe thought about, but you didn't put a lot of stock on. But now you really understand the value of those things. It might also strengthen the relationship you have with them. And it's going to make you feel really, really good. And then as you start thinking about your worst client, you're going to start seeing the stark difference in each of those factors, in each of these questions and how they probably would, would answer those questions. So now you're going to have a very clear image of both extremes. Kind of your best and your worst. And that's going to give you what you need to size up future opportunities much more effectively. Now, some people might think, you know, this, this kind of profiling could be a little dangerous, Ed, because, you know, I, I don't know, what if you come across a new opportunity and you're kind of putting them through this mental filter as you're listening to their answers and you kind of walk away or you decide not to pursue it where it could have been an amazing opportunity. You know, can I trust myself to really judge a prospect based on these criteria? And here's my answer. And I understand that kind of reasoning. You know, that reasoning, that kind of thinking comes from, you know, I can't let go. I have to go after everything I possibly can. But I have a different opinion on that. And you know, first I would say that the time, the attention and the energy you give an opportunity should be proportionate with your chances of winning that opportunity. So truly your most important job when you come across something is to evaluate that opportunity for its level of quality. That way you can spend the appropriate amount of time and attention and energy on it. And that's not what you typically see. Most freelancers, most agency owners, want to give the same amount of time, energy and attention to each opportunity. And that's a big mistake. So again, it should be proportionate with your chances of winning it. Why would we give everything the same kind of attention? Now, I would say that, look, this doesn't hold true every time. I think many people know, okay, well, gosh, right away I could tell this is not a prospect for me. So you disqualify them. Yeah, I think in those extreme situations we do, we. Where it gets really difficult is when it's a really big opportunity. Let's say it's a really big name in your industry and they come to you or you come across this opportunity through an RFP or whatever, and now it's just very hard to let go because of who it is. That's when this kind of profiling can really help bring clarity to your decision making. And by the way, listen, this is one easy way you can go from, let's say, having a 30% closing rate to an 80% or better closing rate. By closing rate, I'm talking about the percentage of opportunities that you come across that you actually land, okay? You, you can get there very, very quickly, like as I said earlier, by choosing to only go after the opportunities that are truly closable, that are truly winnable, that can dramatically increase that close rate. I would also suggest that, look, you're not a quoting machine. I don't care who you are, what you do, what business you're in, what your target market is. You don't get paid to chase work. You don't get paid to chase work, period. And you don't get paid a flat commission for every project you, you'll land. You only get paid when you land profitable work, okay? So it's important that you get away from that mindset of, you know, I got to quote everything, I got to quote everything. That's my job. That's not your job. Your job is to land profitable work that's well aligned with who you are, what you're about and so forth, I also want to remind you that your most valuable non renewable resource is time. And if you had a screening approach that separates the winnable work from the kind of so so and dangerous client, and you could do that in an efficient way, you know, and if you had a system for kind of applying this discipline and these filters, man, that can save you an incredible amount of time that you could use for other things, you know, other More profitable, more enjoyable activities. So here's what happened. My friend and I had this conversation and this is what got me thinking about this stuff. And I shared basically what I just shared with you and she took it to heart. And in fact she, she applied it immediately. She emailed me the next day just to let me know the biggest, big difference. It already had this, this kind of thinking and filtering had already had in her business after just two days. So apparently later that afternoon she, she had an inquiry, something she would have normally pursued aggressively. This kind of thinking and filtering had already had in her business after just two days. So apparently like later that afternoon she had an inquiry, something she would have normally pursued aggressively. And she realized very quickly after asking a few questions that this is not winnable. And she walked away from it. And she said she just felt great about it. She said, look, you were absolutely right and my whole point wasn't to be right. But look, she applied it and she knew, she knew right away that this wasn't going to be something she should chase. And of course, I have no idea, I haven't followed up with her to see how she was able to use that time. But think about, you know, in the case of an agency, the time and energy and resources she would have normally put on that opportunity. That's those time, energy and resources she could, she could put elsewhere on something much more productive. So, you know, that's what I wanted to share with you today. This is again, it's not a process necessarily, it's not a formula, but it's a different kind of thinking that I encourage you to apply to your own business. And in fact, I'd love to hear from you. You know, I'd love to hear how you do this today, how you screen prospects, how you screen new opportunities if you don't do something like that. I'd be curious to hear how you can apply these ideas to your own quoting process and specifically what you think you could apply right away. What, what out of this discussion is immediately applicable for you and your situation. And by the way, I know I threw a lot at you. I wanted to remind you that you can grab the detailed show notes for this episode@b2b launcher.com forward/episode72. You'll see the questions there, the factors that I discuss, potentials questions and so forth. If you enjoyed this episode, I'd be grateful if you shared it with friends. The easiest way to do that is through any of the social media sharing buttons that you'll see on the show. Notes page. And that's it folks. Be grateful if you shared it with friends. The easiest way to do that is through any of the social media sharing buttons that you'll see on the Show Notes page. And that's it folks. That's it for today. That brings us to the end. I am your host, Ed Gambia. I appreciate you listening and I hope you have an awesome day. The High Income Business Writing Podcast is a production of B to B business launcher. Learn more at b2b launcher.com.