How to Win Pitches, Charm Clients and Get Signoff
Posted in News on: Monday, September 21, 2009 by Paul Boag
Being a great designer or developer is only half the battle. You also need to be able to promote and sell your services, unfortunately there is little advice online about how to do this effectively.
The most common questions I get asked focuses on selling web design services and getting client approval. In short many web designers and freelancers struggle to engage with clients.
The problem appears to be so big and I get so many questions on the subject that I have teamed up with the guys at Carsonified to create a full days workshop on the subject.
Where and when
The workshop will take place on Friday 23rd October from 9AM to 5PM at the RIBA London.
We have limited the workshop to only 20 places so there will be lots of opportunities to discuss your particular challenges.
I will also be hanging around afterwards so there will be opportunity to go out and socialise too!
Who should attend?
This workshop is aimed at web freelancers, web design and development agencies and anyone involved in generating new business and maintaining and developing existing client relationships.
What Will You Learn?
Here is the agenda for the day. Hopefully that will give you an idea of what we will cover…
- Shameless self promotions
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- What does not work?
- The benefits of specialising
- How to specialise
- Selecting your target audience
- Reaching your target audience
- Demonstrating your expertise
- How to make the most of social sites
- The perfect proposal
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- How to price a project
- What to include in a proposal
- Should you provide speculative design?
- When to walk away
- The pitch
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- Who should attend?
- What makes a client want to hire you?
- How to generate confidence
- Engaging with clients?
- Learning how to engage
- Making the most of your time slot
- Dealing with difficult characters
- Sales through relationships
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- Why repeat business matters
- How to foster repeat business
- Dealing with difficult people
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- The techie
- The hard man MD
- The price negotiator
- The importance of establishing a good working relationship
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- Where it goes wrong
- The benefits of getting it right
- Changing the client/designer relationship
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- How to become the expert
- The importance of positivity
- How to communicate better
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- Speaking the clients language
- How much does the client need to know?
- Methods of keeping the client informed
- Running the perfect kick-off meeting
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- Controlling the agenda
- Educating the client
- Defining roles
- Explaining the process
- Doing your research
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- Business objectives and success criteria
- Target audiences and personas
- Competitive analysis
- Dealing with design
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- The importance of a design methodology
- The tools of design development
- Understanding the clients perspectives
- Developing a site persona
- Presenting work
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- When to present
- Methods of presenting
- Who to present to
- Techniques for presenting
- Managing feedback
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- Dealing with politics
- Tackling committees
- Dealing with difficult people
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- The existing client
- The no clue client
- The micro manager
- The marketeer
How much?
So if you are interested in attending? If so don’t pay the full price :-)
The first 10 places are only £375, but you can also get a discount if you use the code: CWPB_09. This will give you 15% off that price.
If you decide to book drop me an email as I would love to chat beforehand!
2 Comments
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Am very much looking forward to the workshop – see you then!
Incredible information. Thanks for the article!