Every month we run through a series of questions to help you run your freelance business like a bigger business—“self-coaching” your way to better results and a better life. You can view a condensed version of this month’s coaching prompts here.
The key to a sustainable freelance business is sales. Don’t let anybody tell you different.
Yes, you can grab a few gigs from Upwork or a friend of a friend, but keeping your business going for years? In a way that’s profitable? That takes solid sales processes.
Thankfully, it’s not hard to get good (seriously...I hated selling when I first started and have gotten much better at it). That’s why this month, we’re going to cover the freelance sales cycle and keys to improving your
results.
What’s the key to handling rejection?
As a freelancer, you’re going to hear “no”.
The thing about it though, is that there’s more than one kind of rejection. There’s a big difference between silence, “no thanks”, and “not now”. The way you manage those, is having scripts.
Silence means you try again later.
“No thanks” means you make another offer or try someone else in the organization.
“Not now”, means you offer to follow up in a month (or six months, or whenever).
Regardless, having a plan makes “No” sting a lot less.
