1) Productize yourself. That is, have several very clear services you offer at established rates. Brand yourself around a very clear idea that has people saying "hey, call the <service> guy" when they need <service>.
2) A lot of us in tech are shy and introverted by nature, which on the surface appears in direct opposition to the skills needed to sell. What I'm telling you is that you can absolutely learn how to be the life of the party - it just takes work and courage, just like any other skill.
3) Sharp branding can make you stand out. Good quality cards, website, etc. Speak well, write well. When you ask someone for a meeting, be very clear in communicating why it is a good use of their time. Figure out early if you are talking to the person with the authority to buy.
4) Small companies will often run you through the wringer of interviews etc, only to not actually have much money. Well-established companies will often be slow to pay and full of bureaucracy, but reliable income.
5) Time-boxing is your friend. It is hard to both do the sales and do the work. You need to really be aware of this as a potential problem.
6) Do sales by not doing sales - there is a lot to be said for meet up groups, speaking opportunities, providing "free" resources, etc. That is - be seen as an expert in your community and people will come to you and/or you will have already passed the social validation test.
It leaves all the burden of figuring out how I could potentially use your services on me, and I’ll try my best to avoid having to deal with that uncertainty on top of what I’m already trying to achieve.
If you want to be successful offering services be very clear about how you work.
Everyone has a "go-to guy". Often it's a plumber, a handiman, a lawyer, etc. Your might be the "devops guy" or the "Cisco guy", etc.
Build that reputation and then expand.
Also, learn to listen well, ask good questions, and take good notes. Communication when you are independent can make or ruin it for you.
Thank you for sharing this. I feel a lot of client services businesses starting out (read: individuals going into consulting for themselves for the first time) try to build an enigma to make themselves seem experienced and comprehensive. As a buyer, I want to know, up front, what exactly an engagement with you looks like: What will you do? How much will it cost, over what schedule/criteria? What does our feedback loop look like as we progress?
If I get the impression that you're so desperate for work, you'd agree to do anything and everything for money, I'll feel uneasy. If you're confident about being able to do [thing] well, and can explain what it looks like for us to do [thing] together, it will put me more at ease.
The Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully by Gerald Weinberg
Some books you read to reflect upon or be better informed. His books instead, are likely to change the way you conduct your business, or validate correct behaviors you adopted instinctively.
Can't edit my comment anymore, so leave the correction here.
You have to start with word of mouth to test out whether your offering is really going to work, with kindly/friendly people who already know you as a person and aren't going to panic and get demanding in a way that a customer can do with someone they don't know from Eve.
And you'll need to be earning enough to at least partly offset the raid on your savings to give you time to think through sales strategies.
Freelance devops is often _not_ fun though; your biggest challenge will be controlling the seemingly unbillable work that you end up doing where people really only want to phone you up and get advice. Goodwill kills, so set boundaries with your early clients.
So if you are wise you will have a consultancy package that you can use to control that. And you'll have some sort of pre-paid token/bucket/time allocation system that encourages your clients to use your time wisely for the small stuff, so you can concentrate on the bigger stuff.
(When I say “if you are wise” I don’t mean to patronise. I mean “don’t just pretend it’ll be OK like I did”.)
Further thoughts (learned the hard way)
Consider how your off-ramps are going to work. Clients who are dependent on you but always make the cheap/expedient choices can become a millstone: they have to take your advice or you will end up resentful.
And consider how you are going to manage price rises.
This has been my strategy so far. I got laid off 9 months ago and I've barely touched my severance, but I'm also making way less than before and not really saving any money. Could be worse I suppose.
If you don't ask for the sale, you won't get it. If you're solving a problem, making the sale is helping people. They came to you for help for a reason, so treat them well.
"No askie, no gettie" is something my co-founder and I say.
I'm the engineering side and struggle with it, but he's really good at it.
Nobody wants to discuss pricing. It's orthogonal to getting the desired end. You have to discuss pricing, but it is not on the list of things people want to do (if you give it to them free, they won't protest). The second is way too easy to say no to.
Car sales is another obvious example. They don't talk price until you're committed (at least in principal) to purchasing the car.
Nobody likes to discuss pricing!
Early on in the call, tell them your price to see if they object. If they do, then get off the call. If there's objections, raise them early and either overcome them or figure out that they can't be overcome.
"For a lot of us, selling feels icky. Our stomachs tighten at the thought of reciting features and benefits, or pressuring customers into purchasing. It's really not our fault. We weren't taught how to sell, plus we've been sold before, leaving us with a bitter taste.
Here's the truth: sales does not have to feel icky for you or your customers. In fact, with the right approach, sales can be an empowering experience for all.
Bob Moesta, lifelong innovator and coarchitect of the "Jobs to be Done" theory, shares his approach for flipping the lens on sales. Bob shifts the focus of sales from selling, to helping people buy and make progress in their lives--demand-side sales.
Now, in Demand-Side Sales 101, you'll learn to really see what your customers see, hear what they hear, and understand what they mean. You'll not only be a more effective and innovative salesperson--you'll want to help people make progress."
https://www.amazon.com/Demand-Side-Sales-101-Customers-Progr...
The biggest shift in moving from engineering to sales is that your priority is no longer being the smartest person in the room. Unless, of course, you understand that the smartest person in the room is the person who gets the deal done in a mutually advantageous way. There will always be someone who wants to appear smarter than you, LET THEM. Your goal is to make a living.
The one thing I would say to remember is that your integrity is the most valuable thing that you have, bar none. Don't trade it away for anything. Over the long-term, sales is about finding a great solution that meets the needs of your customer, not winning deals or negotiations.
Here are a few books I found useful in my journey: * Let's get real or let's not play - https://www.amazon.com/Lets-Get-Real-Not-Play/dp/1596592060 * The Three value conversations - https://www.amazon.com/Three-Value-Conversations-Customer-Lo... * Never Split the Difference - https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-De... * Leadership is Language - https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Language-Changes-Differenc... * Draw to win - https://www.amazon.com/Draw-Win-Course-Innovate-Visual-ebook...
His daily email list gives me regular reminders of how to improve in sales and pricing.
His books are brilliant too. Start with Hourly Billing is Nuts: https://jonathanstark.com/hbin
* Be consistent in your outreach
* Shortcuts like automation are a waste of time unless you're replicating success
* Always ask for the sale
* All meetings should have a next step / action. Preferably chain meetings together so you have the next one scheduled by end of current one.
* "SOGOTP" - you need to respectfully but quickly move conversations to *sales* convos. If someone isn't going to buy, recognize it quickly and move them to nurture instead of taking your time
- Don't expect your client to understand the work you do the way you understand it.
- A corollary is that you cannot expect the client to put the same price on your work as you would or want.
- Another corollary is that you will inevitably lose some bids.
- Value-based pricing has been way simpler to deal with for me.
- Hourly pay only for a retainer or a fixed amount of hours per month ("I'll be there when you call."). Otherwise I find that incentives get misaligned.
- Requirements and client desires can change every single time you speak to them, so communicate often. I've been lucky with inflating time estimates by 25-33% to account for this inevitability.It's the same problem most indie devs and startups have (without VC-infused Adwords budgets) — getting their product in front of other people.
I have been consulting in a self-employed capacity for 13 years now, next to doing other things, and 100% of my leads have come through friends, exclusively. This is not to show how great my friends are (debatable), but how I have been completely unable to attract business outside of my network, even in 13 years!
Marketing yourself to even be considered a point of contact for whatever it is you're offering is - in my opinion — by far, the hardest nut to crack.
I'd love to hear suggestions by others who've been successful on this front, especially how you attract out-of-network leads. It seems next to impossible at times, except for those rare (serendipitous) moments when someone reaches out after a newspaper article or being featured online somewhere.
This site give a good preview/summary of the book/method: https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/spin-selling-the-ultimate-gui...
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/SPIN-Selling-Neil-Rackham/dp/00705111...
1. Find a recruiter who will work for you to place you in a 1099. Maybe pay them a commission for the lead or a successful placement.
2. See if a larger consulting company will subcontract to you.
3. Look for devops jobs in your network and see if they'd be open to a contractor.
3. Look for city/state/federal RFP opportunites recently funded or to be funded. Then go to step2
This is the one service and its website that I keep recommending to people asking for how to establish their services for a specific niche and be extremely good at it.
These are very full-time-sales-oriented books, and they may be too much for what you need. That said, they might be spot on.
In general, I would:
1. Talk to your network. This will yield your warmest leads.
2. Find a niche of clients who really have a tough time finding people for whatever reason. A good example for tech might be small town governments — they have needs and money, but they don’t have knowledge/expertise or funds to hire a lot of full timers. Target those groups and/or find out what contractors work with those groups and sub with them.
3. (Related to above) Find a bigger agency and just subcontract out with them. This might be a little lean in terms of money at first, but it will introduce you to a specific industry space both in terms of problems and people who solve them.
Good luck!
Eg, you say you’re an “engineer” but it sounds like you want to sell a consulting service. Make sure you align your messaging to match what you’re exactly selling. Because many might confuse hearing “engineer” with you starting a product company.
Also, if you’re in the consulting business - make sure you understand what it means to be an independent consultant. Because cash flow, lead gen, etc are all real unexpected challenges for folks in this specific business.
Then, what kind of liability do you need to be a consultant. Are you going to bill based on an hourly rate or fixed fee. Are you doing pure staff aug, or something else.
Again, it all come down to understanding what exact business you’re in.
I have to be salesman for my own software sometimes. The approach varies with the market and proce level. But basically:
-be personable and professional
-take the time to understand their needs
-if you think you have something that fits their needs, ask for the sale ("would you like to discuss pricing?")
-follow up periodically until they buy or you decide they aren't interested
-don't try and sell something that is a bad fit
-develop a thicker skin
You don’t have to be dishonest or pushy.
Useful guideline:
- 1:many is marketing - 1:1 is sales
See also: https://successfulsoftware.net/2018/03/21/tracking-your-sale...
https://fanaticalprospecting.com
I've liked all of those books.
Biggest takeaway is that you'll be worst off if you try to figure out how to sell well. Just start selling.
If you have a target market and a product to sell, pick up the phone and start dialing. Get a LinkedIn Sales Navigator Account and start doing outreach.
You're not going to get good at sales by any way other than trying and failing.
I would incorporate:
* Never Split the Difference
* So Good They Can't Ignore You
* This is Marketing
Chapter 14: planning and executing the attack, is brilliant!
Feel free to DM, if you want to compare notes
I'm currently in search of a full-stack engineer to work on a project part-time. If you're interested in hearing more let me know.
Although mostly about telemarketing, it's mathematical point of view is unique and will delight your engineer brain. It's principles are still used extensively in financial services.
Made me a bunch of money.
Alex Hormozi's 2 books
- $100M Offers
- $100m Leads
TL;DR: Make good consulting contracts with a proper lawyer
If you'd like to have some accountability and some sort of light book club kind of thing let me know, as well. I am a social creature and would love to collaborate.
Also, I have reached out to a SaaS sales guy I know for some personal coaching... happy to let you know how that goes after this weekend :)
My partial reading list while I wrap up at $dayJob:
- Corporate Rebels
- Secrets of Productive People
- Docs for Developers
- Influence, new and expanded (kinda meh so far)
- Cult of the customer
- 48 Laws of power (kinda gross, honestly)
Finished books I would gladly re-read
- Disruption
- Peopleware
- Never split the difference
- The Scout Mindset
- How to win friends and influence people
- Amusing ourselves to death
