Is my prospecting method good?

[Enzo.Deniau]

Hello everyone,

I create websites in France, nothing too fascinating. I'm just trying to make my first source of income online, but I'm having trouble finding clients and prospects.

Someone advised me to offer my services for free for a limited time.

The first person who called me kindly refused, saying they would never dare make me work for free. In the end, after discussing it, the project wasn't really a good fit for me anyway.

For the past week, I've been doing cold emailing, sending a free mockup landing page.

I aim to truly add value. I don't just want to deliver my product and be done; I want to upsell my product and create strong connections with the entrepreneurs I approach.

So, I always send a mockup and also provide a few suggestions for improving their website.

Is my method good?

Out of 25-28 emails sent, I got 2 positive responses. Is that a good or bad rate?

I can send the email in question. Unfortunately, being terrible in English, I translate with GPT.

I plan to continue sharing my progress with this technique if it’s not too bad.

Thanks for reading!

 

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[The-J]

People don't value what they don't pay for.

Also you're sending too few emails. You really need to be sending at least 100 per go. You'll get a good amount of data after sending around 1000.

@Fox could help you more, I've never sold websites like you're doing but he has & has taught hundreds of people to do the same

 

[Fox]

Ya two things here:

At the start think in terms of time rather than getting paid right out of the gate. What matters most to get to the bigger money is meaningful real world results.

So if I was starting again and there is the choice of building a website for some terrible business for $500 or building one for a great business for free - then I am picking the great business. Because once it is finished I now have what I need to go land a way bigger project as fast as possible.

Think of it this way. Let's say someone gave you the chance today to talk to a business owner who had $10,000 to spend on a website project right now. What would you want...?

- The results to show you are suitable
- And the sales skills to land the deal

That is it. No one cares what you got paid in the past - they will judge your value by your results.

So work for good people as quickly as possible and stack up your results asap.

---

Past two: mockup sites.

I am not a huge fan of them because 90% of people do them based on design and for not-that-good businesses. So even if they do say yes you don't have much to leverage for landing a future high paying project.

Instead, focus on only the best types of businesses and look for someone with a real problem to solve. Usually around sales or marketing. Get them more sales, better content, better leads, better sales systems etc.

People don't value a free generic design - they want an actual business result. So start with what problem to solve.

Hope that helps.

 

[sdbrownlie]

Hello everyone,

I create websites in France, nothing too fascinating. I'm just trying to make my first source of income online, but I'm having trouble finding clients and prospects.

Someone advised me to offer my services for free for a limited time.

The first person who called me kindly refused, saying they would never dare make me work for free. In the end, after discussing it, the project wasn't really a good fit for me anyway.

For the past week, I've been doing cold emailing, sending a free mockup landing page.

I aim to truly add value. I don't just want to deliver my product and be done; I want to upsell my product and create strong connections with the entrepreneurs I approach.

So, I always send a mockup and also provide a few suggestions for improving their website.

Is my method good?

Out of 25-28 emails sent, I got 2 positive responses. Is that a good or bad rate?

I can send the email in question. Unfortunately, being terrible in English, I translate with GPT.

I plan to continue sharing my progress with this technique if it’s not too bad.

Thanks for reading!

I wrote this a long time back now but it's about how I sold my first websites for good money despite having no portfolio:

You don't need to lower your rate. Just tell better stories.

Great stories improve margins for designers and design agencies—and they improve the work you're doing for your clients.

www.invisionapp.com

The tl;dr is:

Connect with your customers and THEIR story and they don't care about price or experience - they trust you because YOU GET THEM.

Also fun tips from Rory Sutherland who you should totally follow on social.

 

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[Enzo.Deniau]

I wrote this a long time back now but it's about how I sold my first websites for good money despite having no portfolio:

You don't need to lower your rate. Just tell better stories.

Great stories improve margins for designers and design agencies—and they improve the work you're doing for your clients.

www.invisionapp.com

The tl;dr is:

Connect with your customers and THEIR story and they don't care about price or experience - they trust you because YOU GET THEM.

Also fun tips from Rory Sutherland who you should totally follow on social.

Thank you very much for your advice, all three of you: @Fox , @The-J , and @sdbrownlie.

I will try to think about what you have said to see if I can succeed in contacting decision-makers for sites at 10k.

I will give an update if you are interested.

Thanks for the article, @sdbrownlie. I will go read it.

 

[Enzo.Deniau]

Thank you very much for your advice, all three of you: @Fox , @The-J , and @sdbrownlie.

I will try to think about what you have said to see if I can succeed in contacting decision-makers for sites at 10k.

I will give an update if you are interested.

Thanks for the article, @sdbrownlie. I will go read it.

Update: A few minutes after this message, I checked my email, and I have an appointment on Friday.

 

[Enzo.Deniau]

Update: A few minutes after this message, I checked my email, and I have an appointment on Friday.

May 31, 2024
Hi, I’m here to give an update.

I should have done it earlier, but I preferred to wait. The Friday meeting was postponed to this Monday. I went, and it was great, but it was not at all the same project.

It wasn’t really a simple website anymore; it's now a 10k website.

The person wanted me to give an example of what I could do for his new site because he replied to my email saying his designer/developer had made only bad proposals and wasn’t even trying to be available for him anymore.

So, I created a really nice landing page, actually two, with mobile formats. Even though I know I worked for free, I don’t mind if it can help me prove my skills.

Now, I’m waiting for his response and I sent my rates and services.

I’ll give another update when I get his response.

 

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