You’ve been working on your CV for days, even weeks.

You’ve designed different ones to target different clients.

You’ve also sent countless emails to different companies and direct clients that may be interested in your services.

 

But nothing happened.

You’re tired of seeing potential employers and direct clients choosing different candidates for your dream job.

I know, it’s frustrating. The same happened to me, and that’s why I started to analyse why this happened. Why other people were better than me.

 

I refuse to think that I wasn’t goo enough for a job position.

And I’m sure that that’s not your problem either.

 

[Tweet “Your clients don’t know that you’re the best choice for them.”]

 

That’s it. No buts.

 

Maybe it’s because you don’t really know how to communicate that you actually are. Or maybe you have everything it takes, but you’re not using the right strategy.

 

You need to know how to convince clients.

Selling is uncomfortable.

We always tend to run away from signs with big letters saying “OFFER” or “BUY NOW!” We delete email in our inboxes that try to sell us something.

If we are using the same strategies than them, how are we going to succeed?

Saying “hello, I’m here, hire me!” isn’t enough. That’s what hundreds of people out there are doing too.

 

How to convince clients that you’re their best choice

Yes, their best choice. And sometimes even the only one. Because you’re unique and can offer unique services and benefits to your clients.

 

1. Connect emotionally with your clients

You’re good at what you do.

You offer quality services.

Yes, that’s a good start. But everyone out there is good at what they do (at least I hope so.) You’re good but that isn’t going to make you stand out.

When you try to convince clients, it’s not about what you do, but why you do it. When this “why” matches your potential clients’ “why” (“why do I need to hire you?”), there’s a connection.

No, it’s not about making your client cry with your story (although sometimes this works!) It’s about matching the objectives of your services with the needs of your clients.

 

For example, I was talking the other day with a client that hired my copywriting services.

She told me that she was really happy of having found me. And I thought “why?” There are probably thousands of copywriters out there. She told me that I was the only one that explained what she was going to achieve with my services.

I never told her what I do (most of your clients aren’t going to notice if your have a keen eye for details or if you spend hours working on X aspect of a project), but I told her what she was going to achieve, because these were my objectives and they matched exactly with her needs.

 

2. Convey your unique selling proposition

I’m sure that you have your own objectives when you work for your clients. That’s why you’re targeting certain niche of clients.

You work differently from the rest, and this results in different services tailored to specific clients. This unique selling proposition makes you stand out from the rest.

It doesn’t mean that you’re better, but different. And this is a powerful tool that will make your client hire you (or not).

 

For example, let’s imagine two translators and interpreters specialised in business. The objective of one of them is to guarantee that the process of constitution of companies goes smoothly. The objective of the other translator is to guarantee that there’s an increase of sales within different companies.

Do you think that they will deal with the same documents? They both do the same (translations) but the approach is completely different. Some companies will benefit more from one or the other depending on the stage that they are facing.

 

3. Tick all their boxes (even the ones that they don’t know they have)

Your homework here is to know you clients better than even they know themselves.

Ask yourself this question: why X client wouldn’t hire you?

The cons will always overcome the pros; that’s why you should focus on them.

Even though your clients are looking for a specific candidate, they are also discarding specific candidates. If you want to be considered a candidate, you’ll firstly have to tackle the cons that your client has in mind.

A good example of this is this blog post where I tackled why some clients didn’t hire my services.

 

4. People won’t forget how you made them feel

I was talking to a friend yesterday about how grumpy a bus driver was. He was complaining because this bus driver told him off for not showing his bus ticket quickly enough.

This may seem a triviality.

However, he didn’t mention how clean the bus was, or how smooth the driving was. He told me how angry he was because of this bus driver.

People don’t care what things you do as long as you do your job. However, they’ll never forget how you make them feel. And it’s that impression what they’re going to tell the rest.

We all have bad days every now and then, but remember that it’s not our clients’ fault.

Smile, be nice to them, have some patience if necessary and make them feel comfortable when talking to you.

 

5. Keep it simple

Sometimes we want to cover it all.

We find the perfect client for our business and we want to help him with everything: his website, marketing materials, increasing his sales, and the list goes on and on.

I already explained that it’s better to present a good and targeted offer than a broad and weak one.

Little by little. You need to identify the biggest problem of your client and get to now how you’re going to solve it through your services. Once they hire you, you’ll be able to solve the rest of his problems.

 

6. Social proof

Ask your clients for feedback and use it as a social proof. Let people who have tried your business and are happy with the results speak for your business.

They know first hand that your services were worth their investment, and that will encourage people to do the same.

Remember that when we look for professionals on the Internet, we’ve several tabs opened on our browser. We compare prices, reputation, and services to find the best candidate.

Your clients are doing the same with you. Social proof can be crucial in your client’s decision-making process.

 

[Tweet “Now you can play your cards and know how to convince clients to hire you.”]

 

Make the difference in your industry to stand out and, especially, communicate this to your clients.