Self employed creative types and sales
Discussion
Hi guys,
As a creative type, more specifically one of those designer people I've always found the sales side of things a bit of a drag. I'm mainly in the business I'm in because I enjoy the work, plus it's easy to be self employed doing it.
For others with a slightly nervous disposition to sales, what strategies have you adopted to help?
I've been playing around with some CRM systems to get organised which certainly help from that perspective. Have people got recommendations when it comes to decent CRM systems that are still relatively simple, so not to befuddle my easily confused and creative brain? I've found one called Flume CRM which seems to be working well enough for me so far but open to suggestions.
Cheers one and all.
PS. This would have been much easier for me to write if I could simply scribble my crayon on my screen.
As a creative type, more specifically one of those designer people I've always found the sales side of things a bit of a drag. I'm mainly in the business I'm in because I enjoy the work, plus it's easy to be self employed doing it.
For others with a slightly nervous disposition to sales, what strategies have you adopted to help?
I've been playing around with some CRM systems to get organised which certainly help from that perspective. Have people got recommendations when it comes to decent CRM systems that are still relatively simple, so not to befuddle my easily confused and creative brain? I've found one called Flume CRM which seems to be working well enough for me so far but open to suggestions.
Cheers one and all.
PS. This would have been much easier for me to write if I could simply scribble my crayon on my screen.
I feel your pain! Been there and done that.
Some years back now but I found the best approach was to just suck it up and get out there and speak to people. If you're in a shop and you see a leaflet that's crap...asked who did it...say you could do better....etc. Open conversations and go from there.
Join local network groups; attend the meetings and press the flesh.
You'll find that the more work you do, the easier selling yourself is as most off your work will come through recommendations. My company has a sister company which is a Design Studio. They have no new business person and no pro-active sales yet grow year on year just through recommendation. Took a while to get to that point, mind.
There's no secret. It's not easy but less hard than you might think.
Some years back now but I found the best approach was to just suck it up and get out there and speak to people. If you're in a shop and you see a leaflet that's crap...asked who did it...say you could do better....etc. Open conversations and go from there.
Join local network groups; attend the meetings and press the flesh.
You'll find that the more work you do, the easier selling yourself is as most off your work will come through recommendations. My company has a sister company which is a Design Studio. They have no new business person and no pro-active sales yet grow year on year just through recommendation. Took a while to get to that point, mind.
There's no secret. It's not easy but less hard than you might think.
I reviewed the Free CRM's at the start of the year, and shortlisted to Zoho ad Hubspot. I chose Hubspot because it allowed greater customisation of fields.
We have been using it for 10 months, and I still think it is brilliant. We have created some spreadsheets to analyse the data exports, as the free reporting is not great. We are also not using the marketing parts, which is costly, but may be of interest to others.
As for the sales side.... just get out their talking to people. We have consistently had more success form anything/anyone where there has been some form of personal connection, no matter how tenuous, than from anything we have tried cold.
We have been using it for 10 months, and I still think it is brilliant. We have created some spreadsheets to analyse the data exports, as the free reporting is not great. We are also not using the marketing parts, which is costly, but may be of interest to others.
As for the sales side.... just get out their talking to people. We have consistently had more success form anything/anyone where there has been some form of personal connection, no matter how tenuous, than from anything we have tried cold.
danj3000 said:
Hi guys,
As a creative type, more specifically one of those designer people I've always found the sales side of things a bit of a drag. I'm mainly in the business I'm in because I enjoy the work, plus it's easy to be self employed doing it.
For others with a slightly nervous disposition to sales, what strategies have you adopted to help?
I've been playing around with some CRM systems to get organised which certainly help from that perspective. Have people got recommendations when it comes to decent CRM systems that are still relatively simple, so not to befuddle my easily confused and creative brain? I've found one called Flume CRM which seems to be working well enough for me so far but open to suggestions.
Cheers one and all.
PS. This would have been much easier for me to write if I could simply scribble my crayon on my screen.
I’m a designer, I went from employed, to sole trader to ltd company to (part) owning a full creative agency. Now this might sound simplistic but IMO there’s 3 things that you need to do to make sure you get work and they are, As a creative type, more specifically one of those designer people I've always found the sales side of things a bit of a drag. I'm mainly in the business I'm in because I enjoy the work, plus it's easy to be self employed doing it.
For others with a slightly nervous disposition to sales, what strategies have you adopted to help?
I've been playing around with some CRM systems to get organised which certainly help from that perspective. Have people got recommendations when it comes to decent CRM systems that are still relatively simple, so not to befuddle my easily confused and creative brain? I've found one called Flume CRM which seems to be working well enough for me so far but open to suggestions.
Cheers one and all.
PS. This would have been much easier for me to write if I could simply scribble my crayon on my screen.
1. Most importantly, make sure you’re work is good.
2. Don’t undervalue your work.
3. Remember people deal with people and relationships are important, I’ve had people get in touch with me that I haven’t spoken to in years but remembered that I was a Graphic Designer and i got on with them, I also do work for companies that I was previously employed by, basically don’t be an @rse (I’m in no way saying you are by the way)
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