Selling creative work can feel like climbing a mountain.
Questioning your skillset each and every step along the way.
But theres a few simple techniques you can use to overcome client objections.
And by using them you can start to:
- Get more work
- Get better work
- Increase your rates
Here 6 ways you can go about working through objections to level up your career:
1. Create Reciprocation
Give, then ask (make the gift personalized whenever possible).
Reject, then retreat. Start with a larger ask (knowing it will get shot down) and then come in with a smaller ask that appears more doable in comparison.
2. Create Likeability
Compliments enhance likability and compliance, especially when the compliment is something the recipient is meant to live up to.
Increased familiarity through repeated contact facilitates liking, especially when it’s under positive circumstances.
Connecting yourself to other positive experiences through association also helps with liking.
3. Create Social Proof
Social proof is most influential when people are uncertain, when they see many other people doing the same thing, and when someone else seems similar to them.
When existing social proof is small the showcase of upward trending social support can be used to persuade.
4. Create Authority
Strong pressures exist for compliance to requests from an authority figure due to their perceived level of knowledge, wisdom, and power.
Being perceived as both an expert via knowledge AND trustworthy in the presentation helps maximize the result (admitting to a minor shortcoming that can be swept aside later in favor of outweighing strengths).
5. Create Scarcity
People assign more value to opportunities that are less available because they’re more motivated by the thought of losing something as opposed to gaining something of equal value.
This feeling is compounded under conditions where something is newly scarce instead of having been scarce the entire time.
6. Create Consistency
It’s easier to follow suit with a former decision rather than go through the effort in making a new one.
Reminders of earlier commitments can hold people accountable to their original behavior and persuade them to act accordingly.
7. Create Unity
People say yes more often to those they consider “one of them” and that hold a shared identity.
Sharing experiences and getting together in social interactions also helps to enhance unity (meeting in person or over a quick zoom call).
How this is relevant for a:
Freelancer — Selling your services can feel like an uphill battle. But using these skills can help you to navigate clients giving you the runaround.
Full-timer — Piles of work get killed in review meetings. Use a few of the processes above and you can be sure that more work will see the light of day.
Dabbler — Sometimes the hardest part of getting deeper into a creative pursuit is just getting someone to bet on you. Use these skills to tip them over the edge on making that bet.
These are just a few of the ways you can go about overcoming objections to get more work, get better work, and over time use that to increase your rates.
Which one have you used the most? Which one could you focus on more?
