How to Sell Your Writing Without Selling Your Soul

Think you recognize your ABC? in fact, you are doing — you’re a writer! But is there another ABC you’re neglecting?

“Always Be Closing” is that the seminal phrase from the 1992 classic movie Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), and although the movie itself may be a pretty grim meditation on the darker side of the sales industry, the philosophy is worth remembering. Because if you aren’t constantly thinking of the way you'll help prospective clients together with your content, likelihood is that they won’t pay much attention thereto either.

Instead of viewing sales as relentlessly pushing your wares on unwilling candidates, you've got to start out watching it as pulling your clients toward you by being what marketer Tim Grahl calls “relentlessly helpful.”

From Cow-Patch PCs to Pitching Content
My first job out of school was selling PCs for Gateway 2000, the made-to-order, mail-order PCs within the distinctive black-and-white boxes. it had been only meant to be short-lived measure, how to stay body and soul together while I found out what to try to to with my useless International Marketing & Languages degree, but it ended up being a desirable lesson in human psychology that has stayed with more for quite 20 years.

I can’t say I used to be a natural-born seller: actually, the thought of selling had always inspired visions of loud guys in cheap suits with sticky hair pushing things on people they neither wanted nor understood. But it seems I used to be completely wrong.

Sales — proper sales — is about meeting needs. And meeting needs means helping people. If you're pleased with your work as a writer, and you think it can help your clients, you would like to point out how. I still have the “Rocker Manual” we received at the beginning of our sales training at Gateway, and therefore the methods outlined in it are as relevant for marketing your writing services today as they were for selling piebald PCs back within the ‘90s.

Positive Impressions
The greatest destroyer of sales is fear. People don’t buy because they're afraid. they're scared of making an error and being duped, but most of all, they're scared of you.

Gateway 2000’s motto was “you’ve got a lover within the business.” You don’t get to be your clients’ friend, but you are doing got to overcome their fears by using comforting language in your pitch; don’t mention “problems” — mention “challenges.” rather than citing “customers,” mention “people you're employed with.”

Make positive — possibly even obvious — statements and follow them up with a tie-down. What’s a tie-down? an issue that demands a “yes” answer. An example: “investing in your content is sensible, doesn’t it?”

Always Be Closing: Examples
When you have demonstrated to your clients that you simply have their best interests at the bottom, they're going to be much more receptive to your work. But don’t think you'll just send your proposal and await the offers to reach your inbox: you would like to (gulp) invite the sale.

Before you curl into a ball and conceal within the corner, this is often tons easier than you think that. posing for the sale is just tying everything up with a reasonable bow. If you’ve done the diligence, they're going to see how good your writing is. But maybe they’ve seen other good writing. or even they're going to be persuaded by the work of someone less talented, hard-working, and committed than you — because that person asked for the sale.

Here are some non-threatening approaches to invite the business:
Alternate choice close
The alternate choice close is right for that customer who doesn’t want to look too eager, but you recognize wants to travel ahead. Essentially, you ask an issue that has two answers, but each answer confirms a sale. In other words:

“Would you wish your newsletter to travel out once a fortnight or once a month?”
The porcupine technique
This is the technique of answering an issue with an issue. If your prospect asks you questions, it means they're interested. Answering an issue with an easy “yes” or “no” stops the communication in its tracks. Replying to “how soon could you deliver my sites ?” with “how soon does one need them?” puts you on top of things and brings you closer to the stage where you're delivering those web pages.

The similar situation close
Prospects who are still somewhat wary of the facility of excellent writing to sell their services need reassurance. you'll do that by telling them about other clients who were in similar positions but took the leap, invested in your services, and are so happy they did. However, if you're taking this approach, confirm your examples are real. this is often not the patter of a shifty salesman.

Overcoming objections
When an opportunity seems negative in their response to your proposal, it is often disheartening, but some objections are just invitations to influence.
“I want to think it over.”

When somebody says this, they aren’t saying no. they're saying they need some reservation that they need you to place to rest, or they only want a while. Tell them you understand completely why they could need time to think about it. Then ask them what it's they need to chew over . this provides you another opportunity to reassure them. And if they really do exactly want to think about your proposal, arrange a date for getting back in-tuned.
“It’s too expensive.”

For some clients, paying for words just looks like an indulgence, a luxury as useful to their business as peacocks on the front lawn. you would like to be prepared for objections like this and hit them with facts.

This is where good research comes into play. Arm yourself with hard stats on visibility, engagement, sales, and other improvements that good content can generate. If these stats are generated among your own clients, all the higher.

Then break down your fee into ever tinier amounts over the quarter, the month, the week, then on — “that works out at $3 per day,” for instance.
Now, pause. Silence is the favorite tool of the accomplished marketer. Allow the inescapable logic of your argument to sink in as you say nothing.
Conclusion

Remember that “sell” isn't a four-letter Anglo-Saxon word. Selling is just being really, really helpful. You produce quality content that helps clients to perform better. But you would like to inform them that. It’s simple:

Put them comfortable.

2. Give them your proposal.
3. invite the business.
If I could roll in the hay to sell PCs with farm-inspired packaging, you'll roll in the hay together with your writing.