7 Common Objections Freelancers Face, Now Answered
Posted February 24, 2012 in Getting Clients, Managing Clients
Successfully handling client objections is an essential part of running a freelancing business. However, when faced with a prospect or client objection for the first time, many freelancers don’t know what to do. Even worse, they may take the objection personally.
Facing an objection from a prospective client doesn’t have to mean that you’ve lost their business. Instead, it can be the launching point for a discussion that leaves of both you feeling better about doing business with each other.
In this post, I’ll discuss seven common prospective client objections. I’ll also invite you to share client objections that you’ve faced and to explain how you’ve handled them.
Common Objections
Here are seven common objections that prospective clients often bring up and tips for handling each objection:
- You Don’t Have Enough Experience. This can be a challenging objection to overcome if you are just starting out. Take this as a challenge to show them why you are qualified. If you are a student, tell them what you accomplished as a student. For example, “I was top in my design class at college.” You can also refer them to your portfolio or professional samples. (If you don’t have a portfolio or professional samples, your next task is to create them.)
- You Are Too Old. While age discrimination is illegal in the United States, this objection crops up anyway. Fortunately, it’s easily dealt with if you’ve been keeping your skills up-to-date. List some recent courses or projects that you’ve completed that show that your expertise in the latest developments in your field. Refer this prospect to your latest samples. This is where your own blog and guest blogging can help strengthen your freelancing resume. Make sure that what you write highlights your knowledge.
- Your Fees Are Too High. Your first task is to discover whether your fees are a little too high or a lot too high. If prospective client feels your fees are a little too high, you can work with the prospect to show them why you are worth the extra investment. If the prospect feels your fees are a lot too high, then they are probably not a true prospect for you. You can decide whether you want educate them about the value of your work, or you can just let them go elsewhere. Just don’t waste a whole lot of time on someone who is unlikely to buy.
- My Last Freelancer Did X. Sadly, clients often judge us by what our predecessors did. This can be good or bad, depending on the predecessor. If you find yourself working with a client who has been burnt by a freelancer in the past, you may wind up working twice as hard to prove yourself. Just stay calm and remind yourself (and from time to time, the client) that you are not that other freelancer. Remember that the client has been hurt in the past and is now wary of freelancers.
- I Can Do This Myself. Many prospective clients say this and it may indeed be true–in theory. Your prospective client very well might have the skills to do the project that they are assigning to you. In reality, however, the prospect probably doesn’t have the time to do the work. That’s why they need you. Point out that by using your services, they are freeing themselves up so that they can devote more time to what they really want to be doing.
- I Need This More Quickly. This can be a great point to start negotiating from. Ask the client when they actually do need the project. Maybe they can reduce the scope to get it sooner. If you charge rush fees, this may be the time to implement them. You might also wish to bring in a subcontractor to help you meet their more aggressive deadline. If you find, however, that the deadline is totally unrealistic, it may be time to educate the client about how long the project actually takes.
- You Don’t Have (Specific Experience). A very common objection that prospects make is that, while you have experience, it isn’t specific to their project. They might phrase such an objection like this, “we were really looking for someone who has experience designing websites for nonprofits.” If you feel that you can do the job, explain how your past experience ties into their project. Be as specific as you can be. Remember, you may see these commonalities, but to your client their project is totally unique.
A Final Word of Caution
Clients and prospective clients often don’t voice their true objection. Sometimes, they voice everything but their true objection. Other times, they just quietly slip away.
That’s why it’s up to you to open the dialog and get them to voice what’s really bothering them so that you can deal with it. Try saying things like, “what could I do to change your mind?”
Your Turn
What are some common client/prospect objections that you’ve encountered? How have you answered them?
Share your stories in the comments.
Image by ImNotQuiteJack
Related posts:
- How to Deal with the Unique Challenges That Freelancers Face
- Six Dilemmas That Freelancers Face Over the Holidays
- The Shy Freelancer’s Guide for Face-to-Face Networking
- Solve the Common Marketing Problems that Bug Most Freelancers
- Do You Make These 5 Common Negotiating Mistakes?
About the author: Laura Spencer is a freelance writer from North Central Texas with over 20 years of professional business writing experience. If you liked this post, then you may also enjoy Laura’s blog about her freelance writing experiences, WritingThoughts. Laura is also on Google+.
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15 Comments
Gold
February 24th, 2012 at 12:35 pmOne of the qualifications of a professional is continuing education. So The older professional is more qualified through education. You don’t allow that “your to old crud” slow you down with your sales presentation.
Your price is too high is ridiculous. Your being tested to see if you will drop your price for no good reason because the prospect said “Your price is too high.”
I contracted 150 professional photographers across the United States to photograph the front of my clients local facility for one photograph to be delivered to my client to be hung in the board of directors meeting room. I tried to find professionals within a couple of hundred miles of my client’s facility. I asked them how much would it cost so that I could get a Purchase Order written to get them started. My standard reply when I heard their price was, “Your Price is too high!”
40% of them gave me an answer the justified their price. With no further comment by me I accepted that price.
The other 60% hemmed and hawed and asked how much did I want to spend? My immediate reply was “50% less,” which they accepted without further comment.
Remember: I was buying professional photography from a professional photographer. That is what I received. If something was wrong with the photography I would take care of that when it happened which it never did!
Laura Spencer
February 24th, 2012 at 1:44 pmGold–Great responses to some common objections. I agree with you. Your experience with photographers and their pricing is really very interesting. I think that the 40% who justified their price did the right thing. It’s sad that most of them were willing to cut their prices in half, though. Thanks for the feedback.
Dr. Freelance aka Jake Poinier
February 24th, 2012 at 5:42 pmIn my experience, “I can do it myself” (or its variants, such as, “My sister-in-law is a writer”) isn’t always an objection that is worth overcoming. You need to be REALLY sure that the prospect truly understands the value of having a professional do it, or it’s going to be an ongoing battle of trying to justify yourself and your fees. We’ve all heard the expression “caveat emptor”…but there’s also “caveat venditor”!
And I’m still chuckling at “My last freelancer did X.” It’s like dating someone whose last breakup was a disaster, or a supermodel. There’s no winning that one.
Laura Spencer
February 24th, 2012 at 5:53 pmDr. Freelance aka Jake Poinier–Good points! I love the dating analogy. It really fits. :)
Morgan & Me Creative
February 27th, 2012 at 10:48 am‘I can do this myself’…it’s the same reason why we still keep the number of our local plumber in the common drawer at all times. Not that I have no idea how to fix a broken tap, it’s a real pain to find parts at the hardware store. Rather have someone else do it.
Honestly, it can be quite insulting and I think it’s a way of putting people down and trying to gain control or dominance. I consider this a red flag/warning sign. Probably that’s the reason also why clients who say such things get burnt, the designer probably decided they have had too much and quit.
Walter Martin
February 27th, 2012 at 9:29 pmYou are too old – I will get this one for the rest of time. It is ok though because I feel like I am 30 years younger than I am. I like to stay current on the trends and most of the younger people I play golf with cannot believe how much I know about today’s “stuff!” Thanks for the great article and keep up the good work!
Bannerdruck
February 29th, 2012 at 1:41 amAwesome!
Really appreciated the way you have presented your article!
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