Here’s a question for you:
Can ten minutes make a ten thousand dollar difference?
Not so long ago, a colleague introduced me to a client in need of a narrator. His institute was searching for a European voice and for someone who could read an audio book full of names and quotes in German, French, Dutch and other languages. That happens to be my specialty, and I was pretty confident that I could take on the task.
A day later I received an email. The client had listened to my online demos and found my sound to be ‘too commercial’ for this academic endeavor. In other words: Goodbye, Vielen Dank and bonne chance.
Some people might leave it at that and move on to the next best thing. Not me. My response to this client was a short and simple
Paul, like so many of your previous posts, this was a gem of an eye-opener for me. You have a gift: the ability to turn observations into lessons. This piece was just brimming with good sense. Hopefully, enough people will read and heed it so it will become common sense. I’m glad I check your blog most every morning.
I wish I had the time to write a new blog every morning… Thanks -as always- for your comments. As for the content of this blog: one can lead a horse to the water but that’s it.
The voice-over community is such a diverse and multi-talented group of people, and there are so many great blogs out there. I’m just very grateful for every single reader who chooses to spend a few minutes to see what I have to say.
If you’re interested in Mike’s versatile sound, here’s the place to go: http://www.mike-harrison.com/voice-over-demos.htm
I cannot say it any better than Mike did. Right on target. Bull’s-eye.
Better to hit the bull’s eye than to offer a load of b… Thanks, David!
Essential advice for anyone in freelance. Thank you Paul! Excellent write-up.
Thanks, Ben. Hopefully, many will take it to heart. Some have suggested that following up is nothing but a common courtesy. Well, it seems to be so common that it’s often overlooked.
Thanks, Paul. Great piece. I would tell my radio ad sales staff to build relationships with clients by doing appropriate F-U, as opposed to strictly transactional exchanges. Same goes for VO. When economic times get tough or when you’re in competition with others, I believe the client will go with the people who F-U.
You make some good points, Steve. At the end of the day (as well as at the beginning) it’s all about building long-lasting quality relationships in business and in life. In business, I think it’s important to emphasize relevance in communication.
Thanks to the rise of social media, the boundaries between the personal and the professional are increasingly blurred, and this results in mixed messages. That’s why I am receiving hundreds of messages a day that are completely irrelevant and distracting.
An effective follow-up is a tool to build a relationship of relevance. And what determines relevance? Is it a mass email newsletter that has the same information for each and every contact? Is it a tweet that goes out to huge group of followers?
Those things are the written equivalents of the generic demo. It’s a highly unpersonalized shot in the dark from someone who seeks to be understood first.
I have learned a lot from Mark Magdich, my sales engineer at Sweetwater (1 800 222 4700 ext. 1265). He asks questions. He listens. He zooms in on my specific needs as a voice-over pro. In other words: he wants to understand my problem before he offers any solutions.
His primary focus is not: How can I sell this client the most expensive piece of equipment? Mark’s focus is on providing a solution that is a good fit for me and my budget. In order to do that, he has to know his stuff, and believe me, he does.
Follow-up is an essential ingredient of after-sales, another overlooked area in some businesses. Every Sweetwater client knows that the delivery of the product is a sweet experience. The customer also gets an opportunity to give feedback.
A few weeks after the product has been delivered, Marks checks in with me to find out what I think of my new gear. Not only does this give his company invaluable information from real users (as opposed to company reps), it’s also another opportunity to strengthen the business relationship in general.
In my opinion, it ultimately comes down to this: We’re not sales people. We’re friendly, knowledgeable and reliable problem solvers.
Hi, Paul.
Like many have posted, I too am a fan of your blog. I like the fact that you’re conscious of your actions and strive to be a better person. Moreover, I love the fact that you encourage your readers to do the same in an industry that’s full of anxiety and instability. You’re a great role model!
Your solution to how to handle unpaid bills (to leave it up to your lawyer/bookkeeper) is interesting. Unfortunately, not many freelancers are able to hire someone to take care of this and thus have to do it on their own. I’m interested to hear what advice you have for people in this situation.
Thanks!
You make me blush! I do appreciate your compliments very much.
In my article about saying no, I suggested that every freelancer should ask this question:
What is the number one thing in my business that:
– Is an essential part of my job
– I’m not good at
– I hate to do
– Takes up way too much time
Now ask yourself two questions:
– How much more productive would I be, if I would outsource this to an expert?
– How much more profitable would I be, if I would outsource this work?
In business, any investment should ultimately pay for itself. Most voice-overs only run a very small operation and thus, it wouldn’t take too many hours for a professional to stay on top of your books. You -on the other hand- would probably spend too much time dealing with the numbers and that time is much better spent behind the microphone.
Do you have a good sense of how many hours you spend each week, keeping the books? How about at tax time? Keeping your finances organized saves a tremendous amount of time (and frustration) when you do the filing for the IRS.
Believe me, once you’ve figured out how many hours per month a professional bookkeeper would need to stay on top of your finances (and do not go by the amount of time it takes you to do this), you might be surprised!
Here are some suggestions to keep things affordable:
– offer to barter: why not be the voice on your bookkeeper’s IVR and do that local commercial in exchange for his or her services?
– use a service like community exchange. Here’s a link to a program in my area: http://www.lvhn.org/lvh/Your_LVH/Community/Community_Health%7C2270 In a nutshell, you get credits for a service you provide and you can use these credits to get a service you need. No money is ever exchanged. You can e.g. teach a yoga class and use the credits for the services of a handyman.
– you can also barter with friends, family members or colleagues.
– share a bookkeeper with a number of other freelancers (very much like secretary services)
– some folks run their business family style: one partner is the voice-over talent and the other is the bookkeeper/manager/secretary/editor etcetera
Having a bookkeeper shows the world that you’re running a professional business. It shields you from possible negative interactions with clients and it allows you to keep these relationships ‘clean’ and positive.
Let’s not reinvent the wheel here. Instead, I’d like to ask other readers to share solutions they have come up with.
This is an excellent opportunity to put the power of follow-up into practice! I wonder who’s going to be our first respondent…
Paul,
I think I just gained an entire seminar’s worth of the most helpful information in this one post. Thank you for sharing. You just gained another subscriber.
Derek Chappell
Welcome on board, Derek! Thanks for mentioning the subscription-option. Not everybody knows that they can get the latest updates on their Google home page or Google reader. Simply click on the subscribe-button in the right-hand top corner for these and more options. Signing up take less than a minute!
I encourage everyone to click on Derek’s name (above) to access his website. It is clean, easy to navigate and it gets his message across effectively. And if you’ve ever wondered what a voice-logo is, Derek will tell you in his welcoming message.
Glad to be aboard Paul. Thank you for the kind words and recommendation to check out my website. I appreciate you taking the time to do so.
Hi, Derek! Just checked out your site… very clean! I like that you don’t have the recording play automatically. One other thing, I guess great minds think alike… I have a letter I wrote posted on my website that is very similar to what you propose in the recording… the consistency of a single voice that becomes a voice logo, as you say, or as what I call an audio brand.
Fantastic blog post, Paul! I’m with Derek… this is definitely information that is seminar worthy. The check’s in the mail! 😉
One day I’ll turn it into a book and become rich and famous… and retire early.
Thanks for singing my praises, by the way. Just today, a member of my congregation was praising my singing. Today’s a good day!
Don’t send any checks. Just send more people to my blog. The more the merrier!