I spend an increasing amount of time providing SEO advice to my clients. They’re usually the kind of firms you’d expect to need such advice: sole traders, SMEs, firms inexperienced in digital marketing, startups without a site. And what all those clients have in common is a strong need for sound advice coupled with an even stronger need to invest resources wisely.

Often, there will be a discussion about what I could do for them before they commit to buy. And that discussion is usually pretty wide-ranging. To illustrate the services I can provide or broker, I’ll propose many SEO tactics that would be specifically useful for them – as opposed to generic tactics that would work for anyone.

In fact, if they were taking careful notes, they’d end up with a passable SEO strategy just from the conversation. What’s more, the follow-up tasks involved are sometimes relatively mechanical (directory submissions, article marketing), allowing them to be handled in-house or overseas. The prospect could easily take what I’ve given them for free and use it to create significant value for themselves – and I’d never know. In other words, my effusive proposal could easily lead straight to being jilted at the altar.

It’s a serious issue for freelancers, and service providers generally. When does advice stop being an incentive to purchase and start being a product in itself? Where does a comprehensive proposal become a suicidal value giveaway? How much valuable knowledge should you share without payment? And just what is your advice really worth?

What you want

Let’s say you’re submitting a proposal to a client. On the face of it, your aim couldn’t be simpler: convert the prospect to a sale. But there are subtler concerns. The negotiation or proposal stage offers a valuable insight into how the working relationship might pan out. What will the client be like to work with? What if they question your advice, or refuse to act on it? How will differences of opinion be dealt with? Working through a proposal now could give you a chance to find out before any commitment is made. That gives you the option of walking away, or (more likely) quietly incorporating some ‘messing around money’ into your price.

Even if they’re not going to buy right now, you want them to remember you fondly and come back later – possibly after trying someone cheaper. And even if they’re never coming back, you should be mindful that people do talk to each other. Not just locally, but globally, through social media and other networks. Deal or no deal, you’re putting your reputation out there every time you pitch.

What you don’t want

So there are lots of reasons to submit a detailed proposal, offer useful advice and answer your prospect’s questions in some detail. But there are just as many reasons to hold back, or at least carefully consider what you want to share.

The first and most obvious reason is that you’re not being paid. The time you spend preparing and discussing your proposal must be either written off as an overhead (effectively, spreading the cost across all your clients) or charged to this particular prospect when they become a client (not explicitly, but as a tacit element of the price). For freelances, this sort of accounting is largely notional, since they rarely tot up every hour and assign it to a cost centre. But it’s still worth considering how much time you’re investing for an uncertain reward. Think of the opportunity cost – the money you could have earned elsewhere with the time you’re spending. Is this prospect actually worth that many hours?

The second reason is that you don’t want to give away valuable knowledge for free. For freelances who are paid for tangible deliverables (text, designs, websites), it can be tough to get clients to recognise the value of advice. The idea that ‘talk is cheap’ is pretty powerful. Indeed, it can be hard to recognise the value of your own consultancy, if you’re stuck in the same materialistic mindset.

Remember: if your free proposal can help someone add value to their business, in any way at all, you’re effectively giving them something for nothing. From this perspective, it’s worth thinking more like a lawyer, who charges for every conversation regardless of its content. That might be an impossible goal for most freelances, but it’s still a worthy principle: the band don’t play for free.

Thirdly, you don’t want to cede negotiating power. You want the prospect to understand what they’re buying, but not gain the ‘little knowledge’ that would allow them to misguidedly pick and choose from the service menu, or attempt to impose an alternative pricing model (for example, hourly rate instead of price-per-service). You also don’t want to give them the confidence to go back to the market for a different provider (say, one from a low-cost economy) – or, again, use the threat of doing so to secure a lower price.

Finally, and most subtly, you don’t want to seem too needy. Giving away the farm at the proposal stage suggests you’re desperate for work, which won’t instil confidence in the prospect. Remember the negotiation adage: ‘she who cares least wins’. So you need to respect yourself and do the right thing by your business – although, obviously, without striking an arrogant tone that will turn the prospect off.

What they want

It’s worth considering the client’s viewpoint too. They want to understand what they’re buying, but they’re probably making a foray into an unfamiliar market where they must buy with incomplete knowledge. They’re not going to splurge on a ‘black box’ solution where money goes in and results come out – most firms will stick with the status quo rather than take that sort of risk. (A notable recent exception is social media – in its infancy, firms were clearly spending on ‘gurus’ with little idea of what would be delivered in return for their fees.)

Most firms also appreciate that experts must have trust in order to deliver, but they don’t want to pay for snake oil. And behind the business rationale lies the deep-seated and very powerful need of human beings not to feel humiliated in front of peers by making a mistake or being taken for a ride.

Setting the boundary

In such a situation, only those in-demand suppliers with stellar reputations can set their personal ‘paywalls’ at the outer limits of their expertise. Like film stars who no longer have to audition, they don’t have to prove their worth. The rest of us need to do our little dance to make it rain.

So somehow, you have to set the boundaries on the advice you’ll give away for free. In theory, this will dictate the point in the conversation at which you will say (or imply), ‘If you want to know more, you must pay’. And it’s clearly worth deciding where this point is before you get talking, so you don’t end up putting the phone down with the sinking feeling that you’ve given away far too much.

General knowledge

One solution is to provide loads of advice, but keep it generic. You could have a ‘one size fits all’ template that you simply adapt for each new client, tweaking the content a little and changing the title page.

This can work, but most firms have already moved this type of content one stage earlier in the sales process by offering it for free in the form of web pages, blogs, white papers or free ebooks. Available to everyone online, it serves a dual purpose: building credibility before the client approach, and building SEO profile. So you might not win many client hearts by serving up this kind of content as a proposal.

Also, it’s not really about what you know, but how it’s applied. You may have testimonials, articles and past clients in abundance, but your prospect is still asking themselves whether you can do it for them.  Will you understand what they do? Will the service benefit their business? Generic content won’t deliver that kind of reassurance.

A better approach is probably to indicate the general themes of the service you’d deliver, without going into great detail on what will be involved. This can still be very valuable to a client who knows nothing, but it should be possible to leave them a lot of work to do if they want to exploit it without you.

Buying with the heart

Another perspective on the proposal dilemma is the emotional mindset of the prospect.

No-one likes buying stuff they know nothing about. And yet most of us buy far more with our hearts than with our heads. At some point in the process of appraising a product or supplier, we’ll decide (perhaps unconsciously) that we’re going to buy. This might happen, for example, when we first step over the threshold of a property, or when we see a pair of shoes on someone else’s feet. Our subsequent ‘research’ or ‘shopping around’ is actually about building up confidence and gathering data to support a decision that’s already been made – or, perhaps, so we can justify it to others. The intellect serves the emotions, not vice versa – and we may never admit how and when the true decision was made.

So you need to be attuned to the point at which your prospect clicks emotionally with your offer. If you feel they have decided to use you, you can force the free consultation phase to a close with confidence. Continued unpaid dialogue adds no value for you and could even risk unselling them. Prospects will carry on listening to free advice even though they’re ready to buy – they won’t want to look stupid or gullible by thrusting cash into your hands for something you’re willing to give away. People need a cue to act, so give them it.

I’d be fascinated to hear your own experiences on this topic, and how you decide where to set the limits on proposals you submit to clients.

This is the second of two linked posts on negotiation for freelances. Read the first part here.

Choosing the channel

While the content of the negotiation is obviously paramount, the channel you use to negotiate can have a significant impact on how things pan out. In other words, it’s not just what you say – it’s the way you’re obliged to say it.

• Face-to-face negotiation can be daunting, but brings the advantage that you can read the body language and facial signals of your client. The choice of venue can be key; negotiating on your ‘home ground’ feels reassuring.
• Email provides ample time and space to consider your response and a written record of every move in the game, but your only feedback is what the client chooses to include in their emails.
• Phone can be the worst of both worlds, with no visual feedback and no time to respond either. However, many negotiations do end up being conducted by phone. Help yourself by choosing quiet surroundings and using the clearest line you can (i.e. a landline).

If you can, take charge of the situation by initiating negotiations in the channel you want, rather than passively waiting for the client to choose one. There’s nothing worse than taking a client’s call unexpectedly and being pitched into a negotiation without warning. Similarly, if you feel pressure during the proceedings, consider asking for a time-out and moving the negotiation to a channel you feel more comfortable with.

Handling the negotiation

• Choose your style. Everyone has their own negotiating style, and it usually flows from their personality. If you’re naturally bullish, you may feel comfortable with an ‘in your face’, aggressive approach. If you’re more laid-back, a more conciliatory, co-operative style may work better.
• Banish emotion. It is your enemy. Handling negotiation is about presence of mind, rationality and balance – like playing chess. Remember: he or she who cares least wins. If your client gets emotional, try to defuse the situation, perhaps with a time-out.
• Look for trades. Negotiation works through quid pro quo. Determine what’s important to the client, and weigh it against what’s important for you. If you’re quiet right now, could you offer faster turnaround in return for a higher price? Or, if you’re just starting out, how about a lower price in return for a glowing testimonial?
• Get their information. Probe the client on the factors behind their stance: how they want to work, the aims of the project, budgetary constraints and so on. There may be an opportunity to trade, but you need to know what they want first. Savvy clients will know that disclosing budget weakens their position, so just get them to chat on a general level and see what comes out.
• Guard your information. Be aware of the value of certain information; by disclosing it, you may cede the advantage. For example, a seemingly innocuous enquiry about how busy you are, or your experience in certain areas, may be the prelude to price pressure. If you don’t want to reveal, try a vague or non-committal response – many clients won’t want to press the issue.
• Make space and time. Don’t be afraid to ask for time to respond. For example, many prospects ask for a ballpark price during the very first call, but quoting a big-sounding number without context can be fatal. You need the chance to put a proposal together with price and service information, communicating value as well as cost, before negotiations begin.
• Know your value. If you’re invited to make your price ‘more competitive’, but it’s competitive already, say so. Restate all the things you’re going to do for the price proposed, making it clear what a great package you’re offering. Above all, remember that although the client has a choice, they’re talking to you; they want you to do this project. You are not powerless.
• Cite authority. If you can, refer to an authoritative third party to back up your stance. For example, many industry bodies have standard rates that can be useful. However, since they’re intended to prevent exploitation, they’re admittedly more likely to bolster your bottom line than give you a target to aim for.
• Walk away. If the client repeatedly offers terms below your bottom line, politely decline the project. Do it calmly and unemotionally, with a smile, and certainly with no feeling of ‘paying them back’. Remember, it’s just business. To emphasise this, you could apologise for being unable to meet their expectations, or wish them luck in finding a supplier who can meet them. They may counter-offer, or they may not; as things stand, this isn’t a job worth going for.

After the negotiation

• Record commitments. As soon as you can, set down the agreement in writing and get it agreed. There’s nothing worse than thinking you’ve got a deal, only to find your recollections of the conversation differ.
• Chase up. If the negotiation stalls (for example, you submit a price by email and receive no response), make sure you chase up the client to find out why. Sometimes, you might feel that you don’t want to know – that the information can only undermine confidence. But it’s always better to know.
• Look for learning. Finally, review the negotiation and think about what you could have done differently. Even if you achieved your top line, there will still be details of technique that could be improved.

This is the first of two linked posts on negotiation for freelances. The second part can be seen here.

Negotiating the terms of a project can be one of the most difficult things for freelances to manage, after generating new business. For those without a commercial background, such as copywriters or graphic designers, hammering out a deal can feel a very long way from the comfort zone. It may become a source of real anxiety that taints the enjoyment of the ‘real’ work to be done.

That’s a shame, because negotiation is a skill that can be acquired by anyone. While some people have a natural flair for negotiation, the rest of us can still learn how to apply the basic principles, achieving a huge step forward from ad hoc, reactive or emotional approaches that deliver mixed results at best, frustration at worst.

Preparing to negotiate

The key to successful negotiation is preparation. Thinking through what you will and won’t accept, and your alternatives, puts you in a position of power right from the start. Without preparation, you’re entering a competition without really knowing the rules – so don’t be surprised if you don’t come out on top.

Your top line

Your top line is the best deal you could hope for in the circumstances. In an ideal world, what would you like to agree in terms of price, timescale, working method and other factors? Know this in your mind, or ideally write it down, before negotiation begins.

This might seem pointless – surely we all just want as much cash and time as possible? That’s true in a sense, but of course there are limits to both. Realistically, rates are dictated by your experience, the market and the economy, while timescales can never be completely open-ended. Psychologically, it’s much easier to aim for an absolute goal (“£x per day”) rather than a relative one (“more money”). After all, another £5 a day would be “more money”. Would that satisfy you?

Your bottom line

The converse of the top line is your bottom line: the worst deal you would accept. As with the top line, consider the minimum rate, shortest timescale and least convenient terms that you could live with. If the terms are worse than this – in any one aspect, or more – you’ll decline the project.

Take everything into account: the need to make a profit, opportunity cost (if you do this, you can’t work on something else) and emotional impact. Financially, it’s probably better to be busy than idle, but if the terms of the job make you feel miserable and used, the knock-on effects on your motivation just aren’t worth it.

The bottom line is an important safeguard against accepting the wrong terms in the heat of the moment. Like an automated ‘stop loss’ in investing, it protects you against your own fear and greed, setting a rational limit on what you’ll accept before you walk away. Crucially, you do this before you negotiate, rather than bumping up against it during the negotiation or (worse) realising that you’ve gone beyond it when it’s too late.

Your BATNA

‘BATNA’ stands for Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. Your BATNA is whatever you will do if an agreement cannot be reached with your client.

Getting a concrete sense of your BATNA gives you a sense of perspective about the consequences of not getting the project. Instead of entertaining apocalyptic imaginings of going bust, losing your house and becoming a vagrant, you create a realistic picture of the outcomes that will result – and the actions you’ll take – if no agreement is reached. For example:

If I don’t get this work, I’ll…

• …work on my other projects, but in a more leisurely and enjoyable way
• …spend some time networking or marketing myself
• …acquire a new skill
• …do something outside work I really enjoy, and return to work refreshed

The point here is to focus on what will be gained if this opportunity does not proceed, not just what will be ‘lost’. As the Zen saying goes, ‘every exit is an entry somewhere else’. (And you can’t really lose what you never had.)

Working up your BATNA takes the sting out of your fear of loss, so you understand that missing out on this deal or project isn’t the end of the world – just another turn in the path.

You are now armed with the three key parameters of a negotiating position: your top line, your bottom line and your BATNA. Let the games begin!

• Now read Part 2 of 2: The Negotiation