Phone Calls Can Kill Your Copywriting Business

Recently, a coach­ing client asked me about deal­ing with prospec­tive clients over the phone.

This copy­writer under­stood the impor­tance of com­mu­ni­cat­ing with prospects and answer­ing their pre-​​sale ques­tions. How­ever, like me, he pre­ferred to avoid the tele­phone and asked me if his strat­egy was sound.

Free con­sul­ta­tions are often a nec­es­sary step in secur­ing clients in your early days as a copy­writer before you’ve estab­lished your exper­tise and devel­oped a reputation.

It’s nat­ural that poten­tial clients want to get a feel for your style and stan­dards with a “get­ting to know you ses­sion.” Quite often, they will want to do this via a phone con­sul­ta­tion with you.

I’m a big believer in open­ing the lines of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and I also like to pick up the phone to speak with a client when writ­ing copy.

But before a client hires me, I pre­fer to remain off the phone. Why? Because the tele­phone can be coun­ter­pro­duc­tive and even hurt your business.

As much as you can, give your prospects what they want with­out giv­ing in by restrict­ing these pre-​​contract con­sults to email.

No mat­ter how green you are to the copy­writ­ing field, you do not want to open the Pandora’s Box that phone con­sul­ta­tions rep­re­sent. Phone calls should remain a priv­i­lege open to pay­ing clients alone.

While this pol­icy may deter a hand­ful of poten­tial clients from engag­ing your ser­vices, they will undoubt­edly be clients that would have rep­re­sented major has­sle and headaches down the road.

Allow­ing phone con­sul­ta­tions before your client has com­mit­ted to your ser­vices can do more than eat up your time, it can have a huge impact on your bot­tom line.

Poten­tial clients who insist on phone con­sults tend to ask a bazil­lion ques­tions and often abuse the priv­i­lege as an oppor­tu­nity to use the calls as a free cri­tique of their copy.

In gen­eral, most clients won’t use the phone for the pur­pose of extract­ing free infor­ma­tion from you — at least, not at first.

But in many cases, if you’re try­ing to land a copy­writ­ing project you will have the incli­na­tion to give more on the call than the norm.

It’s only nat­ural. You want to strut your stuff and show your prospec­tive client that you know what you’re talk­ing about. After all, you’re try­ing to sell yourself.

How­ever, clients will often see this as a gift, not as a mar­ket­ing ges­ture. Many will tend to take advan­tage of your “good nature.” Albeit with­out any ill-​​intent, they may do so in sub­tle and invol­un­tary ways.

If you suc­cumb to their inquiries, you may end up talk­ing your­self out of a client by giv­ing them all the infor­ma­tion they need to com­plete the assign­ment on their own.

I believe that phone con­sults are, more often than not, sim­ply an excuse for not tak­ing action. They are typ­i­cally requested by peo­ple who aren’t ready to buy.

In fact, peo­ple who insist on a free phone con­sul­ta­tion can gen­er­ally be lumped into two categories:

1. The first is those that are techno-​​challenged, uncom­fort­able with using email.
2. The sec­ond cat­e­gory con­sists of abusers, free­load­ers, and tire-​​kickers.

To elim­i­nate the first group, you may want to have your prospect fill out a ques­tion­naire before­hand (which they can fax, if need be), or hire a third per­son to screen and han­dle your pre-​​sales calls for you.

Aside from the abil­ity to qual­ify your prospects for you, a third per­son will always sell you bet­ter than you can sell your­self. These gate­keep­ers will also increase your per­ceived value, too.

You can quickly and effec­tively elim­i­nate the sec­ond group from the equa­tion by charg­ing for pre-​​contract con­sul­ta­tions. You may, as I do, offer a dis­count equiv­a­lent to the fee as a credit towards future ser­vice if they decide to move forward.

While a prospect insist­ing on a phone call may be inno­cently ask­ing for more infor­ma­tion, in my expe­ri­ence phone con­sul­ta­tions are indica­tive of a high-​​maintenance client.

Ask­ing for a phone con­sul­ta­tion sends up imme­di­ate red flags for me, and it should for you too. More often than not, they are try­ing to squeeze infor­ma­tion from you — whether they intended it or not.

If they abuse your time with long or rep­e­ti­tious phone calls, and they get past the phone with­out the infor­ma­tion they sought and still choose to hire you, you will find many of them will tend to be of the scarcity mind­set.

They will be the type of client who will nit­pick you and nickel-​​and-​​dime you as well.

Alter­na­tively, you may find that they are very inse­cure. If so, they will con­tinue to be inse­cure dur­ing your time work­ing with them.

This means you have to take two to five times more time to explain and edu­cate them through­out the entire project. It’s not often worth the extra hand-​​holding and reas­sur­ances that go into sat­is­fy­ing the needs of a client like this.

So pro­tect your­self, your busi­ness and your san­ity by elim­i­nat­ing the option to begin with. The few clients who can­not be deterred from a phone con­sul­ta­tion should be will­ing to pay for this pre­mium service.

Those who don’t are likely not worth your time or bother. For every poten­tial client that has an issue with this pol­icy, there will be ten more will­ing to honor and respect your no-​​phone policies.

Plac­ing strong and clearly defined lim­its from the start of the rela­tion­ship by not tak­ing phone calls will attract bet­ter, more qual­i­fied clients.

The clients gained through this sim­ple screen­ing process will be more inclined to value your time and respect your tal­ents. You’ll find that you will be able to work on more sat­is­fy­ing projects for more appre­cia­tive clients.

Plus, refus­ing to work over the phone increases your per­ceived value — the value of your ser­vices and your time, and, above all, the value you place on your clients.

You are posi­tion­ing your­self not only as a copy­writer who val­ues her time, but also as one who respects and val­ues your client’s time, too.

This con­cept is no dif­fer­ent than any other rela­tion­ship in which a “hard-​​to-​​get” strat­egy is used. By not being avail­able over the phone you increase the per­cep­tion of your cred­i­bil­ity, author­ity and higher demand on your time.

The mature client will assume that, if you value your time that much, then you will value the time you will spend work­ing with them, too. They will appre­ci­ate it more.

Bot­tom line, hav­ing a no-​​phone pol­icy with non-​​clients increases your worth through the con­cept of scarcity and the odds of land­ing the client who truly wants to work with you on your terms.

After all, you’re a copy­writer, not a telemarketer.

About the Author

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