How I Overcame My Fear Of Networking For Potential Clients

In this post, I talk about my experience of how I managed to overcome my fear of meeting and networking for potential clients while freelancing.

Before I really started getting into freelancing, the idea of networking really freaked me out.

The reason it did was because I used to imagined networking as going into this big room full of people in suits and trying to sell them on my services and that I was the person they needed.

This idea made me feel like a phony because first of all, it is rare if not impossible to decide whether your service is best for an individual before you have ever met them.

In fact, I found that in alot of cases I could recommend someone else who I knew would be more suited and able to serve that person better than myself.

How I dealt with the problem

To deal  with my fear, I sat down one night and broke down the key components on which my fear was based on, which include the following:

1. I was afraid that if I recommended other people, I would lose potential business
2. I felt that if I was honest with what I was actually capable of doing, people wouldn’t hire me
3. I didn’t feel like I was good enough and that other people would always be able to provide a better service
4. Once I got a project, I felt like there was no turning back if I couldn’t meet the clients expectations, so i didn’t try to win projects at all

After honing in on the 4 fears that were holding me back and thinking about them properly, I came to the following conclusions:

1. If I recommended other people who I knew could serve them better, they would remember me for being honest and pointing them in the right direction. This could then possibly lead to them recommending people they know to me if they meet or know anyone who would be well suited to the services I was capable of providing
   
   Real World Example
   
   For example, there was a case when I had a potential client (lets call him Rob) ask me if I would be able to build a website for them using flash. I didn’t have much experience with flash and told him that I was more focused on building more  practical blogging websites optimized for search engine traffic and such.

   He told me he didn’t care for any of that and just wanted a site that was visual and dynamic; somewhere he could direct his clients to on his business card as something to boost his credibility. He said he did most of his networking locally and in person, so he didn’t care about being found in search engines (??)

   Anyway, instead of trying to insist to him that he was wrong or that I could help him (even though I knew I probably couldn’t meet his project criteria), I recommended him to a friend of mine who I knew could build flash websites and optimize them for search engines.

   After parting ways, I thought that was the end my interaction from him. A few weeks later I get a call from a person saying that they’d been recommended to me by Rob. Apparently Rob was so happy with the work of the friend I recommended to him that he felt grateful to me for pointing him in the right direction.

   Lesson learned

   People remember the people who help them.

   People will send people to the services of friends and people they like, even if slightly less capable than some other people they know

2. Don’t underestimate the quality of the service you feel you are capable of providing and be confident in what you know you can do. If the client could do it better than you, they wouldn’t be hiring you in the first place. Also, it is always possible to back out of a project if a client really starts to feel that the project isn’t moving in the direction they want, which usually doesn’t happen because alot of clients usually don’t know what they want as they lack the knowledge and experience, hence they pay the money to hire someone who knows, which in this case is YOU or someone you recommend them to
   
   Real World Example
   
   When I tried out for my first project on Elance, I really had nothing to show for it. I wasn’t a professionally trained graphic designer, barely knew anything about how to use adobe photoshop or illustrator and here I was looking to bid on a project where this guy wanted an entire book written on how to do this Brazilian martial art.

   I had some experience doing it and had also trained in a number of different martial arts before, however I didn’t know jack s*@t about writing eBooks or using the software to create them.

   After spending maybe  3 days trying to work out how adobe illustrator and in-design worked (i’ve since found out that during the whole project I had used it less than optimally), I made a quick and what I considered crappy example of what I believed I could offer in terms of service and then waited.

   A day later, this guy emails me saying he loves my stuff and that even though the bidding for the project would go on for a few more days, he’d already decided that I was the right fit for the job.

   Wow, I thought to myself. Here I’d though that the mock I made was a piece of sh*t and the guy loved it. As it goes, I won the job and spent the next month creating the book for him which he liked and paid me handsomely for.

   Lesson learned
   
   Your work doesn’t suck just because you think it does.

   Most clients don’t really know what they want when they write project specifications. It is your job to educate them and show them what is possible.

   Don’t underestimate what you can offer and giving it a shot is better than not trying at all. You can always pull out of the project if things don’t work out with no hard feelings or negative implications.
   

How I Do My Networking

Nowadays I usually get work through recommendations by friends or clients who I’ve managed to please with my work.

Even then, when I meet the prospective client I usually don’t start telling them what I can offer before asking them about what they want.

Its more of just having a conversation with them so I can see if I am actually right for them and can meet their needs.

If they are saying they want a specific thing that I can’t offer, I will be open with telling them that I can’t and will then explain to them what I am capable of doing.

If at the end of the conversation everyone is happy I have a client. If not, then I try to recommend someone who I feel can help and we part ways with no hard feelings.

Conclusion

Just remember that networking is nothing more than having a conversation with another person to see if you can meet their needs. You have to let go of the idea that every potential client you meet is someone who you have to work with and sell your services to, even if it is clearly a bad fit.

Don’t be like those door to door sales men who try to insist you buy their years worth of laundry coupons even though you’ve told them you have a washing machine and are not interested for the 100th time.

Find clients who you will enjoy working with and who you know whose needs you can meet. Redirect the rest to people who you think can help them, and those people usually end up sending more qualified clients your way as well.

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Related posts:

1. How to Reduce Fear by Thinking Like a Freelancer
2. Step 4: Overcoming fear and believing in yourself
3. 3 tips to help you stand out and win freelance projects

Tagged as: clients, find, networking, overcome fear, reduce fear