Different Clients have different needs. Never forget.

We almost lost a client that put $800 bucks in my pocket today because my partner failed to do one thing. Address her individual needs. She was frustrated with the response she was getting from him and pulled out.

I sent her a simple email telling her that I was sorry I wasn't going to get to work with them and I asked why she was pulling out. She said it boiled down to money. Now I've been reading a bit of Zig Ziglar lately and one of the things he mentions is that if they say it's about money, it may not be about money, it may be about what they are thinking about the product or service, or how they feel about the situation.

I asked her to call me the next day so we could talk and I just listened. Here is what I learned. 1. She's the interim executive director. 2. She's never been an exceutive director before. 3. Her plate is full and shes overwhelmed.

I realized what she wanted was HELP! And that if we were offering help she would give us money. I quickly asked her what could I do to help her make this project happened. Her entire tone changed! I worked up some quick things I could do for her that would cost me nothing but a few quick google searches and some copy and pasting into emails and I did that.

Then I called her back and asked her for her budget to see what we could do for her. Turns out that my partner never asked her this question as he doesn't like to discuss budgets, he just likes to quote the hourly rate. In her mind, it wasn't a fixed number she could go to her people with. When she told me her budget, I realized it was well within the limits of what we would have charged her. I told her a fixed price for every thing, wrote up a quote and emailed it off. She called back and accepted. Today we went and shot all of her video. We got a check and I got paid, my partner got paid, and she's excited as its one thing off her plate and she really didn't have to do anything but let me take care of it for her.

Sometimes talking, and more importantly,really listening to what your client is saying is the key to getting the sale. I'm just pretty proud of myself as it's my first closed deal of the year and to think it was one email away from walking out the door.