Free 2.0: The Hidden Secret to Making Free…Pay
Are you frustrated when friends, family and even prospective clients ask you to give (for free) the skills it has taken you years of sweat to master? Perhaps you are looking for a creative way to enter a new market. In either case there is a little-known secret to turning free or next to free requests into gold for your business. I dubbed the system Free 2.0 and I regularly use it to send mass numbers of new clients my way. Now put your body in park and take a few notes.
The Why…
Why in your right mind would you want to give your services away? For a business owner, it seems counter-intuitive. The simplest answer is that it feels good helping a deserving person and doing so activates a powerful compliance mechanism, reciprocity. As social creatures we are hard wired to repay a debt. The more honorable the person, the more they will break their neck to repay your debt. Your gift recipient will be more willing to subscribe to your newsletter, point readers to you blog, promote you on Twitter and send referrals your way. It is this last act -referrals -that we will focus on here.
Letting reciprocity work on its own simply won’t do. You need a system to encourage and harness the reciprocity impulse, channeling it for new business creation.
A letter of recommendation: Doing the do…
1. Selection: If you are good at what you do, you should have no problem selecting from never ending flow of free project requests. Be sure the person you help is honorable and if the prospect is well connected, even better.
2. The Offer: Tell your “client” you will do the job on the condition that he send a letter of recommendation to a minimum number of people on his contact list. You set the limit based on your conversion experience (It takes me about 5 referral leads to close 1 deal, you do your own math)
3. Make it Happen: You write the letter of recommendation on your client’s behalf giving your partner edit control over the final message. People are busy and if you don’t take control of this step your busy partner is likely to get distracted.
4.Printing: That’s right you are going to print the letter but on your client’s stationery.
5.The Mailing: Grab your customer’s contact list, print mailing labels, letters and send your mail.
The Power…
This system works so well because people just don’t take the time these days to send regular mail, so the recipients are thinking, “wow, this guy must really feel strongly about this resource to have taken the time to mail a note!” Now make sure your operations is geared up to handle the rush of new business headed your way.
Since crafting this system when asked to sponsor events through in-kind services I never accept the default sponsor offer, my logo in a program book (forget that!). No, its Free 2.0 or nothing, Baby!
How do you plan on using this powerful system?
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John Easton is a recovering corporate executive turned entrepreneur. Through his Charlotte website design company, John creates video, web and multimedia tools to help businesses turn “Browsers” into “Buyers”.
Related posts:
- Unhappy Clients? Use My Secret “Love Potion!”
- Tell Your Prospects What To Do Next.
- 7 Things People Want To Know About Your Company.
- The Power of Persistence
- 8 Great Ways To Promote Yourself For Free
- Do Your Potential Customers Forget About You?
Filed Under: Get Your Mojo Workin', Good Business Mojo, Marketing Mojo on
Comments (9)
Meaty idea, John! Definitely out-of-the-box (or I ought to say out of the “inbox”) tip to turn testimonials into profitable results. I love it!
Tamera,
I am glad you found the information useful. I must say that I use the technique regularly with great results. My video crew recently did a free or should I say Free 2.0 gig for the non profit arm of a local staffing company.
My client was so pleased with the results that she printed 400 copies of the letter on company letterhead and we closed four new projects after sending only 60 of the letters. With all of our web work we don’t even have the capacity right now to send the remaining 340 letters.
I am all about tactics that work! Try it and let us in on you results.
John
http://twitter.com/jeaston1
Wow, John — I wish I’d read this a long time ago! Great advice.
In the past, we’ve gotten really burned out doing reduced price services, especially when those same clients wanted us to continue to offer them reduced-price services! When we said no, they either went elsewhere or made the relationship difficult by nickel-and-diming us to death.
We’ve experienced exactly what you report about clients not having time to write a testimonial.
Your solution opens up such great possibilities!
Michelle Quillin for New England Multimedia and Q Web Consulting
http://twitter.com/NEMultimedia
I love using client testimonials to defuse prospects’ anxiety -but I agree with Michelle -this is such an elegant way to add some significant business that has the potential to add up to much more than any discount you’ve put forward. Thanks so much for the Mojo, John! Come back anytime -it’s always a pleasure to work with you.
@michelle
Hey its good to finally meet you. It’s sad that your experience is all too common. The saying about price breaks is crude but true, “once you get your pants down its hard to get them back up again.” You can even get burned with this strategy which is why it is so important to select your partners carefully. The worst thing that can happen is a troublesome client refers you 20 more just them, so be watchful.
With today’s social media, Google and other web technologies it is easier than ever to gather intelligence on a would-be “referral for work” collaborator. This process is a lot like being a customer and researching a service provider. Visit their website for evidence of trust-building content, use Twitter search to listen in on what others say about your associate and contact some of their past clients. If the person is credible, trustworthy he or she will have something to lose by not upholding their end of the bargain. It won’t take long to determine if your person is someone worth investing your resources in.
@steve
Thanks for welcoming me and for being such a great resource to your Tribe. We need more like you.
This is a great post, John. I agree 100% that it works well. I have done business this way for 10 years and it never fails. It’s even more effective now because people can much more easily and quickly share you with their friends on FaceBook and other places and often times, you don’t even have to ask them to do so. They just do. They recommend you on Twitter, then to their FaceBook friends, then at their blog, etc. Often, I don’t even ask for a testimonial after helping someone for free — they just come! I am still very careful about doing it, mainly because my time is so limited. I like to help people through my blog and social networking sites with are great resources not only for my commentary, but for the community’s input as well. This multiplies any value I bring to the table alone.
Thanks for a great post and the opportunity to share my experiences.
Donna,
You know I did not even think to mention the social media aspects of helping others but you are so right. Thank you so much for the valuble addition to the conversation.
John,
I agree with Michelle, I wished I would have found your system earlier. Now that we’ve been experiencing some good business success, we have many people wanting to know what we know, wanting to do bartering (massages to trade for coaching…hmmm), free video taping in exchange for sponsoring (we learned the hard way on that one…and she wanted our email list to promote the event to them…she said it was required of all sponsors.) Anyway, we are much more savvier now and doing it your way, really makes it into a win/win.
It makes me more open to doing this when I see a way it can be a benefit to both parties. When your time is your most valuable asset, it is imperative to protect it and really vet those that will not only reciprocate but also really appreciate what you are offering them. Nothing irks me more than someone asking my expertise then telling me it won’t work for them or they know better…why ask me then if you’re not going to listen or find fault with my advice?
Kim Miller
http://howtosellyourvideos.com