Latest / The Daily Writer / Find More Clients by Staying in Touch

Transcript

Find More Clients by Staying in Touch · The Daily Writer

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, welcome to the Daily Writer, where we help writers become authors of their own lives.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you provide writing or editing services, you'll appreciate this question sent in by email subscriber Anne Harrison.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: She says, I've read your emails about how you became a ghostwriter.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm working as an editor and would love to hear some tips on how to find more editing clients.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks, Ann.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Since you've read a lot of my emails, you know that I often give a series of tips in response to a reader question.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: However, I'm going to switch it up a little bit today.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you want more editing clients or clients of any kind, there are lots of important things that you can do, such as being excellent at your work or having a great reputation, having a good website, and so forth.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: But today I want to share one single tip instead of a series of tips.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's a single tip that I rarely hear mentioned when it comes to connecting with potential clients.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the tip: stay connected to people who can refer you to potential clients.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, since you're an editor, that means staying on top of mind with people who know your clients is really, really important.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the question is: well, what kinds of people know those potential clients?
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Those are people like publishers and ghostwriters, book designers, developmental editors, literary agents, proofreaders, hosts of writing podcasts, and so forth.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, those are the people who know your potential clients, and those are the kinds of people that you want to stay connected with.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, anybody involved in the writing and publishing space is a really great connection for you.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're already connected to the people who need your services as an editor.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we assume that people hire the best person for the job, but that's not actually always true.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: People hire the best person they know for the job.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: So if you maintain excellence in your work and you have a good reputation and you're also staying in touch, then you'll naturally be one of the first editors that people think about and refer to your potential clients.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the question here is how do you actually stay in touch?
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's lots of ways to do that.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: But here's a few ideas like checking in with people occasionally on social media or text messages or email, sending handwritten cards, commenting on or sharing their social media posts, having a quick connection call, and so forth.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's lots of ways to do that.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the bottom line here, and I'm going to be really direct.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: The vast majority of people who offer services like ghostwriting, editing, or book design are not intentional about networking and building relationships.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: The ones who take networking seriously and they have a proactive plan instantly stand out.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I would really urge you to put this into practice.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can be the best in the world at what you do, but if nobody knows about it, or very few people know about it, it's going to be really hard to get a constantly renewing set of clients who are interested in hiring you because people simply don't know about you.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: But you can be still really good and be the person who stays in touch with your network, and you will vastly outperform people who are equally as good as you, but they just don't stay in touch with other people.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: So networking and relationship building is really, really super critical.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: I hope this is helpful.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And more so, I hope that you put it into practice immediately.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: As always, thanks for listening.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Keep writing and keep showing up, and I'll see you tomorrow.