In a competitive environment, it is important to attract the attention of the customer so that he chooses you out of all the applicants for the task. And in the discussion of details behave competently to still reach an agreement. Why do they choose others? How to fix it? Let's consider typical problems and ways to solve them.
Rejection can happen for a hundred reasons. Even just the customer did not like your nickname or avatar. You can't do anything about such cases. But it is worth fighting those problems that can be objectively influenced. We will outline the most common reasons for rejections and tell you how to minimize them.
Template response
If there are more than a dozen people willing to do the task, few people review all of them, they choose the brightest responses first and only if the freelancer doesn't fit, they consider others.
Solution: Give a response that catches on. Personalized, clearly tailored to the task at hand. Offer an immediately interesting solution that shows your engagement and level of professionalism. Your message shouldn't get lost among dozens of similar ones. Read more material about how to correctly bid on projects on the freelance exchange - it is described there in detail.
Failures of communication
Let's say the customer is interested. But you have not responded to messages for two days or write in the middle of the night. You let yourself say that there is other urgent work (it's not a secret, but still the customer wants to be the only one and in priority). You conduct dialog too familial or on the contrary, dry and unresponsive to adorable post-it notes with kitties from the customer. You write with gross errors. Already at the stage of discussing the order, the deal can fall through just because of this.
Solution: Adjust to the interlocutor, conduct the dialog easily, but in a professional manner. Immediately designate your working hours and clarify the same with the customer - at what hours it is acceptable to write, in what form is generally comfortable to communicate. Let him understand that you are interested in the task, but without fanaticism, excessive annoyance also does not please anyone.
Inadequate price
Too high a price, of course, is discouraging. Especially if you do not yet have a reputation as a universal guru. It is worth realistically assessing the task, your time, and the average price on the market. From my own experience, I can say that overpricing is justified if you do not really want to take the task, but are ready to fulfill it on condition of additional payment. Here you win in any case - or get rid of the shuffle without offending anyone, or get a nice bonus in the form of material reward.
Too low a price can also be a problem. For one thing, it raises suspicion. Are you sure you'll be doing something? And how good is it if the price is ridiculous? What if you're a scammer? You don't have to dump just to attract customers. Even a newbie should keep a brand name. Especially a beginner! After all, putting the price lower and lower you can devalue the labor of specialists of your profile.
Also discourages uncertainty. When you can not exactly say the price. If it is already specified in the task, it's up to you to agree or not. And if you have to say your own, do it clearly. Clarify the details, if it's not immediately clear what the scope and complexity are.
Solution: Offer an average price or justify why it's higher than the others. If it's possible to offer a choice, that's the best solution. For example, minimal work, standard and super package. Spell out the options with a list of work for each price. Usually choose the middle solution anyway, so make it favorable to yourself.
Lack of experience
It is no secret that it is more difficult for a newcomer to break through. And if there is little experience and the rating on the exchange is weak, the customer may choose another performer. Here 50/50. There is a possibility that you simply will not be considered.
Solution: If you give a cool response, show skills and attract attention, you can bypass more experienced applicants. But it's still worth working on gaining that experience, taking orders from different areas and building up your portfolio.
Inappropriate portfolio
Speaking of portfolios. If you claim that "you've done it a thousand times," you need to prove it. If the examples of work aren't up to the task or don't show your skill in the specific area under discussion, that's a problem. Remember that customers can not trust words, few people will agree to choose a specialist simply on the basis of his promises.
Solution: You must have a portfolio! Even if you don't have orders yet. Do it just for fun. Do to friends and fictitious companies. Only examples of work give you a ticket to the world of good orders. And when you have already accumulated enough examples, you need to select them and expose not all of them. Only high-quality and preferably diverse, so that clients from different niches and with different requests can see something similar to the desired in your work. If you don't want to take certain tasks, then don't publish similar ones in your portfolio - that way you can find the customers you need.
Try to expand your areas of expertise. You can be a master in one area and use word of mouth. But if the sphere dies out, it's a failure. You'll have to start building a reputation practically from scratch.
Lack of attention to detail
If you answer inattentively when discussing an order, confuse terms or fail to answer important questions, the dialog will not continue. In addition, it is important to be clear and concise so that the customer is on the same page with you and catches the essence of the conversation.
Solution: Immediately give full answers to all possible questions, outline the algorithm of cooperation, your work plan, payment terms. So that it does not come out that these nuances will surface in the process and will not suit the customer. Discuss on the shore of the trifles is always better than then suffer from endless revisions and get the dissatisfaction of the client.
Bad rating
It is logical that, all things being equal, the customer chooses a freelancer with a higher rating on the exchange and with good reviews. It is difficult to convince the person on the other side of the screen that this is the way things are and it is not your fault. And you don't have to do it - he just won't want to dialog.
Solution: At the very least, you shouldn't break the rules of the platform. This is important if you're working on pumping up your account. Try to take tasks that you're sure to complete, don't take risks. It's better to do a few small tasks and get good feedback than to get involved with a complex project from the start and be afraid to fail. On some platforms, you can start a new profile if things go too badly. And that, the rating is reset, you need to earn everything again. But on Upwork, for example, you can't do that. There everything is tied to passport data and one person is allowed only one account. Watch your reputation, it's important.
Misunderstandings in the process
The client can refuse the services of a freelancer after the candidate has been approved. So don't think that a successful response already gives you the right to relax. In the process of work, you also need to keep the brand and build communication competently. We have written a lot about this, in particular, in the article about communication ethics in freelancing.
- Don't be afraid to ask questions, hold a briefing. This will not only help you understand the task better, but will also show your involvement.
- Show respect for the client's opinion and requirements - explain in human language, do not speak harshly, even if his proposals smell of nonsense.
- Be open to criticism. Correct if it is not essential. Convincingly convey the thought and prove your point if you can't change anything.
- Try to build a long-term relationship. Find out if everything is okay after the project is launched. Offer additional services. Congratulate on the holidays and remind yourself. Trust me, even if the project was a one-off - it will pay off. You may be recommended to acquaintances and help in a difficult minute.
Other
There are reasons you have little to no control over, but it's worth considering.
Lack of specialization
When a specific master of his craft is needed, a person without this skill will only be taken if the required one is never found. In addition, it is worth thinking about whether you can really qualitatively perform the work, if you have never taken on such a job. There are two options here: do not take risks or immerse yourself in the topic completely.
If you think that this direction you should study and it will be useful in future work, then go ahead. Expand the range of services, do not be afraid to take on new things, but do not fail.
High competition
Yes, you are not alone so smart, a lot of the same great people want to take the order. And here, in addition to all the professional and personal merits can simply play the lottery. You don't always get lucky. Deal with it. You don't have to take every rejection as a tragedy. All you can do is keep writing feedback.
The average figure is not very encouraging - for a beginner, the rejection rate is 70%. What to do. Just increase the number of responses, try to send out responses to everything you can do. And then not statistically, but quantitatively positive responses will be more.
Whether you should be afraid of competition in freelancing and how to cope with it - read in a separate article.
Working alone
Not so much a disadvantage as a feature that can affect the number of orders. If you can recommend to the customer specialists from related fields, then in fact you give him almost a turnkey product. For example, a large site needs a designer, a layout designer, a copywriter, a copywriter, and a targeting specialist for further customization of advertising. And if you have such a team or at least part of it - it's a strong trump card up your sleeve. So make acquaintances in a professional environment.
How to become a sought-after freelancer
Remember that rejections are the norm for freelance exchanges, it's part of work and life. Draw conclusions and utilize such experiences. Keep notes to understand where your weaknesses are and pump them up. You don't always know for sure why you got rejected, but sometimes the reasons are obvious and voiced.
Minimizing rejections is very doable. And increase your price tag. WAYUP is a community that promotes freelancing as a lifestyle, we know exactly how to work with it.
Each of our big online courses has a unit of instruction on this topic. Because knowing how to do design/graphics/layout isn't enough to make money at it. You need to pitch yourself properly, know how to look for work, know the flyhacks that other newbies don't know.
Choose the right direction and take the course! You will get not just a profession, but a direct guide to action, which will help in this area to earn and live your best life. We are waiting for you in the next stream of students!