Don't get us wrong. First impressions are important, but it's the way clients feel about you when you've finished the job that keeps them coming back for more--or not. Last impressions are often lasting impressions. Good ones can be money in the bank. Bad ones, well, do we even have to say anymore?

Making great last impressions is easy, if you follow these tips. 

• Give more than you get. Relationships with clients should always be mutually rewarding. You solve a problem the client is experiencing and for that you earn a fee. But that doesn't mean the scales are balanced. It's that extra value you give that the client didn't expect--the new resource you share, the thank-you note you write at the conclusion of the project, the project delivered ahead of schedule--that leaves clients feeling as though they got the better end of the deal.
   
•  Make clients feel as though they are your only client. In every interaction--on the phone, in person, via email--give them your undivided attention. Don't get distracted by competing demands. In other words, listen, be engaged, and pay attention. And by the way, this goes for colleagues as well. We absolutely hate when we're at an event and the person we're talking with is looking over our shoulder, scanning the crowd, glancing at the cell phone, and obviously not interested in the conversation. Don't be this guy!
   
• Leave clients feeling inspired not exhausted. No client wants to work with a high-maintenance writer so make sure your actions don't turn you into one. When you've finished a project, you want the client to be able to push the Easy Button and say, "Wow, what a pleasurable experience. I want to work with her again."
   
• Don't wear out your welcome. You finished the job, invoiced the job, and got paid for the job. You even followed up to make sure the client was happy with the work (they were). You'd love to work with this client again, so you send an email noting your interest and availability for another project but get no response. A week later you send another email, and another, and another. Get the picture?
  
  Following up with clients is a good thing, but don't overdo it. It makes you look desperate and desperation is not the lasting impression you want. So how many follow-up emails are appropriate to send to an unresponsive client? We'd probably stop after the second one and wait at least a month or more before getting back in touch. But keep in mind that every client is different. What seems excessive to one client won't to another. Clients who get hundreds of emails a day may simply overlook yours in their rush through their inboxes. Hopefully, you have a sense of your clients' workload and demands and can gauge the frequency of your follow-ups accordingly.

Don't Do It Yourself!                

Brian and Cyndy started off the year with presentations at the AMWA Mid-Atlantic Chapter Conference and the AMWA Delaware Valley Chapter Freelance Conference. if you didn't attend, you should definitely put these conferences on your schedule for next year!

Brian recently presented a webinar for AMWA on The Secret Marketing Tactics of Top Freelances, where he revealed some of the secret marketing tactics successful freelances use every day to make their clients love them, hire them, recommend them, and pay them more than anyone else. Check back with us because we're looking into ways to repurpose the content.    

Be sure to attend Brian and Cyndy's open session at the AMWA 75th Annual Conference in San Antonio, TX, September 30 to October 3, 2015. The session, Unlock the Secrets to Freelance Success, is scheduled for Thursday October 1 from 2:00 to 3:30. Put it on your calendars. Brian also will be presenting his workshop on The Fundamentals of Freelance Business Marketing. It will be a huge event and also a very important 75th Anniversary celebration for AMWA you won't want to miss!

More webinars are also in the works, and you'll hear more about these soon.

We would love to present at your next upcoming meeting or event, so invite us!

Three Common Courtesies You Can't Compromise           

Among the first lessons we learned as children from our parents were to say "please" and "thank you." They may be common courtesies, but they're uncommonly important. Just try to think of a day in which you didn't say "please" or "thank you" to someone for something.

As freelances, we think saying "please" and "thank you" is just as important to our businesses. But there are 3 ways we do it instead of 2. So here are the 3 common courtesies freelances can't afford to compromise:

#1 Respond quickly

Our clients often tell us how impressed they are that we respond to their emails and phone calls as if they're the only clients we have. They know they're not, and that impresses them all the more. Responding quickly to clients tells them how much they mean to us--how much we value their business and working with them. An hour is a lifetime when a client needs you, and all it takes is a minute to be a hero.

#2 Follow up

Every time a client hires a freelance, their butt is on the line. After you deliver the project, people are looking at it. Your client, and you're client's boss or your client's client. It's not enough to please your client, you need to make your client look good to the person they answer to, too. But how will you ever know if you don't ask? So call them. Send an email. Clients are impressed with the follow-up, and that you care not only about what they think, but about what everyone thinks. Your client's successes are your successes.

#3 Say thank you

We're certainly all accustomed to saying thank you. But how many freelances say thank you to their clients with their invoice? Nobody likes to get bills, but clients expect them. What they don't expect are surprises. When your invoice arrives and looks just like your approved estimate, you've done a great deed. Your invoice recaps what a great job you did and why you're worth every dollar your client pays you.

If you can deliver consistently on these 3 common courtesies, you'll be marketing yourself to a captive audience--clients who already value you and work with you. Growing more business from existing clients takes far less effort than growing new business from prospective clients, although you always need to do that, too. Let's thank our parents for the valuable lessons they taught us as children, lessons that have great value to us today in more ways than they ever imagined!