On today’s episode, Carrie is interviewing Troy Dean. This is Troy’s second interview on officehours.fm. Troy and Carrie are discussing project scoping and putting your business in the best possible position with the client that will make you (and your client) more successful.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Project scoping sits between discovery and doing the work.
- A successful business is built on happy clients that refer their friends to you. Referrals are the best advertising.
- When scoping a project make sure you have clear expectations, that everyone is on the same page and that you are able to deliver.
- Recognize when you can use a repeated process.
- More complex projects may involve presenting a prototype.
- Written functional specifications are often difficult for the client to read and understand. Don’t overwhelm your clients with this stuff.
- If you are choosing a niche, it does not have to be in an industry vertical but that does help with marketing efforts when you’re targeting a “specific type” of business.
Tips Freelancers can use when scoping a project:
- Understand the client’s expectations. You can do this with the go wide, go deep circular series of questions that you ask.
- To draw out the reasons for the client needing a website ask deep questions on one of the client’s answers.
- Mirror the client’s language when preparing your proposal.
- Do not leave a long time between communicating with the client after the proposal has been delivered.
- Do not rely on the written word for communicating what you are going to do. Make sure you use the appropriate medium (videos, graphics, etc.) that feels comfortable within your proposal.
- Use an iterative and collaborative approach with your proposal.
- The decision that the client will defend the most is the one they make themselves.
Conclusion:
Know your strengths and keep adjusting your processes to prepare stronger proposals for your clients. Your proposal process does not have to be written with a lot of detail. Be detailed but brief enough. Showing the client what you created in the browser can be much more effective than a word-filled document. Don’t bite off more than you can chew and remember: constant communication with the client is key.
Resources:
- InVision
- Sweet Spot Exercise
- Troy on Twitter
- wpelevation
- Rockstar Empires
About Troy Dean:
Troy Dean is the founder and a business teacher at WP Elevation which is based out of Australia. Troy was building websites from his bedroom for about 12K around 8 years ago. His website business added value over two years and his website development jumped to around 25K. Troy started WP Elevation to teach and lead business owners on how to add value to their businesses.