Liz Craig, Writer

You’re a freelance creative looking for projects. You’ve been knocking on doors and calling prospects for months without snagging much work. What’s wrong? Is it the economy? The time of year? The weather? Are you talking to the wrong prospects? Is it your breath?

Maybe, but could it be the way you position yourself in your own mind that’s tripping you up? If so, making these three simple mental adjustments could improve your prospecting results.

1. Know What It Is You’re Really Selling

If you’re a freelance writer or designer, you’re obviously not just selling your ability to type or make pictures on your computer. But by calling yourself a “writer” or “designer,” maybe you’re selling yourself short. What your prospect really needs is someone who can help think through his or her business challenges and devise effective ways to meet them.

Make this mental adjustment: You’re not just a writer or designer. You’re a strategic thinker who can help your prospect win more business. Show results you’ve achieved for other clients, if you have them. If you’ve been spending most of your presentation time talking about yourself up until now, cut it short and start asking questions about what the prospect needs. Take notes. Follow up regularly (but not so often you bug the prospect), and share a good idea or two. Which brings us to the second mental adjustment.

2. Make It Your Mission to Help Others

People like people who help them unselfishly. So how can you help prospects? Let them know that your primary objective is helping them and their business. Maybe they don’t need your creative services at the moment. But you can still help, even if it’s by referring the prospect to a good chiropractor, veterinarian, business resource or fitness club.

“Shine the spotlight on the other person,” not on you. Send your prospects articles they may find helpful, and ask about their business and their family, if you are that well acquainted. Someday, when they realize they need creative, strategic thinking, you’ll be top of mind. By the way, helping others is a good idea in general, even if you don’t see how it will benefit you. Or especially then.

3. Ditch the Success/Failure Model

So you met with a prospect, and s/he seemed uninterested, kept looking at the clock, ended the meeting after 10 minutes and said no encouraging words. Do not beat yourself up for not having gotten new business at that meeting. Do not press the “FAIL” button.

We creatives are often overly sensitive. We tend to take things personally and interpret lack of enthusiasm as rejection. But please realize that the prospect’s behavior may have had nothing to do with you. Maybe s/he was eyeball-deep in work, carved out a few minutes for you, and then had to get back at it. Or perhaps there was a death or illness in the family. Or it could be s/he just didn’t need your wonderful work at the moment.

Timing is all-important. As Jethro Tull once said, “Life’s a long song.” There could be a time in the future when that prospect will need your services and will call you. Just keep in touch, try to help when appropriate, and bide your time. Be sure to ask if it’s okay if you check back in a few weeks or a month. And award yourself a gold “SUCCESS” star for being proactive and requesting the meeting.

• Summing Up

To improve your prospecting approach, adjust your mental attitude in these three ways:

• You’re not just a “Your Label Here.” You’re a strategic thinker who can help prospects meet their business challenges.

• Your mission is to help prospects in any way you can, whether what they need at the moment is related to your services or not.

• You never fail at prospecting unless you quit. Keep in touch, help when you can, and be patient. Your time may come.

Maybe it’s our mothers’ training us not to act as if we think too well of ourselves. Maybe it’s creatives’ rather lowly status in ad agencies — below the account and media types. Maybe it’s lack of practice or training in making presentations. Whatever caused it, it seems to me that creatives have a hard time appearing confident, and therefore, selling their ideas.

Even the best creative concepts, when presented by someone who’s hemming and hawing, staring at their shoes, fiddling with papers or chuckling nervously, can bomb. An unconfident presenter unconsciously signals the client to reject his or her ideas. The client may think, “Hey, if even the art director/writer is that unsure about it, the idea must be bad.”

Ever heard the expression, “Fake it ’til you make it?” If you are one of us creatives who is afflicted with excessive humility, there is hope, if you can employ a few basic tactics for projecting and developing confidence.

• Make eye contact with people.
Eye contact shows you’re interested in what the other person is saying. And when you really listen, you’ll likely forget you’re nervous. Practice on friends or co-workers. Don’t glare unblinkingly at someone. They might think you’re trying to stare them down. Breaking eye contact every now and then is natural.

• Smile.
A pleasant smile projects friendliness and self-confidence. It invites another person to get to know you. It lets them know you’re safe to interact with. Knitted brows, signifying worry, set off alarm bells. You don’t want that. Practice your smile in a mirror. That way, you can train your muscles to do just the right thing when the time comes. And guess what. Smiling helps you feel more cheerful and less nervous.

• Stand tall.
Confident people generally have very good posture. Practice “thinking tall.” Imagine your head is being pulled upward by a string attached to the top of your skull. Pull your shoulders down, not back. Tuck in your derriere and tighten your abdomen slightly. Relax your hands. Stand with your feet at least a foot apart for stability. When you’re properly aligned, look at yourself, side and front, in a full-length mirror, so you remember what “right” looks and feels like. Notice how when your posture is straight and tall, your diaphragm has more room to fill, so you can breathe more deeply. Shallow breathing is what we do when we’re afraid. Deep breathing promotes calmness.

• Be prepared.
The Boy Scout motto applies to anyone who wants to project self-confidence. If you’re doing a presentation, practice it in advance, visualizing your audience in place and imagine how you might answer any questions they may ask. Have your papers, boards, and props all in order, so when you need them you won’t need to fumble. Spend a few minutes imagining yourself going through the presentation smoothly and confidently. This mental exercise will help you replicate your imagined good performance in real life.

• Look the part.
Your clothing and hair style are the first thing people see. Fairly or unfairly, they make instant judgments based on your appearance. When you’re dressed as a confident person would dress, you feel more confident. Here’s another mirror exercise: take a good hard look at yourself from head to foot. Is your hair saying things about you that aren’t very complimentary? Get advice from a good hair stylist as to the best style for you, and have it professionally cut. How about your clothes? Are they baggy, ill-fitting, worn, out of style, or just plain strange? Look through magazines or visit department stores and see what people of your age and job description are wearing. Go thou and do likewise. If you’re presenting to buttoned-down business types, you may have to tone down the creative attire a bit. Not entirely, but you don’t want to scare them with a wild East Village or indie punk look.

• Speak clearly and at good volume.
My voice sounds just fine to me, inside my head. But people on the outside have told me that I speak very softly, which doesn’t project confidence. If you are a soft-spoken person like me, you may have to kick up the volume a little to be heard properly. This will take a little practice. You might speak into your answering machine or other recording device to get the right volume and tone.

How do actors and opera singers manage to project their voices without microphones? By pushing the sound out with their diaphragms. To get the feel of diaphragmatic breathing, lie down on the floor and concentrate on breathing into your “tummy,” as a baby or kitten does naturally when sleeping. Fill up your tummy (diaphragm) first, then let the air fill your lungs. Then push it out from the diaphragm. Once you’ve got that down, practice diaphragmatic breathing when you’re standing up, and when you’re talking in everyday life. Amaze the supermarket checkout person with your fabulous pear-shaped tones.

• Act as if
When you meet new people, act as if you are perfectly at ease. If you’ve incorporated some of the suggestions above, you may actually be more at ease than you’ve ever been before. You’re concentrating on your posture, voice and presentation, not on your worries. Act as if you’re confident, and what do you know? Suddenly, you are.