215 | How Expert Positioning Attracts Better Clients with Amy Posner

What’s the difference between a successful freelancer and one who struggles with feast or famine? It’s not how good you are at your craft, but how you position yourself to clients.

Amy Posner is a seasoned online entrepreneur and business coach who helps digital creative freelancers build breakthrough businesses. Over her 30-year career, she’s launched six successful businesses (five of which are still in business today) and mentored thousands of freelancers to success. 

Now, Amy focuses on empowering freelancers to grow the business they want by teaching them the skills they need to attract the right clients inside her Complete Breakthrough Freelancer course and on her podcast, Business Badassery.

Overcoming Feast or Famine

The biggest challenge for freelancers is feast or famine–a windfall of work followed by a period of little to no income. The best way to overcome this is with business systems and processes, so you always have another project in the pipeline.

Amy teaches her students skills like writing proposals, selling on calls, and communicating the value they deliver. Many successful freelancers give their clients expert strategic advice, but are selling themselves as order takers–someone who does nothing more than follow orders and create deliverables. If you position yourself as a strategist, you’re perceived as much more valuable. 

The Difference between an Order Taker and an Expert

The primary difference between order takers and experts is that experts deliver an experience, not just deliverables. It starts on the discovery call, when you first connect with the client. High-quality clients want a strategic partner, someone they can trust to give them expert advice and who is interested in getting results.

Once you’ve landed the client, you need to deliver on the experience you’ve promised. When in doubt, overcommunicate and overdeliver. Again, systems and processes come in handy here. Keep the client in the loop on what’s happening, especially for longer projects. Be reliable and do what you say you’re going to do.

Enjoy this episode with Amy Posner…

Soundbytes

12:29-12:43
“I see so many successful freelancers who are giving expert advice, and they're counseling as experts, but they're selling themselves as a creator of deliverables. And you're seen in a very different light.”

18:02-18:21
“The truth is, you don't need a unique perspective. You need a perspective. If a client's going out looking, they don't care that I think the same thing you do. They care what I think. So they're not looking necessarily for originality. They're looking for a stake in the ground, that you believe in something and that you have something to say.” 

Quotes

“What I noticed was that you could be really great at your craft. And if you didn't have commensurate business skills, you didn't do as well as mediocre craftspeople who had the business side down.”

“Nobody gets into business to sell stuff. They get into business because they love doing a thing.” 

“I'm a chronic over-deliverer. I like to get invested in people and in getting results.”

Links mentioned in this episode:

From Our Guest

Website: https://amyposner.com/

Connect with Amy Posner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyposnerbusinessgrowthmentor/ 

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