A Freelancer's Guide to Handling Your First Client Meeting

As a freelancer you are always on the lookout for new projects, new opportunities, and new clients. This isn’t always an easy process and, even though there are many ways to go about getting this done (both on- and offline), there are also many others competing for the same clients. This means that you should do everything you can to stand out from the other freelancers: build a great landing page, have an appealing online presence to showcase your work, become an authority in your niche, get great reviews, and the list goes on.

All of these measures will hopefully get more people interested in your business, and these prospects will most likely want to have a meeting with you to discuss what they have in mind and how you guys can work together. So the next step is to ace those first client meetings and get them to choose you for their project. Here are a few tips to help you out on your first client meeting:

Prepare the Meeting: 

Before the meeting you should send your prospect an agenda that includes what will be discussed in the meeting. This shows them that you know what you are doing and can communicate effectively, which also helps you gain their trust. You should also research your client and their business thoroughly before heading into the meeting, this will help you have a more effective conversation with your client and in turn make you more trustworthy. Finally, you should also research the client’s competitors. This shows them that you care about their specific business and will provide them with relevant solutions to their actual issues.

Have the Meeting in a Professional Setting:

It doesn’t matter if you usually work from home or a coffee shop, when you get a meeting with a client you will want to have it in a setting that stands out and shows them that you are a professional, and in today’s world this doesn’t require a huge budget. The best solution is to book a fully equipped meeting room that is located in a nice office building. This way your client gets greeted at the lobby and directed to the meeting. Once they arrive there you can offer them high-speed wireless internet, you can also use the screens or projectors for a presentation, and you can even offer them food and drinks. This is way better than having them sit at a noisy coffee shop and having to see your presentation on your laptop screen! 

Getting new clients is not an easy task at all, but how you present yourself and your business can make it a lot easier. Anything you can do to help your clients perceive you as a reliable, capable, and smart professional goes a long way towards getting and retaining your clients. The best part is that in today’s world this doesn’t have to be expensive.

About Andrés Sanjose

Andrés Sanjose is a writer and editor based in Guatemala. He previously lived in Berlin for 10 years where he witnessed the birth and amazing evolution of the Virtual Office phenomenon, while working as a freelancer in the german capital. He is very interested in what the future holds for this exciting industry and loves to write about it.