The main objective of most B2B corporate copywriters is to try land the higher paying jobs. This of course means it’s necessary to focus on the quality of the prospects and turn more of our marketing hours into billable hours. All of this translates into spending more time cultivating the high-probability prospects.

What I’m finding challenging is getting past the so called gatekeepers when prospecting for the higher paying clients. Are there more effective ways in which to reach the decision makers who might be interested in my services?

Going over the same section over and over never gets the whole yard done. Going back and forth and back and forth may hack down the overgrowth, but you end up staying stuck in the same place. A big sweeping motion moves you through and forward.

In any kind of sales, prospecting is only as good as your qualification process. If you send out 10 emails or even print letters to highly qualified prospects, you stand a much better chance of success than if you send out a mailer to everyone in your address book.

Sure, you might get a few nibbles with the quantity numbers game. You might. And you might get to feed your family for a month. But in any economy, it pays well to target your marketing. The spaghetti approach of throwing your marketing to the wall and seeing what sticks will burn you out fast if you don’t get quick and lasting results.

Nancy Lamb

Your information was very helpful, thank you. I do however have a question for those of us who aren’t yet ready to take the plunge into copywriting full-time and still moonlighting.

In building the all-important LinkedIn profile, I’m listing the fact that I am still working in an executive position at a major insurance corporation. I’m not sure, but if I was a potential client looking for an expert copywriter in the insurance/financial sector, I wouldn’t be so keen on hiring someone who is still clocking hours at a full-time job. Should those of us working in other positions bump our current occupations down a notch on the profile page and list our copywriting business as our current position? I’m really just using LinkedIn as a way to promote my commercial copywriting business, not my current sales career.

Thank you,
Kathryn

I’ve been targeting B2B companies and agencies and focusing on edu-marketing. Have you ever picked up any White Paper business through ad agencies?

Kevin

Last year, I made a modest investment that’s about to pay off big.

The investment?

Your course on how to build a freelance copywriting business.

That course included a few sessions on how to prospect with emails, warm calls, and social media.

I used your strategies to reach out to prospects; the quality and quantity of response is even better than you predicted.

One prospect who replied to my email is the marketing director for a multi-billion-dollar money managing firm.

This past week, he had a white paper project he wanted to talk to me about.

“We regularly use copywriters,” he said. “Send me your pricing list again . . . I have several of your emails in my business development folder . . . Wait, here’s your pricing list. How does it work?”

The prospecting emails in his folder were those you taught me how to write.

The pricing list he referred to was created in your “How to Price, Quote, and Win B2B Writing Projects” class.

I explained to him how the ballpark price worked and asked him if it would be helpful for me to firm up a project quote that day. No, the ballpark price would do for now.

“There’s a management meeting next week. I’ll present this project [with the ballpark price] . . . . Stay in touch with me over the next 2 weeks,” he said. “If it’s approved, we’ll move forward.”

A snippet from a conversation with but one of several leads. Every lead has replied to a prospecting email or phone call inspired by your class.

Your practically painless prospecting approach gets a lot of high-level response.

And your other courses add even more value. You taught me from start to finish not only how to land clients but also how to write the B2B projects themselves.

More updates to come . . . and thanks again for the extraordinary value.

Les Ballard

Les

At any rate, you gave me great food for thought!

And Sean McCool? (cute name, btw..lol) Thanks for your suggestions! Again, an online version may be to send a client a special offer if they recommend you to five of their friends. I’m going to give that one more thought. I do quite a bit of “sharing” on Facebook and Twitter. Why not with the services I like?