Three steps to turning existing clients into regular work
Good things come to those who ask
1. Client audit
The first step in turning existing clients into regular work is to do an audit of your client roster. Write a list of all the people you’ve ever worked with before, in any capacity. Include all your current and previous freelance clients, as well as past bosses and colleagues.
Go through that list and highlight the people you really enjoyed working with. If you’re going to work with someone on a regular basis, it’s important that you actually like working with them. Ideally, you also want to make sure this work fits in with your overall career goals. If you’re going to devote a large chunk of time to a particular project, it’s important that it’s in line with your long-term career ambitions.
Aim to identify about five clients you’d like to work with on a regular basis and who’d be a good fit. From there, you want to start building a case for why you should work with them in an ongoing capacity. Prepare for the conversation you’re going to have with your client by gathering evidence of what you’ve done for them in the past.
Clients keep coming back to a freelancer for a simple reason: they solve a problem for them. If you want to land regular work with an existing client, you need to remind them of that. Perhaps your work led to more sales for your client or an increase in traffic to their website. Find evidence that shows how you’ve helped them achieve their business goals.
For example, I worked with a content agency on a new training programme. The objective was to pilot a new project in order to create a potential new line of revenue for the business. At the end of the project, the client told me that they’d secured more work off the back of the pilot’s success. Using that information, I’m able to demonstrate that my participation in the project led to the creation of a new revenue stream for my client.
If you’re struggling to find evidence, use this as an opportunity to start baking in feedback loops into your projects. Get in the habit of asking clients what their objectives are when they take you on for a new project and then make sure to check in with them at the end about whether those goals were met.
✅ Client audit checklist
• Which previous clients did you enjoy working with?
• Does this work help you achieve your long term goals?
• What problem have you helped a client solve and how can you demonstrate that?
*Pro tip: Start asking for regular feedback 2. Identify your ask
Your next step is to work out exactly what it is you’re asking for from your client.
In an ideal world, what would your dream project look like? Maybe it’s a commitment to hiring you for a certain amount of work each month, for example, to write five blog posts. Or it might be a retainer agreement, where they book in an hour of your time each week for a brainstorming session.
Draft this idea up into a proposal. It doesn’t have to be complicated, just a paragraph outlining what the arrangement looks like and then another one detailing how it would work in practice. Writing it out as a proposal will help you turn it from a pipe dream to a potential project that might actually work.
Now it’s time to tweak your proposal from the point of view of the client. This dream scenario is a dream to you, but how can you make it look like a dream scenario for your client? What are they going to get out of this proposal? Go back to your list of evidence of how you’ve helped them in the past and use that to demonstrate the opportunity you’re presenting here.
The secret here is to figure out what your ideal arrangement would be and then reframe that as an opportunity for the client. While you’re technically asking your client for regular work, you’re actually offering them a solution to their problems.
✅ Identifying your ask checklist
• What’s your dream regular project?
• What would that look like in practice?
• How can you reframe this so it demonstrates the value to the client clearly?
*Pro tip: It’s not an ask, it’s an opportunity! 3. Ask them!
The last step might feel like the hardest but if you’ve followed the first two it’s going to be the easiest. You already know who you want to ask to be a regular client and what you’re going to ask them, now all that’s left to do is to just ask.
Rip off the badge by sending a quick email asking for time for a chat about regular work. I’ve even drafted a template for you:
Hi Previous Client,
I’ve really enjoyed working with you on the Previous Project.
I’d love to talk about working together on a regular basis. I have some suggestions about what this might look like and I’m, of course, keen to find an arrangement that works for both of us.
Do you have some time this week for a chat?
Thanks!
Keep it short and to the point. Make sure you explicitly write in your email that you want to talk about regular work so that you both go into the conversation on the same page.
Then, if they say yes, suggest a call with them to talk through what the regular work would look like. As you asked for the call, be ready to take the lead on the conversation and put forward your proposal. Be prepared for the client to suggest tweaks to your proposal and listen to what they would need from the arrangement to make it work so you can adjust your pitch accordingly.
If the client says no, that’s OK! Ask them for feedback. Chances are that if they’ve liked working with you in the past the only reason they can’t commit to a regular arrangement is budgetary. Take a moment to acknowledge any totally normal feelings you have in the wake of rejection and then keep working through the list you made of potential regular clients.
Asking for regular work is like pitching any other project, if you let your fear of rejection hold you back it will definitely be a no but if you put yourself out there, you push yourself one significant step towards a yes.
🏆 This week’s challenge
Conduct a client audit! Identify at least three existing or previous clients you can approach for long term work and come up with a draft proposal for what to ask them. Come and tell the rest of us how you got on in the TPF members-only Slack group
More content in the Regular Work series:
📹 Video Q&A with journalist, podcaster and coach Wudan Yan about regular work
📋 Five types of regular freelance work and how to get them
💰 Why you need regular work as a freelancer