“Why do you want to know about our sales and marketing strategies? Will it help you in any way?”
“Yes, this information will allow me to know what questions your customers might have.”
“But, how will it help you while writing? We are giving you topics to write, isn’t that enough?”
“This project is just not another gig for me. I want to add value by becoming a business partner to you and help your organisation scale up exponentially.”
He was impressed and scheduled a conference call with his sales and marketing guy, where all of us discussed various strategies and current approach. Within two months, we saw significant improvement in brand awareness and lead generation. Do you know why it all happened? Because instead of taking up something as a gig which required me to write articles on pre-determined topics, I took it on as a full-fledged project.
I conducted the competitor research, analysed on-going and future trends in the industry ,and also focused on solving customers’ problems through effective positioning of products and services.
Freelancing is often misinterpreted as ‘gig-working’. Both are completely different from each other. When you are doing a gig, you focus on fulfilling the deliverables within due time so the client can approve the project and pay you for your work. Once you receive payment, you move on to some other client, probably looking for another gig that pays more than the previous one.
However, while freelancing, you act as a solo-preneur, looking to grow and sustain a business. Hence, instead of focusing solely on payment, you strive to build relationships with your clients.
What’s the core for building a long-term relationship? Trust and loyalty, right?
You start adding value to your client’s business. You make some additional efforts to know their business, their process of approaching customers, and their pain points. Then, you carefully build a strategy around their expectations which will fetch them the desired results. At each step, while strategising and executing, you keep the end goals in mind.
This whole framework builds in your clients a sense of trust in you, which becomes a base for the professional relationship.
If you analyse both gigs and freelancing closely, you’ll find a sense of added responsibility in the latter since you connect everything to a long-term goal or objective.
Next time, when a client approaches you, or vice versa, ask how you will position yourself—as a business partner or a gig-worker? Your decide.