Laura and Chris talk about how to attract high-value clients, how to keep on marketing while you're doing the work, and how to use authority-building for lead generation.

Takeaways:

1 project per month
Raise rates
Disqualify smaller projects

Stock email for qualifying clients:

• 90% disqualification rate


• Helps free time from calls

Bigger-budget clients are much better:

• More pleasant


• More willing to take advice


• Less likely to dictate

Lead-gen (how to attract high-value clients):

• Putting myself out there


• Authority-building


• Lots of speaking


• Guest-posting


• No strategy, writing random things


• Started out writing for myself


• SitePoint republished; that led to a conference


• Still trying to hone a focus


• Low-value clients come in via Google


• Trying to compare


• Better clients are referrals & networking

Not looking to become an agency:

• Gives lots of freedom with regard to turning down work
  *Learning how to attract high-value clients gives you options

Building relationships via dialogue

Competitive bidding indicates an undesirable client:

• Process isn't honest

Spec work

• Nospec.com


• Disqualify that kind of lead these days


• Participated once, resented it


• Some prospects demand time right away

Suggestion: do more guest posting than posting for yourself:

• If you write something good, submit it instead of posting it


• Still yours, just not on your blog


• This is hard mentally


• As you gain more popularity, shift the mix toward your own site


• Credibility is how to attract high-value clients

Devs need to learn about design:

• Design IQ

The role of luck:

• Requires being proactive


• Requires making a decision about what you want


• Requires extra work

Marketing and working at the same time:

• Allocate a little bit of time each week


• It's hard to do


• Marie Poulin says, when scheduling your work week; double the time for each task


• Use the slack time for marketing


• Marketing consistency is part of how to attract high-value clients