Finding Clients Lesson #2: Zero Line Item

11 Lessons on How to find clients

• 11 Lessons on How to Find Clients
• Finding Clients Lesson #1: Targeted Referrals
• Finding Clients Lesson #2: Zero-line Item
• Finding Clients Lesson #3: The Client Sandwich
• Finding Clients Lesson #4: The Sneak Peek
• Finding Clients Lesson #5: Buy a cup of coffee
• Finding Clients Lesson #6: Get on a show
• Finding Clients Lesson #7: Your Up Level Skills
• Finding Clients Lesson #8: Brag About Your Clients
• Finding Clients Lesson #9: Are you priced right?
• Finding Clients Lesson #10: Who do you hang with?
• Finding Clients Lesson #11: Group Coaching for Leads

I'm continuing here today with the second lesson in the "How to Find Clients" series.

This is the no-nonsense series of lessons that work in today's market to find clients you want to be working with on a consistent basis.

Today's lesson is solely targeted toward getting repeat clients.

With any project you have, no doubt you'll either be asked to do something the client wants that isn't in the scope or want to throw something in just because it is quick.

We all do it. We are humans after all. But we are also running a business. So when you do these one-off add-ons you should keep track of them and make your client aware of them too.

When you do one, whether you are doing hourly work or on retainer, add the task to the invoice. Along with that, add how much it would cost normally and then zero it out. Meaning make it no charge.

Even if it's something that takes 15 or 30-minutes to do, mark that down, describe the task in the line item and then put the $50, $100, or $200 down next to it.

When you do this, you are putting value into the project that may or may not be perceived by your client.

Ever have a client ask you "is there anything you can do better on price?" Especially when scoping out a project?

This is where all that added value comes into play. If you give $500 worth of zero line items in Project A, there's no way that a client will ask for a discount on project B.

Here is where you get the repeat work though.

By adding in all the zero line items into the work, you are keeping track of all the possibilities to add-on repeat work.

For example, say you are designing blog images for your client and they ask you to create a few Facebook images for those blog posts along the way. Say you have the bandwidth and did 2 of them.

You now have an opportunity to re-visit those blog posts and do a comparison on the images you did vs what they did otherwise. If the shares that had your images performed better, guess what?

There's your opportunity to pitch additional work.

Here's another example.

Say you are a developer and your client asked to add in an additional feature to their app that allows their users to log in via Facebook or Twitter.

You obviously know that those APIs change pretty regularly, right?

Well when they do, go back to your client when it does happen and sell them on the update.

The Zero-Line Item is your best friend when it comes to positioning yourself, but also leaving a built-in opportunity for yourself to them go ahead and get additional work later.