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 monthRaise ratesDisqualify 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