At the beginning of the year I wrote a post about thinking of your web design service as a product. In that case I was talking mostly about how this approach makes pricing your service easier. That’s all true, but I think I stumbled upon another benefit: it’s a lot easier to sell.

When I get in front of someone to pitch my services as a web developer, I seem to suddenly become shy. It feels a little strange to stand there and talk about how great I am. Immodest, even. (Maybe you don’t struggle with that, and if that’s the case than my hat is off to you.) So I end up going through the sales call almost apologetically, as if to say “I’m sorry that I can’t stop talking about myself. I know I sound like a jerk.”

The entire dynamic of that conversation changes for me, though, once I start talking about a product that I’ve built. I get more animated. I get enthusiastic. I can talk about all the exciting features of this product because it is just that one small step removed from bragging about myself. And that’s something that a customer can respond to. They want to hear that what they are buying from me is the neatest thing in the world.

So what can you find that allows you to get really excited when talking about your work? For me it is changing my offering from a service to a product. Maybe you get really excited when you talk about examples of how you’ve helped people on previous projects. Maybe you’re jazzed when you talk about a slick way to use AJAX. Find something because the sales process becomes a lot easier once you identify that trigger that gets your energy up.

filed under: Finding Work