
Ask HN: Where do you find clients? - bendtheblock
I am the co-founder of a company that provides software to established and rapidly developing organisations that wish to introduce modern web working-practices. Think e-commerce apps, large Joomla-based sites, social media features, clean and functional design etc.<p>We are just getting started but have managed to find some leads mainly through our professional contacts. We’ve also tried websites such as http://www.supply2.gov.uk/ but I’ve found these to be of limited use. Getting clients at this stage is critical to us as we need to increase our portfolio of work.<p>My question is for those that do web development for a similar audience; where do you look for potential clients, RFPs etc? Do you hit the streets? Hold workshops? Attend ‘networking’ events? Search online?<p>Note that I am based in London - although it would also be interesting to know how this works internationally. Thanks all.
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stuartk
If you're looking at the higher end of the market, perhaps 10-20k per project
or more, referals and relationships is where it's at.

Think about how you would select someone for a project if you had £50k to
spend on a project. Would you search the web and pick the company with the
nicest website or most blog articles?

Or would you reach out to your contacts, see what other companies have done,
seeking referals. When you're spending a lot of money, nothing soothes a buyer
more than sound recommendations from people who have used you before.

I'm not saying the website isn't important. It is, as your 'shop front' and
public image, very important. But it's a small part of the whole package.

So networking might the most important activity you can do, as you never know
who you might meet.

~~~
bendtheblock
I think you are right - we need our website for potential leads to check out
our work/testimonials but the sales will only come from initial 'real-world'
interaction. To get referrals we need previous work, which is the problem
really. The question is for this type of project (~£50k), how do we assure
clients we can deliver a high quality solution, without a long list of
previous clients. I think we need to find a couple of projects that we can
undercut the competition on and deliver a superior solution. From there, we
can build a reputation. It’s finding these initial clients that is the
problem.

Thanks to everyone that's posted so far - every single point has been useful.
We actually have a brand for lower budget websites that already uses some of
the points here successfully. We can’t use these sites as ‘previous clients’
for the other service since they tend to be for small creative businesses
rather than medium/large companies.

~~~
stuartk
Even if the creative business are lower value than the business you now want,
the work still demonstrates what you can do.

If one of your existing websites involved a web application, e-commerce etc,
this shows your capabilities.

If you don't think you can jump straight in at £50k, go up to the next price
bracket. That way you can use your existing portfolio as a reference. Then
just keep leapfrogging up to the bigger business.

Don't forget that you can likely charge medium to large business more than you
can a small business. If you're quoting based on value to the customer, the
value is likely to be higher for a larger business, so you can charge more.

So what might be a £10k job for a small business, ends up being a £20k job for
a larger company.

I once worked for a company that did an e-commerce site for a large plc. They
charged £750 per day for development, and the overall cost for the site was in
excess of £100k.

But if you were freelance, you would likely charge £250-300 per day for the
same. However, this large company was used to paying those sort of rates, and
we were a 'consultancy' which can make a difference in price!

~~~
bendtheblock
This is all great advice - thanks. Totally agree on the end-user-value-based
pricing. Leap-frogging is certainly a strategy that could work since the
design element of the smaller sites is good and we've a couple of e-commerce
sites in the pipeline (for the smaller clients)

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qeorge
I have a similar business, we're nearing our third year. We've found most of
our clients through word of mouth and referrals, but don't let that discourage
you. You'd be amazed how many people need web work and haven't taken action
because hiring a web firm is so intimidating, and its hard to know if you're
getting ripped off. Its like how finding a good, honest mechanic you trust is
worth its weight in gold - web shops are the same way.

Make sure to tell everyone you know what you do, and you'll find work. In the
mean time, try craigslist. Its tough to get clients from craigslist but it can
be done, and you'll get a lot of great experience winning clients
competitively. In our early days, we landed a white-label development gig via
craigslist that provided an invaluable source of steady income during that
make-or-break time.

For building your portfolio quickly, you've got 3 options as I see it:

1) Make your own side projects and add those to your portfolio.

2) Lower your rates for your initial clients. Be upfront that they're getting
a great deal because you are just getting started, and charge full price for
support contracts.

3) Make a fantastic website for a local non-profit. You don't have to worry
about "cheapening" yourself, and you'll almost certainly get some good PR out
of it. Most importantly, the boards of many non-profits are composed of
business leaders in the community. You'll gain invaluable connections if you
execute well.

If you give free or discount work, its imperative that you treat it with the
same respect as a fully priced client. Think of it as a marketing budget, and
make sure its having the maximum impact.

Most importantly, don't die. Figure out how much you can survive on, and skip
the fancy office for now. Even if its slow, you _will_ build momentum if you
make a good product.

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patio11
This is not a "put food on the table tomorrow" strategy, but it does work:
start blogging how you solve the problems of the people whose problems you
want to solve. Continue blogging for a few years, gradually building up a
reputation for yourself as a topical expert in the community.

You'll have to beat off offers with a stick.

~~~
arihelgason
On a related note: get speaking gigs at conferences or support events that
your target customers attend. It will take some work to establish yourself as
a domain expert, but once done it's likely to bring you a steady stream of
prospects.

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NyxWulf
I wrote this article, and found these strategies to work for me.

[http://procnew.com/10-cheap-ways-to-get-clients-for-
freelanc...](http://procnew.com/10-cheap-ways-to-get-clients-for-freelance-
consultants.html)

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rama_vadakattu
The new way to find clients is by following the below principles ...........

1.Start a blog

2a.Write the content which showcases your expertise

2b.Identify pain points and share your expertise in those areas

2c.publish the interviews of various persons who are (experts / kind of
popular ) in the area in which you are doing consulting.(or) any good content
which will of interest to target audience.

2d.in above way you will be building the audience and trust.and people will
referring you to their friends if any need arises.

3.Make sure your content is very good/remarkable so that people can
share..........

4.As your content spreads you will be known to many people and inturn they
will ask you /your company to help on their project.

5.And also develop tools which will be helpfull to target audience.( A good
tool spreads like any thing which inturns spreads your company name)

6.Participate actively in various online groups (related to the area in which
you are doing consulting) .

you will be suprised when people are contacting you...........

7.Keep an eye on SEO as search engines are driving huge traffic to sites.(good
landing page, blog will help in improving the SEO)

8.Adwords (spend some amount on adwords for good targeted keywords to attract
diverse audience)

The above is popular referred to as inbound marketing (i.e you will not
shout/beg at your prospects for getting leads inturn prospects are coming
to.........:))

Important blogs to follow:

1.<http://blog.hubspot.com/>

2.<http://www.webinknow.com/>

3.<http://www.chrisbrogan.com/>

Important book to read The New Rules of Marketing and PR (awesome and
excellent) <http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/books.htm>

~~~
joubert
A lot of the above seem quite passive to me.

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AdamN
Agreed. You (or a salesperson) needs to be shaking hands.

Are there brokers who specialize in matching clients and customers in the
$50k-$500k web space? Any in NY in particular?

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shafqat
Conferences are great - we've had a lot of success nailing clients in
tech/industry conferences. Of course, you should be selective on the ones you
choose to attend (avoid the high price/high BS ration ones).

Also, cold e-mails can work surprisingly well if you can lead with a warm-ish
intro. Follow them on twitter, read their blog posts, quote their CEO,
whatever.. Just something so that the recipient appreciates that this is not a
generic email and understands that you've put effort into it.

~~~
CyberFonic
Very good suggestion. It takes effort to maintain personal, specific and
valuable communications ... but it's worth it. The bland, generic stuff really
taints the brand.

In my experience conferences are rarely attended by the real decision makers.
So you'll need to accept that the people you network with are possibly several
steps removed to the ones you are really trying to reach. Which means that you
need to tailor your communications to suit at each of the levels so that the
people along the chain of command gain from your interaction with them.

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blazzerbg
<http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/freelance/a/clients_8ways.htm>

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Alex3917
Good rule of thumb: You should be meeting at least two new people every day.
And for every person you meet, you should be making three introductions.
Figure out who the 5 best superconnectors are in your city, and then have them
each introduce you to thirty of their friends. Then have each of those 150
people introduce you to three people, and you'll be set.

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hajrice
hmm well I suppose networking would be crucial. At least for me it is. I
sometimes do some web development/design work and all of my clients recommend
me. How I found the first one was simple, I did it for a friend...you could
offer a free version to someone, etc?

I suggest you read Seth Godin's website. For God sakes the man is a marketing
genius! :)

Best wishes with your venture.

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olegp
I agree with the comment saying that for the type of work you do, it's all
about word of mouth & referrals. From what you're saying about getting leads
through your professional contacts, it seems like you've already figured this
out.

You should probably be quite open about giving anybody who brings you a paying
client a hefty commission of 10% or more.

The only problem is that getting the word out there can be pretty hard work
which involves periodically calling up everybody you know and reminding them
of the fact that you're looking for projects.

To plug a venture I'm involved with: I believe a lot of these referrals and
recommendations can be made much easier using online tools & that's what we've
been trying do at <http://www.venzen.co.uk> \- the visitors of the site are
mostly London based SME owners looking for service providers such as yourself.

~~~
bendtheblock
Good idea re: commission. Your site looks like a good starting point for us -
will check it out in more detail later.

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edw519
_have managed to find some leads mainly through our professional contacts_

Good. Keep doing that. Then get referrals from your referrals. This has always
worked well for me.

 _RFPs_ I never do. You have little control and have to compete. Look for
opportunities where there is no competition.

 _hit the streets?_ Absolutely.

 _Hold workshops?_ These can be very effective for prospects deeper in your
pipeline, but they can also be quite time consuming.

 _Attend ‘networking’ events?_ Every one you can. You'll soon learn which are
worthwhile and which are not.

 _Search online?_ I haven't found much success doing this.

~~~
prawn
Agree on RFPs/Tenders. If you suspect that a company has had help with their
tender from a preferred supplier, unless you're desperate for work or have a
lot of spare time, run away.

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Edinburger
A common strategy is to engage a salesperson who has worked for similar
companies, get them to use their book of contacts to sell your services. If
you advertise for the salesperson, you should be able to find someone who will
work on a freelance/commission-only basis.

~~~
bendtheblock
I've heard this, but I've also heard that we should do our own sales. Does
anyone have any info on where to find London-based IT sales people that will
work on commission only?

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NoBSWebDesign
Agreed that personal contacts and relationships are your best bet.

Beyond that, we use Google Alerts to RSS feed + LeadNuke for a continuous
stream of new client leads. (disclosure: I developed LeadNuke expressly for
this purpose)

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robfitz
I think the true purpose of an advisory board is client contacts. You can
build a top notch virtual salesperson with the right board with no financial
cost and only a small equity cost.

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clistctrl
For the company I work for we build websites in the 100k - 500k range. Our
first clients came from a professional relationship my boss had before he
started the company. Then gradually as the company did work we gained a
reputation for the sector, and in the products of our core compentencies. Now
we have more leads then developers to finish them. They come from referrals of
other clients (everyone in the sector seems to talk to each other) and a large
part comes from our business partners (the companies that built our web
platforms) referring us.

~~~
bendtheblock
This is exactly where we want to end up. It's all about building reputation,
you and a couple of others have pointed out that word-of-mouth is by far the
most effective way of gaining this. For initial clients, we are just going to
have to continue promotion in our own professional network.

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onreact-com
I get most of my clients via the Web. Far to many of them for me to handle.
They find me on the Web due to my SEO or they notice me due to my blogging and
social media participation. Also clients refer new clients.

