Whenever a new service enters the market, there's going to be a learning curve for testing it out, seeing what it's good for and what it isn't good for. If you haven't heard of Thumbtack before from my previous post on Where to Find Freelance Work, it's a newer bidding system designed to connect service professionals with people looking for services.
Who It Attracts:
People who search the web for service professionals are usually doing so to research information about hiring someone or because they don't have any referrals from trusted sources. When you consider the person who uses the web to find services, they also may not have hired a service professional before and are starting their search online with services like Thumbtack. They may have no idea what to expect or how the process works. Much like ranking at the top of Google, you'll need to sort through a lot of inquiries that may be duds in order to find the ones that become awesome clients who share your work and create more referrals.
If a potential client finds their way to Thumbtack, they can get bids from 5 different "professionals" by making one request in the budget range that they *think* is appropriate and that they can afford. It's far more effective than trying to search Google because it's a localized result and takes much less time to hear from multiple professionals. This is not to say that they will receive qualified responses if their request seems unreasonable, but there are quite a few pros employing strategies to bring a budget request on board and turn it into a more appropriate professional fee. I can honestly say that I've used it successfully to find some really wonderful clients, and I think it's a great new service, but it does have a learning curve, which is what I'd like to help you understand before you start using it.
What To Expect:
Based on the info above, you can expect that a lot of people using the service for the first time don't actually know what a professional service should cost. They aren't awful people and they aren't trying to undercut a professional living. Thumbtack generally asks for a budget, and if the client doesn't know any better, they may default to the lowest possible option. This doesn't mean they will choose the lowest bid once they see their options, it simply means they haven't been educated about the differences between low budget and appropriate budget services, and Thumbtack may be their first introduction to the differences between a low-priced service and a professionally priced one.
What The Pro Sees:
The professional sees a new request in their email, on the website, or in their smart phone app with a set of details predetermined by Thumbtack. The professional uses the request information to determine if the job is worth bidding on or not. The pro pays a fee to make their bid based on a point system, which is similar to what you'd pay if you were using other internet lead services like Google Ad Words or Facebook Ads to secure a new client. The service is constantly growing and changing, so if you think a request item needs to be added to the service, it's best to suggest it to them. If they get enough suggestions, than they will be able to add it to the system.
The Bidding Process:
Thumbtack delivers the first 5 bids made by professionals to a client request without regard to relevance, bidded price, or other factors. Their goal is to deliver service professionals and bids as quickly as possible to the client to help them make a decision quickly. If the client fails to look at their bids for 48 hours, all bid credits are refunded to the professional bidders. Once you've made a bid, you then have an opportunity to provide additional information through the Thumbtack messaging system, which keeps most of the client's information anonymous unless the client has provided the info to the bidders. Clients have the option to get more information before hiring a professional as well, and if they decide to hire someone, they are also prompted to leave a review of that professional's service, which becomes part of the professionals profile.
Tips for Bidding:
Before you begin bidding, create a profile and just sit back for a week and see how many requests come in at different price points and what the categories are- this will help you get a sense of what's happening in your market and what the initial expectations are. As tempting as it would be to bid on everything right away, save yourself some money and get to know what kind of requests are coming in first. I would also suggest going into Thumbtack knowing that your first bunch of bids are going to be learning experiences rather than paying clients. It may take you 10-20 bids before you really start to learn what bids will actually pan out into clients who will communicate with you and hire you. If you feel like you have plenty of business already, than don't waste your time with this system. It's designed for people who are hungry for more work and can respond quickly to a text message or email notification. That being said, here are a few suggestions for making the most of your bids:
Tips for Closing The Sale:
Because these clients have elected to search for a service online, the more you can move the process forward online, the more likely you are to close the sale. If you can provide an online quote, an online contract, and an online payment option, you're far more likely to close the sale in a timely manner than if you require these clients to take extra steps offline like having an in-person meeting first.
It's also important to remember the client level of skepticism with hiring someone online rather than from a friend or trusted source- so asking for full payment up front may also make it difficult to close the sale. However, you may be able to ask for a small deposit up front to pay for the travel arrangements or equipment rental to serve the client, but since you are not a trusted service yet, you will be more likely to close the sale with a quote and a contract that allows for payment to be due at the time the service is provided, but before final delivery of the product. With all clients, I would suggest not providing final delivery of the finished or high resolution product until you've received full payment.
Have more questions? Leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer them!
Who It Attracts:
People who search the web for service professionals are usually doing so to research information about hiring someone or because they don't have any referrals from trusted sources. When you consider the person who uses the web to find services, they also may not have hired a service professional before and are starting their search online with services like Thumbtack. They may have no idea what to expect or how the process works. Much like ranking at the top of Google, you'll need to sort through a lot of inquiries that may be duds in order to find the ones that become awesome clients who share your work and create more referrals.
If a potential client finds their way to Thumbtack, they can get bids from 5 different "professionals" by making one request in the budget range that they *think* is appropriate and that they can afford. It's far more effective than trying to search Google because it's a localized result and takes much less time to hear from multiple professionals. This is not to say that they will receive qualified responses if their request seems unreasonable, but there are quite a few pros employing strategies to bring a budget request on board and turn it into a more appropriate professional fee. I can honestly say that I've used it successfully to find some really wonderful clients, and I think it's a great new service, but it does have a learning curve, which is what I'd like to help you understand before you start using it.
What To Expect:
Based on the info above, you can expect that a lot of people using the service for the first time don't actually know what a professional service should cost. They aren't awful people and they aren't trying to undercut a professional living. Thumbtack generally asks for a budget, and if the client doesn't know any better, they may default to the lowest possible option. This doesn't mean they will choose the lowest bid once they see their options, it simply means they haven't been educated about the differences between low budget and appropriate budget services, and Thumbtack may be their first introduction to the differences between a low-priced service and a professionally priced one.
What The Pro Sees:
The professional sees a new request in their email, on the website, or in their smart phone app with a set of details predetermined by Thumbtack. The professional uses the request information to determine if the job is worth bidding on or not. The pro pays a fee to make their bid based on a point system, which is similar to what you'd pay if you were using other internet lead services like Google Ad Words or Facebook Ads to secure a new client. The service is constantly growing and changing, so if you think a request item needs to be added to the service, it's best to suggest it to them. If they get enough suggestions, than they will be able to add it to the system.
The Bidding Process:
Thumbtack delivers the first 5 bids made by professionals to a client request without regard to relevance, bidded price, or other factors. Their goal is to deliver service professionals and bids as quickly as possible to the client to help them make a decision quickly. If the client fails to look at their bids for 48 hours, all bid credits are refunded to the professional bidders. Once you've made a bid, you then have an opportunity to provide additional information through the Thumbtack messaging system, which keeps most of the client's information anonymous unless the client has provided the info to the bidders. Clients have the option to get more information before hiring a professional as well, and if they decide to hire someone, they are also prompted to leave a review of that professional's service, which becomes part of the professionals profile.
Tips for Bidding:
Before you begin bidding, create a profile and just sit back for a week and see how many requests come in at different price points and what the categories are- this will help you get a sense of what's happening in your market and what the initial expectations are. As tempting as it would be to bid on everything right away, save yourself some money and get to know what kind of requests are coming in first. I would also suggest going into Thumbtack knowing that your first bunch of bids are going to be learning experiences rather than paying clients. It may take you 10-20 bids before you really start to learn what bids will actually pan out into clients who will communicate with you and hire you. If you feel like you have plenty of business already, than don't waste your time with this system. It's designed for people who are hungry for more work and can respond quickly to a text message or email notification. That being said, here are a few suggestions for making the most of your bids:
- Create A Specialty Portfolio- If you only want new portrait leads from Thumbtack, set up your profile to focus on that. If you only want commercial leads, set up your profile for that. This service works best when you focus tightly on what kind of new clients you want, so make sure you've tailored your Thumbtack profile to reflect that type of work and only selected that niche to receive requests for. The more relevant the bids are to begin with, the higher chances you'll have of finding the right clients. People who are seeking portrait work but have portfolios that feature products and vice versa are only confusing the buyer.
- Evaluate The Detail of The Bid- At first I couldn't tell which bids were serious or not, but over time I started to notice that serious clients provided more detail in their requests than the clients who never followed up. This isn't a 100% accurate measure of a serious client, which is why you need to spend a couple weeks just looking at a lot of the requests that come in before you start actually making bids.
- Respond Immediately- Once you're ready to start bidding, you have to be lightening fast for some of the service categories. Portraits and Commercial photography in NYC can receive 5 bids from professionals within 60 seconds. If you aren't hungry for work and ready to bid, you'll probably find yourself shut out of a lot of opportunities. That being said, you can increase your chances of seeing requests by setting up text alerts to your phone- just make sure you have an unlimited text plan before doing so.
- Choose A Smart Bidding Strategy- You can bid on requests with a fixed price, price per hour, or by saying you need more info. I would say your best strategy is to give an estimated price up front and then simply explain what that includes in your message, rather than giving no price and saying you need more info. If you think the request is really a $900 job and they've set their budget to $500, you could use the hourly system to bid $300/hr and suggest that it will be a 3 hour job and provide some additional education. That way it may at first look like it's under budget, but with the appropriate detail and education of the client, you can walk them into a more appropriate budget for the job. Likewise, if you think it's a serious client and want to come within their bid range even if it's lower than you'd normally take, you can bid at $500 but then limit the deliverables, the post-production process, or the time for the shoot to help keep it within what's affordable for you and your overhead. Again, it's better to give a number to open the dialogue, than to provide no number at all.
- Ask A Question To Open Dialogue- I generally know how serious a person is about their request if they respond to a critical question included in the quote. Questions like, what would like to do with the images after you've receive them? Will you need a stylist or make-up artist, or will you be doing your own styling? A client who isn't serious, simply will not answer the question or provide any response. A client who is serious will often engage in a dialogue with you and provide more details. Unfortunately you won't know this until after you've made a bid, but it does give you insight into whether the client will actually move forward or not with the bids they've received.
- Follow-Up After Bidding- If 48 hours have passed and you haven't received a response or confirmation of being hired or the request being closed, follow up and ask if they need more information before making a decision. Offer your email and phone number in case it's easier to have a conversation off of Thumbtack. Occasionally, following up even a week or two after the request has resulted in a new client. Some people are making requests as admins or virtual assistants for someone else and need to get approvals or share information before they can move further with a bid. Following-up shows that you're serious, professional, and willing to help.
- Never Lose Your Cool- If you are being "ghosted", meaning that a potential client has suddenly stopped responding, never write back in frustration or anger. Just be cool if their plans have changed or they ended up going with another option. Your cool is part of your professionalism and without it, you're taking the whole thing way too personally and expecting way too much out of people who may be exploring a service for the very first time.
Tips for Closing The Sale:
Because these clients have elected to search for a service online, the more you can move the process forward online, the more likely you are to close the sale. If you can provide an online quote, an online contract, and an online payment option, you're far more likely to close the sale in a timely manner than if you require these clients to take extra steps offline like having an in-person meeting first.
It's also important to remember the client level of skepticism with hiring someone online rather than from a friend or trusted source- so asking for full payment up front may also make it difficult to close the sale. However, you may be able to ask for a small deposit up front to pay for the travel arrangements or equipment rental to serve the client, but since you are not a trusted service yet, you will be more likely to close the sale with a quote and a contract that allows for payment to be due at the time the service is provided, but before final delivery of the product. With all clients, I would suggest not providing final delivery of the finished or high resolution product until you've received full payment.
Have more questions? Leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer them!
good read
ReplyDeletevery well written and a good read
ReplyDelete