Thanks, you are correct. I really have put a good amount of time into this niche and truly enjoy it, to the point where I just decided to drop a client so that I could give this my full attention.
What you describe is how it worked for my first set of customers. I solved the needs of the first person, and then for each subsequent customer, I was introduced by the previous one, met with them, and had a 'be myself' approach. There has never been any paperwork beyond a simple text file describing the work that will be done, and no one has ever signed a piece of paper. I just showed what I did for the previous guy and I believe they liked the fact that I wasn't really pushing a product, I just knew how to develop something that solved a problem for them. I am very comfortable with this approach and perhaps I shouldn't change it.
However, pretty soon I will have exhausted the potential clients in my local area since it's not a huge niche. My thoughts were that some other organizations might have different attitudes towards forking over a lot of money to one guy in blue jeans, and that maybe I would benefit from actually "learning" sales. This thought came from watching this particular interview:
He focuses on a mapping niche, and describes how he was able to expand and sell more expensive software by actually taking formal sales classes.
I really would prefer not to do this and would prefer to just say "check out what I did for these other folks", but then again I'm willing to do what it takes.
> He focuses on a mapping niche, and describes how he was able to expand and sell more expensive software by actually taking formal sales classes. I really would prefer not to do this and would prefer to just say "check out what I did for these other folks", but then again I'm willing to do what it takes.
There are people out there who live for this sort of thing. It's ok if your interests lie more in the technical side of things, but you should seek out a dedicated sales person who has a passion for it.
What you describe is how it worked for my first set of customers. I solved the needs of the first person, and then for each subsequent customer, I was introduced by the previous one, met with them, and had a 'be myself' approach. There has never been any paperwork beyond a simple text file describing the work that will be done, and no one has ever signed a piece of paper. I just showed what I did for the previous guy and I believe they liked the fact that I wasn't really pushing a product, I just knew how to develop something that solved a problem for them. I am very comfortable with this approach and perhaps I shouldn't change it.
However, pretty soon I will have exhausted the potential clients in my local area since it's not a huge niche. My thoughts were that some other organizations might have different attitudes towards forking over a lot of money to one guy in blue jeans, and that maybe I would benefit from actually "learning" sales. This thought came from watching this particular interview:
http://mixergy.com/maponics-darrin-clement/
He focuses on a mapping niche, and describes how he was able to expand and sell more expensive software by actually taking formal sales classes.
I really would prefer not to do this and would prefer to just say "check out what I did for these other folks", but then again I'm willing to do what it takes.