To save you the trouble, I’ve posted my template below. It’s free to use except for the logo image which needs to be removed. It displays well in the browser and prints nicely. If you use the invoice for one of your projects, feel free to link to our web site.

Download the html invoice template

To use the template, view the source code and copy and paste it into your document.

But what’s the worst part of closing a sale with a sales contract? It’s the waiting. Waiting for the client to receive a copy in their mail or email; waiting for them to sign it and mail it/fax it/scan it back to you.

This part of the process has always been a killer for me because it gives the prospect enough time to lose confidence in their ability to choose the right product and call the deal off. The solution that I’ve started using is an online contract tool called SignatureConfirm.

This utility lets you make a contract online that another party can digitally sign. You can write whatever you need to in the contract part, and it will show up in your prospect’s email box. The best part is that once they get the email, they can digitally sign it right then and there! I’ve used this tool to narrow my 5-7 day contract waiting period down to less than a day. In some cases when I’m talking to a client on the phone, I can close in 5 minutes!

Picture this:

Me: Hi Bob, thanks for taking my call. Did you get a chance to look at those estimates I sent over?

Bob: Hi Keith! I did, and they look good. We’d like to move forward.

Me: Great! I’m emailing a contract over to you and we’ll start work as soon as you sign off on it. Look for the email from SignatureConfirm. You should have it by now.

Bob: I got it - I just put in the code and check the box?

Me: Yep.

Bob: Good deal! Do I need to do anything else?

Me: Nope, we’re all set! Thanks for the call and if you need anything call or email me anytime.

This is a true story, and it’s not the only client I’ve signed off like that. The ease of use factor does wonders for the time turnaround. I also have a theory that as a whole, we’re starting to get pretty blind to those little “Accept the terms of usage” checkboxes that you see on web sites everywhere and we’re more apt to click first and ask questions later.

Regardless of how you use it, it’s a good tool and I highly recommend it.

My business is consulting, which means my product is intellectual rather than physical. If I’m giving something away, it’s generally an information packet, a resource, or some advice. If you read my article on closing sales with email, you know that I generally have a good chance of closing sales either in person or on the phone. With that in mind, here’s a loss leader I ran on an internet advertisement recently:

Free Web Site Work - Tuesday, May 27th

On Tuesday May 27th, all the web site work done out of my office will be free. If you have a web site you would like updated, a project you want to discuss, or need some free advice please give us a call at the number below between 8am and 5pm.

Please don’t wait to call - calls will be first come, first served.

Our office phone: 999-999-9999

Who are you?

I’m the owner of medium sized web-design firm in the DFW area. Our focus is on web site design, maintenance, and marketing for local small businesses.

Why are you doing this?

Word of mouth is a powerful advertising tool. If we can help you and you like working with us, please tell a friend or consider us for your next project.

What can you help me with?

My specialty areas are web design, CSS, HTML, PHP programming, mysql databases, email marketing and online advertising. I have people in my office who can talk intelligently about search engine optimization and pay per click marketing as well.

Thanks,

Keith

Response to this ad was great, and I was really surprised at how little actual work I had to do. Most of the calls I got were from individuals who wanted to talk about ideas or just ask questions. I spent most of the day talking to prospects interested in developing web sites. The best part was that they called me!

At the end of the day I had finalized some sales, set up a new referral partnership, and scheduled meetings with prospective customers.

This is off the top of my head and has no mathematical basis whatsoever, but here’s an estimate of my close ratio based on different types of communication:

• Email close ratio: 10%
• Phone call close ratio: 35%
• In-person close ratio: 60%

These numbers assume that the lead has a mild interest and some available funds to pursue a project.

Note the huge jump between email correspondence and an in-person meeting. Knowing that the ratio is so much higher for a phone call or meeting means that my #1 goal in email correspondence is to get you on the phone. At the bottom of my first email to you, you’ll often see the phrase:

Do you have time for a phone call this week?

or

Can you call my office tomorrow at 9:00am?

With this phone call, I’ll often feel the prospect out for the next step. Sometimes I try to get their business then and there, other times I’ll go for a meeting. It’s a judgment call based on my instincts about the client. When in doubt, go for a meeting.

If for any reason I feel like the lead is a dead end, or is just not willing to take a call I do one of the following via email:

1. Present an invoice and payment method. Asking for business is a hard thing, but it has to happen. If you wait for people to volunteer it, your closing ratio will suffer. I’ve sat in on sales meetings where an inexperienced sales rep will spend an hour outlining the product and extolling its virtues, only to forget to ask for the sale at the end! The best way to avoid this mistake via email is to state that you’re ready to start the project and to clearly outline your payment method. Here’s an excerpt from one recent email:
   

   Thanks for taking the time to talk with me today! I’ve attached an invoice to cover the initial payment on your project so we can get started. You can make a payment online at website payment address, or call my office and we’ll do it over the phone. If you have any questions, please email or call me anytime.

2. End by asking a leading question to keep the communication open. The longer you stay in touch with your prospect, the better your chances of closing a sale. You have to keep current on your follow ups for this to work! Just reference anything from your communication so far and ask them to elaborate. People love to talk about their ideas.
3. Be super helpful. One of the best ways I’ve found to get clients off the fence is to offer them free advice. I say things like:
   

   Email me when you start doing blank. It’s not part of my business, but I’ve worked on blank before and I can probably point you in the right direction.

4. Share a lead. People will be extremely receptive to you if they think they can make money off of you. Look into setting up a referral partner for this kind of thing. Nothing schedules a call faster than “I think I may have a lead for you. Are you available for a phone call?”
5. Ask for permission to follow up. Something like:
   

   I’d like to follow up with you when you hit the next stage of your project. When do you think would be a good time for that?

   Don’t forget to follow up with them.

6. Create a sense of urgency. Be careful with this one because it’s a gamble that doesn’t always pay off. If your client is teetering on making a decision, imply that your offer will expire or that there will be something to lose if they don’t act quickly. This is a classic sales technique (just watch any auto-dealership commercial on TV). The line I use most often in email is:
   

   If you could, let me know about this project by Tuesday morning. We’ve scheduled another client for work this month, but I’d like to get you in before we start them so we can finish in your time frame.

None of these are magic bullets to close sales, but hopefully they’ll help you develop your own style. Remember that while having a few go-to tactics to help out in tough situations is nice, they are no t a substitute for hard work, common courtesy, and a product that you believe in.

1. Build sales leads through face-to-face in person networking.
2. Accept credit cards online.
3. Require 50% payment in advance before starting a project.
4. People will respect you more if you charge them what you’re worth.
5. Spend equal amounts of time developing your own projects.
6. Track your profit and loss scrupulously.
7. Lock in repeat services like web hosting.
8. Build a network of reliable outsource vendors.
9. Establish referral partnerships.
10. Find a product you can deliver and focus on it.

I started this as an email in response to an article on kevinboss.net and it morphed into its own blog post.  You can read Kevin’s article in full at:

5 Mistakes That Made Me A Better Freelancer

My typical auto responder follow up happens like this:

1. Prospect signs up for the mailing list and receives a thank you email that day.
2. A second email is sent the next day with a follow up.
3. For the next month, we send emails on a weekly basis - always on the same day and time of the week. If this is when they were free to sign up, then they’re most likely free to read follow up emails.
4. Following the first month, we go to bi-weekly emails.
5. After that, we send out monthly until the end of the follow up series.

A lot of people ask me if it does any good to follow up for such a long period of time. Here are a few samples from the sales results of that site:

• Joined 12/18/06, purchased product on 01/28/08, 405.97 days from signup.
• Joined 01/07/08, purchased product on 01/25/08, 218.54 days from signup.
• Joined 11/08/07, purchased product on 06/09/08, 213.95 days from signup.
• Joined 08/19/07, purchased product on 02/19/08, 183.88 days from signup.
• Joined 04/15/08, purchased product on 01/15/08, 90.59 days from signup.
• Joined 11/13/07, purchased product on 01/10/08, 58.41 days from signup.
• Joined 12/31/07, purchased product on 01/24/08, 24.07 days from signup.

Here are a few techniques I use to ensure successful campaigns:

1. Pre-qualify the recipient. In order to collect emails, I usually do a product giveaway. The product should be directly related to what you’re selling. That way, you know that anyone who signs up will have a good chance of becoming a customer.
2. Avoid stodgy subject lines. I try to use an email subject line like I would title an article - a three to five word description of what I’m about to talk about. I avoid things like June Newsletter
3. Personalization - During the signup process I ask the prospect for their first name and include it in all of the emails that go out to them.
4. Familiarity - I always try to write in a personal rather than formal tone. I find this more engaging and I think it helps to build trust with the reader.
5. Offer something of value. I rarely send out an email that’s just a straight sales pitch. I find people are more receptive to reading the emails if they offer something of value. It can be a short and informative article, a free download, or a helpful tip.
6. Pitch the product. Just because you’re a nice guy doesn’t mean you can’t try and sell your product. That’s what the autoresponder is for! Be sure to include a link to your product at the bottom of each email.

I’m actually a lot more interested in the tool he seems to be using.

Here’s the video

Online Advertising Law

An old cartoon in the New Yorker showed two dogs in front of a computer, and had the caption “On the Internet, Nobody Knows You’re a Dog.” The inherent anonymity of the Internet has fostered a number of shady advertising and marketing practices, such as unsolicited e-mail spam. Over the past decade, federal and state governments have passed additional advertising laws that protect consumer privacy and ensure fair and truthful advertising practices online. If you plan to advertise online — whether you’re buying ads on search engines or direct marketing through e-mail — you’ll need to understand some basic rules.

• Advertising and Marketing on the Internet : Rules of the Road
  Discusses the applicability of federal advertising laws to Internet advertising and marketing.
• Dot Com Disclosures : Information about Online Advertising
  This fact sheet describes information businesses should consider as they develop online ads to ensure that they comply with the law.
• CAN-SPAM Act : Requirements for Businesses
  The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them. Commercial e-mail messages must include notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation, an opt-out notice, and a valid postal address of the sender. CAN-SPAM also prohibits falsification of transmission information and deceptive subject headings. The Act creates criminal prohibitions against those who knowingly transmit spam through others’ computers without authorization. Also, the Federal Trade Commission may pursue individuals who knowingly hire others to send deceptive spam.
• “Remove Me” Responses and Responsibilities
  Claims that you make in any advertisement for your products or services, including those sent by email, must be truthful. This means that you must honor any promises you make to remove consumers from email mailing lists

100+ Marketing Ideas

Marketing is all about satisfying customer needs. The following represents a comprehensive list of marketing ideas; use it to help better understand customer needs and ways to satisfy those needs.

• Never let a day pass without engaging in at least one marketing activity.
• Produce separate business cards/sales literature for each of your target market segments (e.g. government and commercial and/or business and consumer).
• Include testimonials from customers in your literature.
• Code your ads and keep records of results.
• Write a How To pamphlet or article for publishing.
• Start every day with two cold calls.

That’s enough copy and paste from me. Read the whole article on their website. Do take note of the publish date of 4/97.

Here’s what I do for SEO:

1. I include all the page elements that are important to SEO - meta tags, title tags, image tags, header tags, etc.  These are by and large handled automatically by my content management system.
2. I do a little bit of linking - I try to get with the top 10 or so sites on Google for my key phrases and get them to link to me.
3. I use my existing sites and email lists to generate a bit of traffic.
4. I occasionally post on forums, craigslist, or whatever I’m in to at the moment for some free traffic.

Here’s what I really do do for SEO:

1. I add solid, original and valuable content to my web sites on a regular basis.  I take time to try and answer questions, and address the needs of my audience.  I do this for months, sometimes years on end.  I write from my own experience, and I list solutions that I have personally found from my own experience.

I listed the last one separately because it gets 85% of the results.  Funny enough, you won’t find a lot of people selling that one because it takes a lot of effort.