For Once, Then, Something of Value

iStock_000010019404XSmallby Mike O’Mary

“Others taunt me with having knelt at well-curbs/Always wrong to the light.”

You and me both, Bob.

In my last post, “How to Get Ahead at the Office, Part One,” I said I would post Part Two this week. I lied. I’ll do that next week. This week, I thought I’d provide some actual useful advice.

How do you keep in touch with freelance clients and prospects between jobs? One of the best ways to do that is to periodically provide them with “something of value” (SOV).

I first learned about SOV when I was working at a major HR consulting firm. It was a corporate setting, but essentially, everybody there was a freelancer because they were all consultants working for clients. It was sometimes hard to tell who the employees were more devoted to — the consulting firm that paid them, or the client that paid the consulting firm. And that was probably a good thing. The clients loved the fanatical devotion of the consultants.

One of the things the consulting firm did with new employees was to stress the importance of consistenly providing clients with something of value. It could be a recent study, a survey, a white paper, a “heads up” about an upcoming conference or teleseminar — anything to let the client know you are thinking about them and trying to help them. There is no charge for SOV, but the payoff comes when the client needs help — and maybe if you’ve been providing SOV all along, they will see YOU as the helpful person they need.

Maybe you’re already providing clients and prospects with SOV. If so, good for you. It beats the hell out of a cold call. But if you’re not in the habit of providing SOV to your clients and prospects on a regular basis, now would be a good time to start.

Mike O’Mary is founding dreamer of Dream of Things, a book publisher currently accepting creative nonfiction stories for anthologies on 15 topics, including an anthology of great customer service stories.

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