While there are many ways to land clients, there are three initial phases that you will go through with the client. Each phase with the client will determine if you will work together, or work together again in the future. The three phases are:

• #1) The Pre-Phase
• #2) The Middle-Phase
• #3) The Post-Phase
  

When it comes to asking the right questions to clients and landing more freelance clients, it's all about placing the focus on the client in the pre-phase. A lot of times, in the "ice-breaking stage" of getting to know eachother, freelancers tend to overly talk about themselves, but really should focus on listening to how they can best help the client. This is one of the most common and biggest mistakes that freelancers innocently make in the pre-phase. It’s important in the beginning of any relationship to talk about yourself a little bit to break the ice and to make sure you understand each other, but the emphasis should mainly be about the client. The first impression while in the pre-phase is crucial when landing a client. By asking the right questions, you are able to get the right info needed to drive successful results for them, and look sincerely interested in what the client has to say. 

You can do this by simply just listening to the client's needs, struggles, and goals with the project they want you to help them with. When you are offering a service to clients, it’s important to get to know them, and the ‘Why’ behind what help they are truly looking for from you. To find out what the clients true needs are, you first need to ask questions that dig into their pain points. It’s important to not make assumptions of what you think the client really needs. To have client’s outline their pain points, you can ask them what do they want and expect from you?

If they're not able to give you a straight answer you need to make sure that this is the right type of client that you want to work with because you need to be able to measure success, especially when just starting out with a new client. By asking questions will show you both if you are a good fit to work together and will get the client to open up and tell you specific areas they are needing help the most. In fact, the client would love for you to just listen because people LOVE talking about themselves and will tell you everything you need to know if you’re disciplined and tuned in enough to hear THEM and THEIR problems. 

To have lasting relations with clients, you need to make them feel that you care about them, and make your clients feel comfortable enough to share their genuine feedback about their experience with you. Their feedback will help you secure future work and lets you know where you can improve to serve your clients better in the future.

"Always begin with: 'So that I can better serve you, do you mind if I ask a few questions?"

- Jodie Shaw

Here are a few example questions you can ask them such as:

How do you want to measure success?

What platforms are best working for your business?

What have you done in the past that hasn't exceeded to your

expectations?

Why do you need a freelancer's help?

What is your budget?

When do you want to start?

What is the best way to get in contact with you?

How can I help you do your job better?

What are your long-term goals with this?

By asking these questions that are focused on the client in the pre-phase, it will help you earn the client's trust, and increase the chances of them turning into a repeat customer. Use their feedback to your questions to customize your offerings accordingly to continue the process of the project, or simply pass on the offer if you find it is not a good fit. Remember, every potential client and project you come across may not necessarily be a good fit, and you won’t know this unless you ask the right questions. 

Once you land the client, you enter what is called the 'middle-phase'. This is where you're working on the project with them. During this phase, the client will decide if you are a good fit ultimately by the results you drive for them, and the communication you keep during the project. During this middle-phase is where you want to make sure you're constantly asking them and you're checking in with them on everything you're working on.

This is where a lot of freelancers make a big mistake, because a lot of times people will get hired and they'll reduce the amount of communication with the client. It's not that they won't be working on the project but they're not in good communication with the client about where they are at. This leaves a dangerous gap for things to go wrong. In order to continue to get good ratings and have satisfied clients, you need to provide really good work and communication during the project. In fact, it’s crucial to ask the right questions in the middle-phase so you can avoid making mistakes and receiving a hurtful feedback comment from an upset client at the end of the project. In order to have a satisfied client and receive a good review in the end, you must make sure you’re both on the same page, and keep up with communication.

“No matter how creative your ideas are, you can’t achieve a client’s goals unless you know what they are.” - Unknown

It’s understandable when you get in front of the client that you want to appear knowledgeable, and know everything they need to help them, but the sooner you accept that you don’t have all the answers, the sooner you’ll get your project off to the right start. No matter how much research you do before beginning a project, all the work you put into it will be for nothing if you don’t exceed to what the client’s expectations were. At the end of the day they want to work with the best freelancer who they feel can help them expand their business visions, and goals. Your goal as a freelancer is to help them do their jobs better.

Sometimes, you may find that clients may not know what is best for them, but it’s still your job to ask what they need and continue to keep asking until you get accurate answers. During the middle project phase it’s important to keep asking questions and following up to make sure you are on the right track with the client's visions and goals. Some of the other things you want to go into while you're actually working on the project with the client is finding out who their actual target customer is because then you can use that information and tailor everything you're doing around that information so you can have more success. You can also ask questions such as:

“What could we do better to meet your desired experience?”

“What one or two things do you think we did better than our competitors?”

“What areas do you want me to focus more on?”

Get a good understanding of the goal your client is looking for and use it to measure the success of the project. Say you’re doing a project on designing an online ad campaign for your client. The first step you will want to do is know whether the client wants to measure its success based on how many people click through to buy a product, or by how many people just see the ad. Finding out this information allows you to receive feedback on which direction the client wants to go and what success looks like for them. The information you receive may even change how you approach the project and what kind of questions to ask moving forward. By putting the time, communication, and thought into the project rather than just rushing on getting the project signed off, you’ll end up with a happier client who will be more likely to become a returning client or refer you to others.

The secret to getting consistent clients that pay every single month is by asking the right questions even after you already landed the client and worked with them. The post-project phase is once you are done with the assignment whether it was a one-time project or if it was a long-term client. You will want to measure the value of your work in this phase. Once you can measure the value of work that you provided the client during the project you can use that to your advantage.

I see a lot of freelancers unfortunately not take advantage of the post phase, and look on to the next client and just have the mentality that they made their money with them, and move onto the next. While it is a benefit as a freelancer to be able to finish a project and work on a completely new project, in order to be a real profitable freelancer, you must build up a profitable career by always leveraging and following up with your network.

Your network is your networth as they say, and it really is true. A lot of freelancers don’t even blink twice at old clients and do follow up questions. You can do this by asking follow-up questions with people you've worked with, people that you didn't get the deal from in the past and ask and see if they need help now, or by asking for referrals from past clients. In the world of entrepreneurship we all tend to stick together and we know a lot of other people whether they're friends or family members that are also entrepreneurs that have their own business.

In addition, asking your past clients follow up questions gives you a chance to leverage word of mouth exposure because if you did a good job for the client during all the three phases, and the client feels like you were actually listening and focusing on exactly what they wanted, they are happy to spread the word to their other business owner friends who you can land as referrals.

You can also get more referrals by asking questions that can lead you to landing more clients, such as “Is there anyone else you know that might want the same level of service?” The client may end up saying yes and will be more than happy to refer you to others, due to how happy they were from your service helping them. By asking questions, there’s always a chance the client will say no, but there’s also a chance for them to say yes, and you wouldn’t know all the opportunities awaiting for you unless you simply just asked that right question. Never let your hard work end with that one-time project, always be looking for ways to leverage your hard work and good reviews. This will help you land more additional clients in the future. 

In Conclusion: