Focusing on features and trends may help freelance web designers and developers earn more business.

It is no secret that freelance web designers and developers must do more than create compelling user interfaces or write beautiful code. Rather these self-employed professionals must master many skills, including accounting, customer prospecting, marketing, and salesmanship.

When it comes to salesmanship, web professionals should act more like a consultative expert than a used car salesman. The result will be a more confident client and more business for the developer.

One of the ways that you can take on the role of consultative expert is to focus your pitches and presentations on site features and industry trends.

Site Features

Too often web developers let clients dictate site features, dutifully taking notes and then running out and implementing what the client says without adding any value. While we all want to meet client needs and expectations, it is better to exceed those expectations. One important way to do this—and to establish yourself as a consultative expert—is to suggest features that represent that improve or that expand on the client’s plans.

For example, your client may know that he or she wants a new online store to accept coupon codes and may have even included this feature in the project specifications. In your pitch, you’ll certainly acknowledge that you can build a site with the specified coupon feature, but why not offer more. You could include a suggested alert newsletter to programmatically notify shoppers when a new coupon code is issued, or encourage the client to sell digital gift cards, since the code for accepting a coupon and for accepting a gift card is so similar. These simple features (notification email and gift cards) expand on your client’s plans and give you can opportunity to separate your proposal from your competitor's. (We’ll speak more about this example in a moment).

Monitor Trends

Next, you can help your client and establish yourself as web guru with trends. When you pitch a potential client, don’t just say, “and I could include a coupon code feature….” Rather make a case for the features and applications that will be somewhat unique to your pitch.

For example, the U.K.’s Telegraph newspaper reported, this week, that four million British Christmas shoppers had taken advantage of digital coupon codes. By simply being aware of this trend and informing your client of it, you’re putting yourself in a position of authority.

When it comes to selecting a developer, clients will be more inclined toward professionals that know the industry as well as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Put Features and Trends Together

Features and trends are especially potent when used together. In the gift card example mentioned above, a client may not understand how important your suggestion of a gift card feature is unless you have trend information to support it.

To continue the example, you could say something like this at your presentation, “I think the coupon code feature is a great idea, in fact, I was just reading this week that some four million shoppers in the U.K. had already used coupons this season. But I think we could take advantage of the code we use for coupons to offer digital gift cards. Digital gift cards are an important trend at the largest online retailers and several enterprise-level platforms have recently announced support for the features, so by implementing digital gift cards on your site, we could create a nice source of incremental income, boost site traffic, and put your business on par with multi-million dollar operations.”

Summing Up

By focusing on features and trends, you can put yourself and your practice in a position of authority, and from this position you can win more business and earn more money. Clients are usually willing to pay more for a developer who is an expert.