Selling voiceovers? Of course! There’s no way around it. As a voice talent, you must sell yourself, vocally that is. To the point, no matter your profession, unless you’re living off a pile of tax-free money, you must sell yourself to receive compensation for what you’re worth. But as a voice talent, poor selling or no selling skills can put your voiceover career permanently in the hobby category with you footing all the bills! Rekindle your marketing efforts to keeping your voiceover business in business.
Get Over Rejection (and Procrastination)
Rejection is one of the top fears most people face and those who sell are no different. As a voiceover talent, you cannot only focus on performance, script interpretation, and saving up for that state-of-the-art whisper room. Jawing to your colleagues about what you haven’t done or conversely about all the great equipment you’ve purchased (using your own money) doesn’t impress anyone or lead you to fulfill your voiceover career success.
Brian Tracy.com’s blog Time Management-How to Stop Procrastinating…, says, “The best way for you to learn (how not to procrastinate) is to plan each day in advance, set priorities on your activities, and then make your first sales call as early as you possibly can. Get up, get going, and get started.”
Realize rejection is not the worst thing that can happen to your business. Putting off your marketing effort is the worst thing. You will hear “no” and “yes” from potential clients. You will also listen to clients who change their mind after giving a verbal commitment that you counted on for your VO business. The world is FULL of potential clients; get over feeling sorry for yourself and get out there and start selling your excellent voiceover skills.
Learn How to Sell
Selling tools are universal across almost all lines of business. The competitive field of voice acting does not mean we market less, but perhaps, we market more. Before you send an email or pick up the phone, get to know who you are selling your business to and how you fit into that company’s return on investments.
The Business Insider’s online article, How To Be Great At Selling Even If You Hate It, notes the following:
Successful people learn how to sell one way or the other. If they do not learn a
formal process as outlined in this post, they may make costly mistakes and develop
bad habits. If you want to increase your chances of success in business and in life,
it will significantly help you to learn the sales process and practice it so it becomes
part of your marketing DNA.
Research your Potential Clients
Do you know who needs a voiceover talent, today, tomorrow, or next year? What new venues are opening for voice talent and which ones are closing? There is no substitute for doing homework before the legwork or should I say the “finger work.”
Inc.com’s How to Sell Anything to Anybody, says, “Know your customer, stakeholder, audience, whoever you’re selling to. Know their roles, responsibilities, and objectives. Understand as much as you can about what’s in it for them. Know your competition and all the possible objections and hurdles you might face.”
Qualify Your Potentials
The next part of the research is to qualify your candidates. Your potential voice clients’ categories are primary, secondary, or tertiary. Make sure you place your voice casters in the right category. Ranking clients help prioritize your marking. Based on their potential, prioritize contacting voice casters by related projects, budget, timeline, and long-term mission.
Quicksprout.com’s Common Sales Mistakes and How to Avoid Them, instructs “Every opportunity isn’t equal. Through qualifying, you’ll get a better understanding of what each customer wants, when he or she wants it by and what his or her budget is. Most importantly, you’ll be able to figure out if you are talking to the person who can actually make the decision.”
Start or restart today using the above tips for your voiceover business to find and meet those needing your voiceover services. Make sure you leave a trail of cybernetic breadcrumbs for them to find you.
For the sake of your future customers, get marketing and breaking a lip!