Sales prospecting: what about freelance work?

Fully in charge of their business and in complete control of their own schedule, freelance professionals need to be able to coordinate their assignments with their sales prospecting. Not always so simple! Cadres en Mission, a freelance administration group, takes a look at best practices in business development.

What is freelance administration?

A relatively atypical form of employment, "portage salarial" allows self-employed workers to offer their services to companies, without having to go through the process of setting up a new business.

In practical terms, the "porté salarié", who may work as a consultant, trainer or manager, has an employment contract with a "portage salarial" company.

Despite their status, which entitles them to full social security cover and a number of services such as training and administrative support, "portés salariés" are totally autonomous.

They are free to choose their assignments according to their own criteria, but above all, they are entirely responsible for sales prospecting and managing their customer portfolio.

In other words, they can rely solely on their own sales skills to find new assignments and negotiate with prospective clients!

Prospecting: a fundamental task in freelance administration

It's important to remember that, while the assignments carried out by a freelancer can be spread out over many months, the periods of intermission, during which he or she is not working, can also stretch out over time.

Given that an intermission period means no invoicing and therefore no remuneration, it's in the employee's best interest to include prospecting in his or her schedule.

As a result, even during an assignment period, they must always strive to maintain a minimum level of openness, so as not to miss out on opportunities they may later regret.

Levers for better prospecting

The main difficulty encountered by the salaried employee is that prospecting takes time; time that is sometimes very difficult to find between carrying out assignments, and the various demands of the professional sphere and the family, which should certainly not be neglected to maintain a good life balance.

Let's take a look at the levers that employees can use to reduce the time they spend in between assignments:

• First: his or her professional network. Like any self-employed worker, the salaried employee develops a professional network with which he interacts on a more or less regular basis. Far from being an afterthought, this set of interconnected relationships can make it easy for them to find opportunities. It's a powerful support, provided you're active and know how to be of service.

• Professional social networks (LinkedIn and Viadeo), and even more public ones (Twitter), as well as online platforms reserved for freelancers (HopWork, 404works, Twago.fr, Codeur.com) are a relatively unavoidable prospecting lever, whatever the sector considered.

• In addition, most freelance administration companies offer assignments that they receive directly from companies in need of expertise. Don't overlook them!

• Checking in with former clients from time to time requires minimal personal investment, and can sometimes lead to the emergence of new needs and potential assignments.

• Finally, to avoid spending too much time on prospecting, you can of course use automated prospecting and marketing software, or B2B and B2C lead generation software, such as Anyleads, Plezi, HubSpot, Easybusiness or Visiblee.