I talk a lot about finding new ghostwriting clients, but I need to be honest with you…
Sometimes, finding new ghostwriting clients is a pain in the ass.
The process can be long and super boring.
You’ve got to:
Identify people who might need your services.
Find a way to get their attention.
Convince them you’re worth speaking to.
Get them interested enough to book a call with you.
… and after all that, you still have to sell them and handle all the excuses they’ll give you for why they don’t want to go ahead, even though they’ve already told you this is exactly what they want.
Besides, getting the door slammed in your face can be quite demoralizing.
Now, don’t get me wrong...
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.
Learning how to acquire new customers is one of the most important skills you can develop as a ghostwriter.
Especially if you want to make a lot of bucks.
But you shouldn’t bank on it as the only way to grow your business.
There’s another way that I don’t think enough ghostwriters take advantage of.
In fact, this approach is the main reason I made $100,000 in 8 months.
And it’s called…
Upselling.
Getting existing customers to pay you more by solving new problems.
I love this approach because it reminds me of two sayings I live by:
“Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds.”
“The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.”
In other words, don’t get so lost in chasing the next customer that you overlook the blessing to satisfy those sitting right in front of you.
Let’s talk about it…
Looking for new clients is HARD WORK
I’ve recently been working on a new coaching offer to help ghostwriters build profitable writing businesses.
And as part of the process, I’ve been doing a HECK of a lot of outreach.
Reaching out to potential customers.
Starting conversations.
Following up.
Booking sales calls.
You know, all the fun stuff that comes with trying to convince strangers to give you their hard-earned money.
Now, because I’m a bit obsessive about tracking how I spend my time, I’ve been keeping tabs on how long all of this takes.
And the results have been quite eye-opening.
Outreach and sales calls alone have been eating up around 15 hours of my week.
FIFTEEN HOURS!
And that’s assuming I only book five sales calls.
Sometimes I book more.
Which means even more time spent trying to acquire new customers.
Now, I don’t know about you, but 15 hours is a heck of a lot of time, especially when you’re a one-man band.
That’s almost two full working days.
And here’s the kicker...
That’s only HALF the problem.
Because there’s another cost to acquiring new customers that doesn’t show up on your timesheet.
The mental toll.
See, when you’re constantly putting yourself out there, you’re also constantly exposing yourself to rejection.
People ignore your messages.
They tell you they’re not interested.
They book calls and don’t show up.
Or worse, they spend an hour telling you how badly they need your help, only to tell you now isn’t the right time.
And no matter how thick your skin is, being told “no” over and over again can eventually wear you down.
In fact, there’s some interesting research on this.
Back in 2003, researchers at UCLA, led by neuroscientist Naomi Eisenberger, conducted a study to understand how our brains respond to social rejection.
They placed participants inside an fMRI scanner and had them play a virtual ball-tossing game called Cyberball.
The participants believed they were playing with two other people.
But the game was programmed to exclude them.
When that happened, researchers observed increased activity in brain regions associated with the distress of physical pain.
What’s more, participants who reported feeling more distressed also showed greater activity in one of those regions.
In other words, social rejection genuinely hurts.
The research helps explain why repeated rejection feels so draining.
And I can tell you from personal experience...
It takes its toll.
There have been times when I’ve had to step away from my laptop altogether to clear my head.
... Or have a conversation with one of my mentors to get myself back into the right frame of mind.
Ultimately, what I’m saying is constantly chasing new business is exhausting.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t look for new customers…
But if that’s all you’re doing to scale your business, I won’t be surprised if you join me in the bald-headed, grey-bearded club pretty soon.
The side effects run deeper
Your time and mental health are not the only things you’ve got to worry about...
Dedicating yourself to chasing new customers can also affect the quality of work you deliver to the customers who are ALREADY paying you.
I’ve had to learn this the hard way during this period...
See, before I started doing all this outreach for my coaching offer, I had a pretty good routine.
Wednesday to Friday morning was client delivery time.
Lately, things have been a little different...
I constantly catch myself bouncing between delivery, prospects, and sales calls.
This has taken a heavy toll on the quality of my output.
For example, I’m writing this on Tuesday in preparation for it to go live on Wednesday.
Usually, I’d have this written by Sunday, but I couldn’t because I was editing for my clients.
According to my time-tracker, the time I spend ghostwriting and editing for my clients has increased by 67% since I started my outreach campaign.
SIXTY-SEVEN-BLOODCLART PERCENT!
And it makes sense...
In 2001, researchers Joshua Rubinstein, David Meyer, and Jeffrey Evans conducted four experiments to investigate what happens when people repeatedly switch between different tasks.
Participants were asked to perform activities like solving arithmetic problems and classifying geometric shapes.
And the researchers discovered something interesting...
Every time participants switched tasks, they lost time.
What’s more, the more complex the tasks became, the greater the time penalty.
The researchers called this phenomenon task-switching costs.
Essentially, your brain needs time to adjust when you stop doing one thing and start doing another.
Fortunately, none of my clients have thrown in the towel due to the time dea
But if things continue as they are, it’s a very real possibility.
So let’s wrap this up before I give you a solution...
The danger of constantly chasing new customers is that you can become so obsessed with winning their business that you start neglecting the people who’ve already given you theirs.