| Thanks for the kind words. Language is relative-- it depends on who you want to sell to. For marketing professionals, you use one set of words. For CEOs, you use another. For engineers who think marketing and selling is a lot less important than technology, you use yet another. The choices you make to appeal to each group will turn off the others to some degree, so it gets back to "Who, in your opinion, is that man in the chair?" Because you say "Startup" at the top, it suggests you're looking for companies with less than 10 people, pretty much all of whom code, who have decided that they need to make money selling but aren't ready to hire fulltime marketing people. I could drill down quite a lot more on the issues, but I charge for stuff like that. Three other things could be quick fixes but could go a lot deeper: 1. The color(s) you add to a site determine the emotional reaction people have to you. 2. People will look at your references and assume that, if THEIR company isn't in more or less comparable to those two, they don't need you yet. Who references are can be just as important as what they say. 3. Rates are less important that "How long does this take?" If I know a project takes 8-16 hours, I don't have to know your bill rate to say "I can probably afford Greg." If you say it takes 13 weeks, that's something else. |
btw - I cannot track down a Rufus jones online who seems to be doing what you do - have you a online home?