Now that Mastering Project Roadmaps has been out for a few weeks (and is now fully hosted right here on DoubleYourFreelancing.com – heyoo!), I wanted to share with you three reasons why you should be mandating Roadmapping with each and every one of your clients.
A quick recap of what Roadmapping is:
Here’s the typical sales cycle for a freelance consultant:
- We get a new lead.
- We qualify them (by making sure they’re serious about the project and have a budget that we’re willing to bite at.)
- We spend some time learning about their project and their goals, with the intent of moving the lead closer to the point of letting us issue a proposal.
- We write a proposal.
- We send it off and cross our fingers.
- Sometimes we have a few more meetings to address any concerns the prospect might have.
Roadmapping changes the usual sales cycle by offering a low cost, low risk productized service as a pre-requisite to doing any project together.
If you’re used to building websites for clients, Roadmapping would have you discussing what you’re building and why the client needs it. It’s a high-level discussion about their business that includes a concrete set of deliverables, like wireframes, workflow mockups, story cards, and the all-important custom Roadmapping report.
Roadmapping allows your clients to get a feel for what it’s like working with you without committing to an expensive and time-intensive engagement. And Roadmapping allows you to deliver early value to clients and ensure that you’re able to do the due diligence required to put together a solid proposal.