Selling to friends is a tricky topic.
Lots of people flat out refuse to do it. Others would like to but are concerned about seeming pushy or somehow hurting the relationship.
I understand, I used to feel the same way.
But not anymore. Today I have friends who have become clients and clients who have become friends.
Today’s friendly two-minute video explains how selling to friends benefits both you and them!
Click below to watch… (Move slider at bottom of video to adjust volume!)
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
So true. And, we are always thinking through their wallets—worrying about whether they can afford us, rather than the value we bring. For a lot of us undervaluing and undercharging for our services is a constant problem—amplified when we worry about what our friends might think of us.
Like you, many of my clients have become friends and many friends have become clients. I’m in a 12-step program to deal with it
Yep. So nice to work with people when the trust level is high!
This is so true, even though it seems really scary at first. Two of our largest clients were first great friends. It is a win-win for everyone.
Yes, very scary. Once you get past it I find people have the same experience as you’ve had Mary!
Michael, a good suggestion.
BTW, I’d suggest a different background so the blue stripe appearing behind your head goes away.
‘preciate it!
That blue stripe is attached to my head, Peter. Surgery scheduled for next week!
(thanks)
I have had uniformly bad experiences representing friends as individual clients. I do litigation, so no one is ever happy, and everybody who has ever watched Boston Legal thinks he or she knows far more about the process and strategy than I do. Friends for whom I do work for institutions are uniformly fine, and many of my contacts at institutional clients have become great friends!
That’s an interesting distinction, Donn. Do you think it’s the nature of the work you do, or something else going on ?
Although my experience with selling to friends has fortunately been limited, what I have found is that selling to strangers has fortunately often turned them into my friends!
Yes indeed. Nice to have it work both ways!
I always enjoy your material.
Thanks for the effort each week.
I appreciate that, Fred! And my pleasure.
I work with lots of crafters selling their work online and I let me friends hire me and pay me in trade. I design a logo, they make me awesome things to decorate my house. It relieves some of the stress caused by taking money from friends.
That sounds like a nice model Jenn. If I may, can I ask you to say a bit more about what the stress is about in taking money from friends?
For me it’s hard to ask for money from someone who has vented at you about how tight their budget is. Or that their car broke down AGAIN. Strangers don’t often tell me this when we first start chatting so it’s easier to believe they have tons of cash lying around.
When someone is just starting out asking for help can be embarrassing. BUT if you can pay with an favor or free sample you feel ok about it, because you’re ALSO getting some extra exposure. You just have to make sure everything balances out.
Makes perfect sense. Thanks for the clarification, Jenn!
There is one big drawback to selling to friends: When they don’t pay you! I did work for a “friend” who’s company got into trouble and he couldn’t pay, and it pretty much killed our friendship. We weren’t close friends, but it was still a bad experience. I will be very hesitant to business with a friend again.
That’s an interesting point, Don. Looking back, is there anything that could have been done/discussed before the fact (other than not working together at all) that might have prevented damage to the friendship under the circumstances?
It turned out that his biz was very speculative and risky, which he did not tell me about. I could have dug a little deeper but I trusted him. I didn’t really know him that well, though — lesson learned! I finally offered him a deal to pay me half and I’d write off the rest and he did that, so it wasn’t a total loss for me. But there were some pretty heated words between us before this, which pretty much killed the friendship (at least from my perspective).
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