Sales prospecting: what about freelance administration?

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

What is freelance administration?

A relatively unusual form of employment, freelance administration allows self-employed workers to offer their services to companies without having to go through the process of setting up a 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, freelance workers are totally autonomous.

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

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

Prospecting: a fundamental task in freelance administration

It's important to bear in mind that while the assignments carried out by freelance workers can be spread out over many months, the periods of intermission, during which they are not working, can also stretch out over time.

Given that a period of intermission means no invoicing and therefore no payment, it is in the best interests of the contractor to make room in his schedule for prospecting.

As a result, even when on assignment, they should always try to keep a minimum level of openness, so as not to miss out on opportunities they might later regret.

Levers for better prospecting

The main difficulty encountered by the ported 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 if a good life balance is to be maintained.

Let's take a look at some of the ways in which employees can reduce the amount of time they spend in between assignments:

• First: their professional network. Like any self-employed person, a contractor develops a professional network with which he interacts on a more or less regular basis. Far from being incidental, this network of interconnected relationships can help them to find opportunities easily. It's a powerful source of support, provided you're active and know how to be of service.

• Professional social networks (LinkedIn and Viadeo), and even more mainstream ones (Twitter), as well as online platforms reserved for freelancers (HopWork, 404works, Twago.fr, Codeur.com) are a relatively inescapable means of prospecting, whatever the sector in question.

• In addition, most freelance administration companies offer assignments that they receive directly from companies in need of expertise. You don't want to miss out on this!

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