Great buyer: Pays $5 for custom sample! Love it!

[lisabaarns]

If you’re a buyer and want a great relationship with a seller, this is a perfect start:

Buy a very small sample, and verify it fits your needs.

A wonderful example:
Today I have a new buyer who isn’t sure what style they want. They have a set of projects they need done in the near term, probably $75-100 worth of voice over. Rather than buy a set of gigs when they aren’t sure what they want, they paid $5 for a sample of their text, in multiple styles.

Usually they listen to my existing samples and select one. (That normally works great.) I could voice their script in American or British English, and it could be very upbeat, or more conversational, or even sensual (or something else if needed.)

They have to decide what they want! Because they invested the token amount, I sent them four variations (and frankly, if they didn’t like one of those, I’d do a couple others…)

As a seller, that buyer stands out. They invested $5 in the relationship. They will get that back over and over.

You can bet I’ll take great care of them when they order. They didn’t waste my time with “can you do a set of free samples.” (I would have said no.)

That is perfect if you’re starting to work with a more experienced seller.

When they order, they will get exactly what they want but we didn’t have three revision requests as they figure it all out. I won’t have done 30 minutes of recording and then they decide, maybe that should have been American (or British) and we do the whole thing over again. That gets expensive on larger projects.

If you want your seller to feel good about working with you on larger projects and you want to get something very specific, invest a token amount to get a sample built just for you. This buyer is bookmarked for me and will get some bonuses when they order.

When I started I did create free samples. I had no track record on Fiverr, so it makes sense a buyer wouldn’t trust me.

I love buyers like that… They value my time, I value them. I’ll give them the most when they order. (I do that anyway… but I will also send them some free music bonuses too, and move them up in my queue where possible.)

Very smart for those buyers who are working on larger projects.

[eoinfinnegan]

This has been a method I have used as both a buyer and a seller and it just makes so much sense!
When a buyer comes asking to pay for a sample it just oozes positivity and professionalism which results in a much more positive buyer-seller relationship.

[emmaki]

I agree with this completely! I always suggest to messages in my inbox for a larger project (e.g. writing a whole website) that I do one smaller page as a test project/sampler. I get paid, they get something they can use, everybody’s happy.

The cheapos disappear into the dust. Like I said, everybody’s happy.

[Guest monika143]

This is really a good way to avoid the buyer seller controversies …

[lisabaarns]

Follow up: This client then actually Tipped me for the sample!

So they paid double on a trivial order, THEN ordered my regular gig, and paid for my standard offering rather than my basic package.

Here’s my theory:

They have been buying services outside of Fiverr. They are used to paying 3-5 times more. By comparison, I look like a total bargain. So they are willing to invest.

BUT when you think of it, in many economies, they invested coffee money. An extra $5 or $10 is trivial compared to what they were paying for similar services outside of Fiverr.

My longer term goal is to cultivate more of these types of clients. They understand the value of paying a few extra dollars for someone who is experienced and gets them excellent results.

My favorite type of client. You can find them too!