What to do if a prospect asks for past website examples, but you don’t any

If you’re a graphic designer venturing into web design demonstrating your experience with a portfolio is an advantage. Prospective clients will want to see what you can do and be inspired by your website work. Without a portfolio, you may find yourself turned away from great opportunities.

Remember why prospects want to talk to you

Remember, prospects come to your website because they think you can solve a problem for them, or they may be working with you already when the website opportunity happened. Having a strong portfolio is key to showing them that you’re the right person for the job.

So if you’re starting, don’t be discouraged. Put together a portfolio of your best work, even if it’s just made-up ideas for now. With a little effort, you’ll be on your way to impressing potential clients and landing great web design gigs.

When I say made-up, just take example brands or even large brands and put your spin on their creativity.

Alternatively, you can you the Swwwift 7 day trial option (without credit card or commitment) to do a quick example for your prospect. Trust us, once they see a logo in a design they will focus on the design you have produced and will forget about other options. You can angle your reply something like this, “As websites are tailored to every client I think to give you a free sneak peak”.

Look to niche in a sector that you love and know a lot about

One option is to niche and work in a particular sector or industry. This is very common now. The reason why this is good is you’ll look like an expert because you will have case studies or examples on your website of companies in that industry.

At the end of the day, your prospects want to just see what you can do. Obviously, it’s better to have ‘real work’ but you need to start somewhere. Before you know it you’ll have paying clients. Just treat them like royalty and they will be your best advocates.

Niching is only worthwhile if you’re obsessed with it and you have knowledge of the topic. You will find fewer questions will be asked as you’ve demonstrated through your content that you know about the topic.

Don’t just niche in anything. Be obsessed.

Please don’t niche in a topic you know nothing about and you’re only doing it because you are seeing others succeed in it (or maybe it looks like that from where you are sitting, but you never always know how well they are doing).

You’ll be a lot more successful if you wake up every day and love what you do and can talk about the topic with your eyes closed, without even thinking. You want to think about all the little nuggets of specific information you have picked up over years that only you have but your audience doesn’t but wish they had. This always adds to the confidence levels.

Get your personality across

People buy from people. If you can demonstrate you’ll work with them and support them this goes a long way and with a strong idea portfolio, you’ll stand a good chance of landing the work.