Being an SEO provider is difficult- especially if you are just starting out. The biggest obstacle is the lack of clients themselves, without clients, you’re out of fortune and you will be out of business as well. Some SEO providers think that clients come as needy individuals who just want to get a chunk of the dot com boom. This is not true.
Let us try to reverse the picture, shall we? You have a small start-up company. You have invested in many SEO tools, you have trained people on your own, and you have physical office space (leased). You lie back in your small office, holding your pen and your phone, with your eyes on your POP3 mail. What is missing from this picture is the client.
You see, there are many SEO providers today. If in the last decade, there were few SEO providers and people were not that interested yet, the dot com landscape has definitely changed all that.
Sure, there might be many possible leads. But how do you convert those leads into profit as well? The key is your SEO proposal.
Make the Best “Pitch” of Your Career
If your client would hand over thousands of dollars for your services, you better be an SEO provider that deserves thousands of dollars in fees. The sales pitch should be well-thought, but before you promise great returns and absolute domination of the online market, make sure that you explain precisely how you’re going to do it.
Clients are often worried, pessimistic, cunning and skeptical. And they should be- who wouldn’t be? Hundreds of dollars are spent for an intensive PR campaign on the World Wide Web. Do not be defensive- instead, appear calm, confident and ready to answer any questions.
Professionalism
For some people, just hearing “Don’t you worry, you’ll definitely do great. You’ll be number 1 in Google in a couple of days” is not enough. You have to show that you know the whole gamut- from how search engines work and how people are actually going to make the client’s business thrive.
Never be afraid of statistics- if the statistics say that there might be a chance that something would not work, cite those statistics as well, but be ready to tell your client precisely how you are going to combat negative trends or growth rates.
Be reassuring, but never be too positive to the point of lying to the client. Because remember, clients can pull out anytime and if you wave a contract, they might sue.
Metrics and the Clients’ Goals Count
In the beginning of the SEO revolution, inexperienced SEO providers promised “a thousand hits a day” to clients, and clients were happy. The belief was that it is nearly impossible that not even one from that thousand hits would not turn into a sales or a similar desired outcome. This is the point of search engine optimization.
Experienced SEO consultants know that this is a very poor measurement of how an online business will fare. Ten, twenty, thirty thousand visits a day means nothing if you’re not selling anything.
