Got contacted w an on/offline sales proposition how 2 handle it?

5 replies
I was recently contacted by an offline company that makes car accessories. A large accessory the details are not too important. The items are too big to ship anything but freight. Cost of the item is between $300-$600 I would guess.

They wanted to know if I could take a look at their website to improve on it. I mentioned that even if they had the nicest site on the web it was of no matter unless they were ranked high for related action keywords organically or were running a PPC campaign. I am sure the case here is neither...

It is a decent looking site but just terrible seo wise. It's a small site probably 5-10 pages at most.

They were inquiring about a fee. I have no idea how to quote something like this...

I am not too worried about that, just yet. I first need to determine if they want seo work done after the web site upgrade or just a better web site. The part what I am wondering is below.

I would also like to see if I could become an affiliate and refer sales to them on my own. That way they pay nothing unless I sell their product, the more I sell the more I make. We all know how that works.

If I were to get a small % of each item sold through my efforts what is the best way to track this?

I am fairly sure they have a smaller network of unrelated (different companies) dealers who sell their product across the nation right now and it might complicate things to have to involve them. I'm not sure if I would have to as of yet...

Is there a standard method used to track referrals/orders for smaller companies with no established affiliate program?

I am thinking I would have to route customers through a payment processor with a tracking number attached to my referrals. I am sure there are services that do this. Am I on the right track with that thinking? If not could someone suggest another?

Thanks
#contacted #handle #on or offline #proposition #sales
  • Profile picture of the author chrisnegro
    Originally Posted by Christian Fox View Post

    I was recently contacted by an offline company that makes car accessories. A large accessory the details are not too important. The items are too big to ship anything but freight. Cost of the item is between $300-$600 I would guess.

    They wanted to know if I could take a look at their website to improve on it. I mentioned that even if they had the nicest site on the web it was of no matter unless they were ranked high for related action keywords organically or were running a PPC campaign. I am sure the case here is neither...

    It is a decent looking site but just terrible seo wise. It's a small site probably 5-10 pages at most.

    They were inquiring about a fee. I have no idea how to quote something like this...

    I am not too worried about that, just yet. I first need to determine if they want seo work done after the web site upgrade or just a better web site. The part what I am wondering is below.

    I would also like to see if I could become an affiliate and refer sales to them on my own. That way they pay nothing unless I sell their product, the more I sell the more I make. We all know how that works.

    If I were to get a small % of each item sold through my efforts what is the best way to track this?

    I am fairly sure they have a smaller network of unrelated (different companies) dealers who sell their product across the nation right now and it might complicate things to have to involve them. I'm not sure if I would have to as of yet...

    Is there a standard method used to track referrals/orders for smaller companies with no established affiliate program?

    I am thinking I would have to route customers through a payment processor with a tracking number attached to my referrals. I am sure there are services that do this. Am I on the right track with that thinking? If not could someone suggest another?

    Thanks
    Christian:

    They contact you for SERVICE.....go down this road and avoid the affiliate stuff. Don't bombard them all at once with your ideas. You need to DEVELOP them over time. Go where the money is first....and THEN once you complete the initial job.....then POSSIBLE go down that road....but there is MORE MONEY if your provide service for them. I wouldn't micky mouse around with the affiliate stuff until you solve their problem with what they want first.

    In terms of price...I would need more details...and where they are at as a company. The #1 one question you want to ask them is......How much do you spend on their current advertising. I have a free WSO at offlineconsultingvideos.com that outlines some of this there.

    Hope this helps,

    Chris Negro
    Signature

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1212768].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author timmykins
      Hi Christian,

      I would agree with Chris, you are probably better off charging a fee for the initial SEO work and then explain to the company that SEO is an ongoing process, and then charge a retainer fee to keep the website up there.

      How much work you need to do depends on the market and competition in Google, so base your retainer fee on that.

      Personnally I would avoid PPC for offline businesses unless you are absolutely positive that the site converts visitors to clients. I was recently speacking to one of my clients who had been hoodwinked into a PPC campaign by a company that didn't even ask him if his website converted visitors, it didn't and he wasted a lot of money.

      Just my two pence.

      Good luck

      Tim
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1212796].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author duffmarketing
        Do they sell to the local market or are all sales made online?
        Are national sales made solely through the dealers or are the products also offered to end user on national level?
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1215027].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Christian Fox
    Actually I did some more looking into what they want and they would like the ability to make sales on site. Primarily sales have been made through a dealer network their website is basically invisible on the net right now.

    They are going to need ASP for an online catalog with on site sales and this is not my forte. I may recommend someone for the site redesign and make them an offer for the SEO work/maintenance.

    Initially it would be more work so I am thinking a one time upfront fee and then a maintenance fee (probably monthly).

    This is not a HUGE company but they could def benefit from a good website that gets found easily. They currently have no ability to sell online. Their competition is getting about 4.4k Unique hits a month and they are getting under 100.

    They need a lot of SEO help for sure, but I am not the guy to do the web redesign. I have had no need to learn ASP nor do I desire to.

    Whats a typical SEO maintenance fee?

    Did some snooping and their main kw would be pretty easy. Especially with my TG and SENuke memberships....
    Signature

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1215055].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author chrisnegro
      Originally Posted by Christian Fox View Post

      Whats a typical SEO maintenance fee?
      Depends on the market, KW's, and their competition. At minimum I would charge a retainer of $1000 and tell them that would cover 5 months of monitoring the KW's. If you get them to #1 quickly.....you may not have to do much work to keep them their. So all in all, in that example, it would work out to a $200 per month maintenance...

      But again....this all DEPENDS on the unique situation. I would have to know more information before I would quote a fee. After reviewing all the details, I ussually rely on my gut and just go for it.

      Success,

      Chris Negro
      Signature

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1215534].message }}

Trending Topics