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Gave away services for FREE.... Accidentally

by Seantrepreneur
11 replies
So I wanted to let you guys what NOT to do. Let me explain the situation.

I had a client that I have been working with for about 5 months now ask me to take over his SEO and content marketing. This added $1,000 a month to his current contract. So we agree via email to the new amount and he wanted me to come up with a list of 10 keyword that I would suggest we target. So I took my time coming up with what I thought would provide him the best results. I put them in a spreadsheet and sent them over to him and told him to review the list and let me know what he thought.

Well, a few days went by and I didn't hear anything from this client. Keep in mind that this guy used to email us 3 times a day sometimes. So I emailed him asking what he thought about the keywords and if I could get the info for his new website guy so that we could start working together in optimizing his site.

He response was "I decided I'm going to do the SEO myself. I'll let you know if I change my mind". Of course, I wasn't very happy about this since he basically stole the keywords I came up. However, he is still a paying client and I have to treat him as such. I said as professional as possible that a little heads up would have been nice because I spent time that was not covered in our original contract coming up with this list of keywords.

The moral of this story is I was stupid to not get a new signed contract AND do any amount of work before I had that in my hands. I figured that since we have a long standing relationship that a gentlemens agreement would sacrifice for now.

The way I look at it is that it was a learning experience. It was a dumb mistake that I could have easily avoided. I can guarantee that it won't happen again.

Hope that helps you guys avoid making the same mistake!

Sean
#accidentally #free #gave #services
  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    Oh dear. Looks like you're not making them agree to tell you Yes or No before you reveal your technical expertise.
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    • Profile picture of the author mojo1
      Originally Posted by kaniganj View Post

      Oh dear. Looks like you're not making them agree to tell you Yes or No before you reveal your technical expertise.
      Jason

      In your opinion, what should he have required the client to say yes or no to?

      Your response was a bit confusing.

      Would it have been as simple as him getting the client to agree, yes to signing a new contract for those 10 new keywords at the rate of $1000 along with some form of deposit before even conducting the keyword research?
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      • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
        Originally Posted by mojo1 View Post

        Jason

        In your opinion, what should he have required the client to say yes or no to?

        Your response was a bit confusing.

        Would it have been as simple as him getting the client to agree, yes to signing a new contract for those 10 new keywords at the rate of $1000 along with some form of deposit before even conducting the keyword research?
        Any time you're going to open your mouth and start giving technical expertise out, you need to get your prospect to agree that they will give you a Yes or a No before you start sharing this info.

        Otherwise your prospect will feel that it's fine to shop around.

        Every time you're selling something new, even though you've sold something to this person before, you treat it like they're a new prospect. Look what happened here. Everybody lies. Prospects lie. Clients lie. We all lie to protect ourselves from getting ripped off--we don't share how big the problem really is, or how much money we have for solving the problem.

        What you (Mojo) suggested at the end of your post would have been a good idea, don't you agree?

        @Sean: if he agreed to something, then you need to enforce your position. But I can see that you're afraid to stand up for your rights because you might lose the client. Well, if you're afraid to lose the client you're in trouble. Clients can be replaced. Especially clients who don't respect you.
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        • Profile picture of the author Seantrepreneur
          Originally Posted by kaniganj View Post

          @Sean: if he agreed to something, then you need to enforce your position. But I can see that you're afraid to stand up for your rights because you might lose the client. Well, if you're afraid to lose the client you're in trouble. Clients can be replaced. Especially clients who don't respect you.
          Pull the throttle back a little, bub. This isn't my first rodeo. I'm not "afraid" to lose this client as we are coming to the close of our contract anyways. It's an awkward situation to be put in in the first place. It's not some bang his door down and be like "hey you've paid about over $5,000 the past few months and since I spent an hour looking up keywords for you you need to pay me for that too." Like I said, I realize that I should have had a contract signed before I did any work, but I wouldn't start throwing out the word "afraid".

          If I was afraid of anything I would have been afraid of quitting my job to do this full time or I would have been afraid to sign a year lease on our new office.


          Originally Posted by dublindawn View Post

          Most of us have walked into situations like that, my advice is let it go and forget about it, because things like this can eat into us if we let them.
          At least he is still a paying customer and maybe down the road you might get a chance to get extra work off him.
          Yeah that's pretty much what I've done. I can't do anything about it so I'm sure as heck not going to let it bother me. Plus, I still want to keep our relationship positive because he knows a lot of people in the service industry in that town. You never know where a referral might come from!

          Sean
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          -------->Started with $500 on Amazon and building it from there. Week #1 income report is live ($593.78 in revenue)<----------
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          • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
            Originally Posted by Seantrepreneur View Post

            Pull the throttle back a little, bub. This isn't my first rodeo. I'm not "afraid" to lose this client as we are coming to the close of our contract anyways. It's an awkward situation to be put in in the first place. It's not some bang his door down and be like "hey you've paid about over $5,000 the past few months and since I spent an hour looking up keywords for you you need to pay me for that too." Like I said, I realize that I should have had a contract signed before I did any work, but I wouldn't start throwing out the word "afraid".
            Okay okay no offense meant. I wanted to point out what I perceived as an uncomfortable feeling when it comes to telling this prospect that they need to play by the rules. You as the salesperson have rights. They can't just walk all over you.

            I know you've been around the block; I've seen your posts since I started and am well aware that you're an established offliner. Just trying to point out something I believe will be helpful. And I realize the original purpose of your post was to share your experience, so that others might not get caught in the same problem.
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            • Profile picture of the author Seantrepreneur
              Originally Posted by kaniganj View Post

              Okay okay no offense meant. I wanted to point out what I perceived as an uncomfortable feeling when it comes to telling this prospect that they need to play by the rules. You as the salesperson have rights. They can't just walk all over you.

              I know you've been around the block; I've seen your posts since I started and am well aware that you're an established offliner. Just trying to point out something I believe will be helpful. And I realize the original purpose of your post was to share your experience, so that others might not get caught in the same problem.
              No worries, my man! I appreciate your input!

              Like you said I I'm just trying to show others what NOT to do. haha

              I expect to make mistakes in business. Of course, I try to minimize the amount of mistakes. I feel if someone thinks they aren't going to make any mistakes at all they are setting themselves for disappointment and/or failure.

              Sean
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              -------->Started with $500 on Amazon and building it from there. Week #1 income report is live ($593.78 in revenue)<----------
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  • Profile picture of the author Seantrepreneur
    Oh he said yes. I've got the email showing that. The tricky part is that he is still a paying customer so its tough to do anything about it right now.


    Sean
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    -------->Started with $500 on Amazon and building it from there. Week #1 income report is live ($593.78 in revenue)<----------
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  • Profile picture of the author Eddie Spangler
    I wonder what would happen if you send him a bill for your keyword research.
    Even if you end up eating it and letting it slide , it will send a clear message that your
    time is valuable and that you did him a big favor.
    Probably nothing you can do now, just saying.
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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Doud
    Depending on your relationship I would consider billing for the keyword research. Even $100 or $200 would be nice to get for your work.
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    Aaron Doud - Sales & Success
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  • Profile picture of the author racso316
    Oh man, that sucks. I mean, he's still your client, and you'll be professional and all, but having that in the back of your head at all times. Like you said, a learning experience, for you and all of us.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dexx
    An unfortunate lesson learned. It's happen to us all.

    Paying client or potential prospect, no matter I get paid up front before any work (research etc.) is done.

    That's still one hour of time that could have been spent generating more clients for your business after all.

    ~Dexx
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