What is THE Best Way to Start Providing SEO Services to Offline Businesses?

That is a freakishly brilliant post.

This dude/dudette clearly knows what he's talking about - I suggest you take his advice to heart.

Couldn't have said it better myself...

-Dan

Wise words and sound advice!

I shall focus on just that!

That's not true at all when talking about big corporate companies. They follow a process and take bids from multiple companies. To get in on the action one has to be aggressive. Companies want to see solutions to their exact needs, not general salespages.

Having your own company rank high on terms is then icing on the cake because you can call them up and say - hey, I'm on page 1 for terms like 'increase traffic', 'increase web traffic', 'increase targeted traffic', 'increase website traffic' with a website of only 6 months domain age and 4,000 backlinks against sites with 8 year domain age and 80,000 backlinks - my 401 phone number is right there in the meta-description. But - do you think I get more business from the phone ringing all day, or from picking up the phone and making a couple well placed calls?

Last week most of the calls that were incoming were business that I turned down because I believe a "good SEO" will not take money from people that just think that ranking on page 1 is the golden ticket. If they can't understand or see the ROI from traffic on selected targeted keywords then I don't have any interest in watching them fail just because I can rank them. I turn that business down and go for the bigger companies and selling to them is different than selling to "affiliate marketers" that don't know what to do with more traffic or what traffic to get.

The person (or salesperson) that can probe their clients live on the phone or in person to figure out what their needs are will be able to create a solution, and close for the sale. Running the whole process will always beat a static salespage that isn't capable of answering questions or creating a solution when sometimes the client doesn't even know what the problems are.

waiting for calls = missed opportunity that stronger competitors will take right out of your hands before ever seeing your website with the services. Sure, you can SEO your page and wait for the phone to ring. But you'll end up with a fraction of market share when there are guys out there like me that want to eat the competition for lunch.

Right on Eric - show them the money, and they will give you the money , also good advice on the sales book. To be really successful in a client based model you really need to understand the entire sales process from first call to closing.

As far as giving the client a guarantee I've worked out a way to do that creating a mix of a contingency agreement with a retainer. There is a base price for my services and for the clients that want to take less risk I can work out an agreement where they pay less on the front end and pay a big bonus when certain milestones are reached - like page 1 google, or in the top 3 of Google.

You can analyze what the top 10 listings are getting from search engine traffic on each particular term which you can translate into a monetary value creating a unique billing structure for each client. If they take more risk you can bill them more up front, if they take less risk you can bill them less up front but they will also pay more in the long run

The greater the risk, the greater the reward. If you assume a heavy part of the risk you should be compensated more for a job well done. I'm moving more to a model of performance based billing taking more of the risk but giving clients better results. Plus if the client agrees to pay you a $10,000 bonus to get them to the top 3 they know you are going to keep working on it until it's done. It's like building a house, you don't pay them by the month, you pay them for the total job done. Rankings bonuses are something that can be worked into your agreements and would be adjusted completely to the level of competition on page 1, plus the overall revenue a niche creates.

If someone is going to make an extra million a year by being at #1 they will pay out a huge fee for that. you also stay more in control with this type of model, you don't have to take any business that you think would be too difficult to rank high. And if you did want to take the challenge on something super competitive you lay out the price and what the bonus is. They can take it or leave it. When you have something of value you also need to be prepared to walk away from the table and not give away the farm because there are plenty of clients that will pay. You just have to sort through them with a good sales process.

Then once you establish your client base your biggest source of new clients will become referrals from your current clients (they probably won't refer people in the same niche though for obvious reasons. lol )

Actually the amount of "business consultants" out there making calls every single day greatly outnumbers search engine marketers so I rather stay specific. Many companies don't want to go with a generic consultant that wears many hats. They rather go with an expert in a particular field. Most people still don't even know what "search engine marketing" is so part of the sales process is qualifying a prospect and then giving them the information they need to know to make a solid decision and covering potential objections.

That is of course if you are still looking to get those $10,000+ accounts. If you are, then you need to know what other roadblocks lie in the road. If you want to call up as a business consultant that just specializes in Search Engine Marketing then the multimillion dollar company you are talking to is also more than likely going to make some calls out to actual Search Engine Marketing companies that do some "business consultation", and they will listen to presentations and take bids.

In the end, it's still who is the better consultant and shows the better value, builds the relationship and trust, and asks for the business. 9 out of 10 sales that don't close are probably just because the salesperson doesn't ASK for the sale. They sit back and wait for an answer while the competition calls up and gets the sale.

And since they don't ask for the sale they never get to the point where they hear the client say "no" - and until you hear the client say "no", you will never be able to ask them what the 1 or 2 things are that is holding them back from moving forward (it usually doesn't really mean "no", it means "not yet" or "I don't have enough information yet to make the decision"). Ask for the sale, get the "no" out of the way by covering the objection and reclosing for the sale. oh, and I forgot to make sure to use a "tie down" before reclosing -but I gotta get back to work and don't have time to keep writing all the details!

AMEN!

Louise you seem to be getting in and saying what I want to say - Thanks!

What you don't seem to understand is there is a big difference between a client that is say for example Nortel, Cisco, Microsoft with a million dollar budget, or the guy up the road with a real estate company that has been ripped off by an SEO company and had a $1,000 budget.

You're right, I don't get enough business from search traffic, not because I don't get search engine traffic, but because the majority of people searching many of those terms can't afford our service.

If someone looks up "car" online and then calls up BMW asking for a $2,000 car then the BMW rep is going to refer them to the old car lot up the street which is more their budget.

What you call "more than enough business" may not be what I call "more than enough business" when equated to actual revenue and dollars. I've never heard the expression "more than enough business" at a corporate selling level. Why? Because if you have so much business you take on more business by expanding your operation and growing. Where does that growth come from? It comes from competitors taking your best clients.

It's also not necessarily called "cold calling", you are thinking at the "telemarketer" level and a good business person can tell the difference between a telemarketer and a real consultant. Many of us call it networking and it is probably the fastest way to grow a business.

There are always going to be snake oil salesmen whether it is in SEO or anything else, and there are always going to be inexperienced companies that make poor, uninformed decisions,wasting money, getting burned.

I rather work with companies making better, more discerning decisions because chances are they are going to continue to make good decisions, make more money, and give continual business. Which then goes to the point of at the big corporate level there might have to be 5 people at the table to make the decision. Try to get the approval of 5 executives by waiting for them to see you in the search results. Not gonna happen.

I think this discussion went way off track though which was about landing BIG accounts and expanding your business rapidly - not the generalization of just landing clients through search - that's a dime a dozen.....

Louise, that's a good position to be be in no doubt, but not essential. First off, the reality. As you know, trying to rank for an SEO related term is VERY competitive (all those pesky SEO companies optimising their websites!). It will take time - in some cases a lot of time.

Of course you can rank for long tails and local keywords more easily to show clients, which is recommended, but it's not quite the same thing.

Regarding the point that if you can't SEO your own site you have no business offering SEO services, well, that's like comparing apples and oranges. Trying to rank for "Search engine optimisation company" is a totally different level than ranking for "small town mortgage provider" or "small town plumber". The latter are easy to rank for, the former not so easy.

Just because you're not (yet) on the 1st page doesn't mean you're not a good SEO company or don't understand SEO -after all, I would assume that there must be more than 10 companies who offer good SEO services?

Truthfully, I've found that none of my clients have ever mentioned this. The belief that they have in my services is initially based on our meetings and the solid proposals they receive. Thereafter, good service and results help them keep the faith.

One other point - in some ways this is a redundant argument. I get many clients through PPC, social media, video etc and these are still valuable examples to "demonstrate" your knowledge to potential clients. At the end of the day it's all about ROI right?

Good thread - cheers all
TJ

It really makes me wonder when I see an SEO company say they have been promoting websites for over 5 years but they barely have any links and a page rank of 0. Like you said, if they can't even do SEO for there own site how will they be able to do it for somebody else.

It's simple.

It's called Google Places - Log in to your Google account and you can find out anything you want about it.

You can have as many as you want. You just need to verify that the site is yours (or under your control) and respond to a PIN request.

It's free to do and just requires that you put as much useful information as possible including pictures, videos and reviews.

The more reviews your listing has - the better and the more information you put the better.

So just login to Google and give it a go - it's really easy.

Most businesses won't want to do it as they're too busy so they'll happily pay you to make it happen.

Finally, someone that understands it! Thank you.

There are plenty of people that have joined a company when it is already established and watch as business flows in but have no idea how it got there to begin with.

It didn't just appear overnight.

The initial hump crushes most business. The initial hump is why more than 80% of all business fail. They never get aggressive enough to get over the hump. An incredibly high amount of restaurant and retail shops fail because they wait for the business to come to them. Sounds like you know how to be in the 20% that make it!

but I agree with you Andy on your point "different strokes for different folks". Not everyone sets their eyes on being a billion dollar company or even a million dollar company. Some people are fine with just making a living so it's up to the person to decide. There is a name for people that are comfortable just making a living, they are called "employees", and there is absolutely nothing wrong with being an employee because without them, a business won't survive (and it's a great way to start learning)

I not only provide SEO Services, but the expansion of my business provides jobs for people around me and an income for them, so I choose the more aggressive side, because honestly there is more security in being a business owner than there is in being an employee for a company that can cut you at a moments notice if earnings fall through.

exactly, if you want to get the elephants you need to hunt elephants, and you better bring an elephant gun. plus, you are going the right direction with your model. Organic SEO is slowly fading away, and the ability to SEO everything you just listed is where the trend is going.

Long term contracts take time and relationship building - those become stable income and the best source of referrals. And you still have to pick up the phone and call the referrals to begin the relationship building and to get them to take action.

Waiting for business to come to you is a risk. There are good risks and there are bad risks. When starting out I would consider this a very poor risk to take. A good risk to take which is just "too risky" for most is "cold calling" the companies you want to work with. The risk is having the company tell you "no" or having to listen to them about being scammed. Big deal, it may hurt the first 10 times you get a rejection, but the 11th call that lands the 10k account takes all that pain away....

I think "SEO" has created a bit of complacency on how to do business. SEO could be gone tomorrow as a new phase of social media enters the marketplace leaving search engine ranking traffic in the dust. As the trend switches it will be the aggressive companies that go out and take the business from SEO companies. I see way too much faith being put into getting traffic from SEO here.

If you haven't noticed the dramatic changes and tests going on in the search landing pages right now in Google you have a big surprise coming. It isn't happening on long tail keywords. It's going on right now with the big competitive terms and the layout is different at different times as the usability and human factors engineers continue to take data and tweak it.

Some of my clients have seen what is happening as their prized #3 in search on high competition terms gives them a fraction of the traffic it did even 6 months ago. Same search queries, but less traffic all from the clever tweaking by Google with heatmapping and understanding human behavior and reactions to visual and audio cues. Soon SEO is only going to be a fraction of the equation.

I've never mailed fliers but I've found that mailing a letter, followed by a phone call works.

Obviously the list should be targeted and I hire someone to do the telephone follow ups with the business owners. The purpose of the follow ups is make an appointment for me to meet with said business owner. This process gives me a conversion rate of between 2% and 5%.
Cheers
TJ

Hi Konrad - actually I forgot to mention I tested your service this month on a site and for the money it was definitely a good value so I'm going to test it on another site next month. I may end up being one of your 10k clients. There is actually a method to my madness.

First off, don't come across as a salesperson. That is a dirty word in sales that has been reserved for car sales and telemarketers. You are a business professional that is consulting - you are bringing "solutions" rather than selling anything.

And old expression makes it easy to understand,

"Tellin ain't selling, asking is"

what that means is you can't sit there and tell a client everything you can do, and what they are going to get. You have to ask them what they want and what their needs are, what their problems are, where their company is going. You take all of this information and you sit back and create a solution based on what THEY told you, not what you tell them you think you can do. You have 2 ears and only 1 mouth, that means use your ears twice as much if you want to be a good "salesperson", then ask more questions based on what you hear.

People that have never done corporate technical sales think that salespeople are just pushy people that tell them stuff. On the contrary, they are highly skilled consultants that uncover every single possible pain point a business has, and then they come back with a solution, all the while listening to the client. And yes, some of us are aggressive but you don't necessarily have to be that way.

I wouldn't waste time with fliers unless you are starting a pizza joint. A business gets lots of junk mail and it goes straight to the trash. And for the naysayers that say "they get called all the time", well that is just giving up and deciding not to compete.

That's like a guy saying that since a girl is so beautiful she already gets lots of phone calls already, and any additional calls from you would just be a waste of time so why not just take yourself out of the competition before even trying.

There are some things you will never have control over that can lead to a sale on 1 phone call - timing and personality fit. The first 10 people that called may have made their phone calls at the wrong time. Budget not approved yet, no budget for new services, could be a million things. You could be the guy that just got the timing perfect, totally on accident and lands the deal. the person that never makes a call NEVER gets those deals.

The other factor is personality. some people just gel perfectly with others on the phone and there is just a positive energy between them that cannot be duplicated by someone else and for some reason they keep listening to you and feel like working with you. Proof to this point is how outside sales organizations with entry level sales like copier products or office supplies can take a book of leads that has already been called 10 times and pass it to a new sales rep. That new sales rep has no idea that the last 4 calls to that company ended in disaster, a hang up, or someone complaining about how they got scammed. then the new guy (or gal) with absolutely zero sales experience sets and appointment with what seemed like a dead lead. I remember back in those days laughing about how someone was calling a particular account that noone could land and then the new person makes a single call and lands it. amazing? it's really timing and personality.

Don't let people influence you that tell you not to get into the race before you have even tried running it. Many times they are people that have actually been too afraid to compete, and watching others succeed doing something they were not willing to do or were too afraid to do is actually just another failure on their end. Don't let anyone hold you back from trying something new that might be uncomfortable at first.

Your focus needs to be different.

At present you're thinking "how can I get some $10,000+ checks?"

But getting paid more is really about delivering more value.

So your question really needs to be "how can I deliver $50,000+ in value to a business so they can justify paying me $10,000+ checks?"

If you start thinking that way it becomes a whole lot easier to work out which businesses you can help, which are more likely to get value out of your services and which are more likely to pay you the kinds of fees you want.


Beyond that as has already been mentioned, to charge higher fees usually means taking more time to build the relationship with your prospect.

It helps if they're a referral from another business owner.

It helps even more if you get to know the business owner, his business and show that you're genuinely interested in making him real sales and profits way beyond what you're going to charge.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Fantastic!

I have been going crazy with SEO on all of my sites the last few days. Seeing incredible results puts me in overdrive in to an incredible work ethic as well.
Networking is something I need to work on more... for sure.

Thanks again ya'll for sharing!