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Amlost thought I overcharged...

by Just Jarius
6 replies
Hey Warriors,

I just wanted to share a quick story with you guys. I officially started my marketing efforts for offline customers today. I had alot to do today so after my prospecting I only got to send out 3 emails. But out of those three emails I did get a response(1 out of 3 aint bad right?!). So we set up a time for a phone conversation later on in the day.

Now, this particular prospect was a Doctor, so I Assumed they had money to spend. Little did I know this wasn't the case. After talking to them for a little while it came to that point of quoting a price. I quoted $1,997 upfront for SEO and places optimization and $697 a month. They then went on to tell me that they can't spend anywhere near that much and the SEO guy they work with now charges $200/month :rolleyes:.

So after offering different options for different price points, it became clear to me that they had NO money to spend and this was a lost cause. BUT what I did manage to do was gain their trust. They said that they could tell I knew my stuff and Wanted to pay me what I was worth, they just couldn't afford it. However, when they could afford it I would be the first one they would call.(Who knows, maybe I might even get a referral out of it)

I said all that to say that I learned a few lessons from this experience.

1. Never Assume Anything

2.Talking to clients isn't as scary as I thought it would be. I might move on to cold-calling tomorrow.

3. Charge what you think you're worth, not what you Think they can afford

4. In the eyes of your customer, your price point often equals your level of service/experience. They automatically assumed that I could do better than the current SEO guy, basically because I charged more money.

5.Building trust is just as important as anything else. I genuinely wanted to help the business and they could sense that. I planted the seed, hopefully one day I can help it grow ( I know that was corny, but it was the best I felt like coming up with lol.)

Hope somebody got something from this!
#amlost #overcharged #thought
  • Profile picture of the author thatguy
    Another tip, but sometimes simply asking the question "what's the maximum you ave available for this project" will often give you a number way bigger than you were going to charge.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Travis
    I find most clients don't know anything about SEO or even what is stands for. However, it sounds like your doctor client knows what this is. When I find a client that knows about SEO I just tell them "Sure SEO may get you on the front page, but what I offer is lead generation. So what if your are on the first page of Google, if you cannot convert leads then all you are doing is wasting your money." That generally gives them something they cannot argue about and generally gets me a check.

    Good Luck!

    Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author Dexx
    Great job taking action Jarius!

    One quick comment on the following statement:

    Originally Posted by Just Jarius View Post


    I said all that to say that I learned a few lessons from this experience.

    1. Never Assume Anything
    The problem you encountered happened BECAUSE you assumed something...you assumed they had the money to afford the price point you threw at them...

    This leads to wasted time on both sides.

    In the future, I suggest you follow one of two options:

    1) Continue to cold call (if that's what you prefer), but before just tossing out a price, find out what kind of results the business is looking to achieve, what they are currently doing (marketing-wise) to achieve those results, and how much they are spending to do so.

    This will allow you to easily position your results in a frame next to what they are CURRENTLY spending money on, so they can see you provide better value for the price you offer...

    ...but if they say they are not doing any marketing, or not much, because of financial limitations...then you already know a $2,000 upfront fee will be rejected simply due to lack of funds.

    Which leads to...

    2) Focus on businesses that ARE spending a great deal of money on marketing: Yellow Pages, newspapers, PPC ads, flyers, etc.

    Someone who is dropping $5,000/mo on a horrible Yellow Pages ad WILL have the money to afford your fee...especially when you compare everything you provide to the limited results they are getting (at a much higher price) etc.

    Hope that helps

    ~Dexx
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  • Profile picture of the author rafterman
    i was talking to someone who seemed to think he knew how to optimize on page, but the site had under 500 words of text, no alt image tags, no heading tags, basically everything missing.... People are the worst.
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    Boston SEO Services

    Boston Florists
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  • Profile picture of the author centextkt
    I think we have to remember this key point:

    When talking with a potential client, you have to show them what value you can bring to their business.

    To do this, ask questions to determine what the lifetime value of a new customer is to them. To get this amount, find what the average customer transaction in dollars is, the average number of times a customer makes a purchase in a year, and the number of years a customer will remain with the business.

    So for instance, if a customer spends an average of $125 per transaction, visits the business 3 times per year, and will probably remain a customer with them for 2 years, then the lifetime customer value is $125 X 3 X 2 or $750. If you can assume you will gain 3 new customers from them, you will increase their bottom line by $2,250 so charge a percentage of that figure. You could tell them that your efforts will gain them $2,250 and you are charging them around 25% of that or $500.

    "So the question is, Mr. Businessman, if someone offered you 350% return on your investment, wouldn't you take it? That's what I am proposing to you today."

    (By the way, I stole that from Dexx...)
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  • Profile picture of the author Charliebee
    How about going in with a sliding scale - you know, Our base price is 1999 with 700 a month. Can't do that, which part can't you do? the initial or the monthly? ok, how about we scale it back a little - Now, how much do you have to get started? oh, alright for that amount I can provide this will that suit you? Now, how much can you afford to spend a month? Okay, for that amount, I can do this but not that. Give them options rather than cast in concrete propositions
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