A Good Problem To Have? Need Advice...

Good for you Dukes.

His question is code for, I want to hire you.

Tell him you recommend yourself.

Heh heh yes go with Russ' reply.

"Who do you recommend?"

"Well, you've gotten a lot of value out of my answers on the LinkedIn forum, right?"

"Yup."

"Then I think you already know who has the expertise to help you. Tell me more about what you want done?"

Or you could just say, "Me." and wait for the prospect's response.

<<grin>> I've had this happen to me a couple times myself, when I did not position myself as the person who can implement all the advice given.

The best thing to do in my experience is to be open about what you do, and that you can do all the stuff you just recommended yourself. For good measure, throw in some examples of what you have done in the past - things that closely match the client's needs.

In my case, the client was pleased and relieved that I could do the job, and that he would not have to look for anyone else. I'm sure this is going to be the case with you as well.

Rohit Sinha

If the guy trusts you on the account of your advice then why should you remain at crossroads. Get to him and let him know more about your job. Discuss with him all that you deem necessary for him to be more confident that you are actually the right person to work for him.

HI,,Not to be mean or anything but if a girl already has a boyfriend then you really shouldnt be messing with her like that.

biggest question here-how does my boy dukes price/outsource such an intensive project?????

Nice work, I have had a few deals worked out on linkedin as well, lot of juicy action there it seems, although the advertising there is absolutely awful in my opinion.

Glad to see effort put in on there and it working! Should be nice motivation to a lot of people here.

As far as him asking who you would recommend, I think it is basically asking you to sell yourself to him. Of course, without being as direct.

It is natural for people to want what they can't have. I have scored BIG on occassions where someone has called, wanting a project done and they say what their budget is and I turn it down. Sometimes the projects are too big I don't want to even mess with it, other times I'm too busy, or maybe their personality clashes with mine so I will say that I recommend someone else that is more in their price range. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt, but when it does you score big.

How I would handle this situation from a sales standpoint, and I often do this.. Is recommend a BIG SEO Firm, that charges 10K/mo. 5K is pretty standard for nationwide competition, do you don't really want to compete with yourself here. You want to recommend a higher priced service, tell the potential client that they do good work, but then position yourself higher, by being honest with them and saying something to the effect that "We compete with them in quality, but of course since they're a bigger firm with more overhead we're able to typically beat them in price and service." You can also close it out saying that your workload is usually hefty, but you just finished up on a major project this week so that will allow you to open up some additional spots for clients.

Being unavailable but available is always a nice tactic in my opinion.

Do your thing... do what feels natural and more comfortable for you, that will be your best bet. What I do, might not work for you.. just depends.

I think something you should start thinking about now, is if you get this project how are you going to get results? Outsourcing it like people would outsource local SEO definitely isn't an option. It's going to be a lot more complex than some on page optimization and profile back links. I love high competition, but chances are it can take 6 months in many competitive niches, sometimes even more. I have one niche that I just started getting results in, and its been 2 years... one of the most competitive out there, but definitely worth the wait.

Start working on a plan of attack for these bigger keywords.. its a different game, trust me. Even if you don't close this one, there will be more opportunities in the future.

Let us know how it goes!

I think you should take it as he is asking if you are willing to handle it.

You should not just jump on it right away, but tell him that it is a verry large project and you need to make room for it in your schedule. I'm finishing up some projects, when were you looking to start. I think I can fit you in and It wil be $xx,xxx.xx