First thread, first post. Just closed some SEO deals this morning...

I do exactly what i suggested you do and other things in between

Totally understand that you want to keep the warm leads going. However, if I were you i'd start sooner rather than later building your own clientèle.

There are so many services you can offer that you could start on the side building your own client base for different services than what the company you work with offers. As you build your client base whilst building your income you can slowly phase yourself out of working for the company you are with and start building your future asset at a faster pace.

Riz

Thanks for the kind words! I am glad people are finding this info helpful or inspiring - it means a lot!

I would certainly like to potentially do this at some point in the future - but for the time being i'm looking to learn a lot more about aspects of the IM game and in the meantime contribute by giving something back to the community in the subjects I am well versed in.

There may well come a time when I delete this thread and concentrate on a WSO product

my email address is gotguanxi@googlemail.com - if you are in the same industry as me i'm sure i'll be able to help out in some way or another, so i'll look forward to hearing from you



Just a quick update for today. Speaking to some video production guy yesterday and I visited his website - it had been hacked. Awful for him, but excellent news for me, as this gave me my in.

I found out who was hosting his site as he had forgot and got the customer service line number with a simple google search. At this point this guy pretty much thinks i'm some guardian angel who has alerted him to his blocked site and in addition to this help fixed it and i've not even mention the reason why I was actually calling or asked for a penny yet!

So, today I ring him back and it's sorted out but luckily for me his website is not up to scratch for his field of work. I make this clear in the politest way possible and say it needs upgrading and we are the people to do it. He agrees it needs upgrading and starts feeling around for prices...

I don't give him any prices whatsoever instead I take him to the google keyword tool to show him some key phrases about video production and video production companies 100,00 local searches on about 3 key phrases per month. He sees this with his own eyes and I can tell by the tone of his voice he is impressed and it's open up a new train of thought in his mind. He actually asked me 'well how do I get there and compete with these guys'

My answer: simple. Stick with me and work with me and my company and we will achieve your online objectives for you and most importantly provide you with a ROI for your investment. I focused alot of my pitch on the social media results - as mobile video production relies heavily on this as I know from my own interests and experiences outside IM and work. I talked to him about progress we can make with Google + and the increase of subscribers we will provide on his youtube page and views on his videos by creating a squeeze page on his facebook page. In conjunction with this also providing him with a demographically targeted facebook advertising campaign in order to capture email addresses and increase the traffic on his website significantly.

This guy was sold.


At this point I had to figure out what to take him for and how I could upsell him: hey I work on commission only, so give me a break

I decided a wordpress content management system for his site and a 12 month SEO contract would suffice and he started sounding really sheepish.
"I want to proceed but i'm going away to Indonesia in 5 months"

Wounded for me, had to decrease his contract to 6 months and sell him a new website. All in all a great sale and i'm confident i've found a guy who will work with our company for a long time when he comes back from his travels, which is secondary most important thing for me whilst working after lining my own pocket.

Regards,
Nate

At a minimum the contracts are £100+VAT but obviously from my point of view and collecting the first months payment as my commission - i'm aiming to take on contracts charging as much as possible. I would say the average contract I take is round about the £150+VAT mark.

People have reservations joining a one month trial, let alone a 12 month contract. I can understand and appreciate this view point from a customers perspective as it is a lot of money and SEO/online marketing doesn't have the best of reputations. The most common reservation and objection I receive is normally due to established businesses who have tried SEO before and have been 'ripped off', 'keyphrases didn't make the first page' etc etc. To be honest I find it easier to pitch companies that have not tried SEO before as they tend to have (but not always) more realistic expectations of what can actually be achieved through an SEO program.

I would say I average a 12 month SEO a day - but I do work on other things too. So for example if I was given 5 PPC cancellations to deal with in a day I would expect to save 3/4 of those or I would be disappointed. Likewise I sometimes pitch PPC on a month by month basis too but I am seriously trying to avoid doing this in future and concentrating on SEO and websites.

The number of calls can fluctuate massively - sometimes I can make up to 400 calls a day, but if it's a good day I can only make 50 calls, as I could spend 3 - 4 hours on the phone to 8 - 10 business owners. I would hope to close about 1 in 3 of the pitches where I spend over half an hour on a phone call with them if that helps answer your question! When making 400 calls, most will not connect, call out, slam me, gatekeeper etc etc.

And thanks for the kind words!

Nate