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Help! What do I say????

by Entertize
11 replies
Okay, here's the deal....

I made a bid a few, well several weeks back for a contract for SEO. This client is not a dumb dumb and this will be a pretty significant contract for me.
Long story short...the client contact me back asking to connect so that he can get a feel for my skillset and experience before proceeding to do business with me. This is where I get tongue-tied. Of course he wants much more than just a Google Analytics report. So my question is how do I go about explaining what will be done and how the reporting will go? I plan to use Raven Tools for my reporting but I don't have much experience with it.
Please help me. This will be my first REAL offline client. The last one was a buzzard that wanted everything for nothing and then wanted to micromanage me like I was his personal assistant or something. He had to go. Reminded me of my old boss and the reason I found the WF in the first place!
Please help me.

Thanks
  • Profile picture of the author econnors
    The first thing to keep in mind is that you are the online professional. You know your stuff. The client does not. If he does think he knows more than you, it's not a good fit anyway...

    What did you promise the client in your original proposal?
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Bucker
    Just because they are asking to meet to figure out your skill sets does not mean they know anything about your skill sets. In other words what they may be saying is simply I will come with these issues I need solved, can you help? Once you start explaining doesnt mean they will even know what your talking about.

    You know more then they do or they would be doing it themselves. Dont over worry about it. Gather what info you feel you may need and dont over worry about it. If they happen to come up with a question that is an area you dont have skills in tell them you have another person you contract that to who is an expert in that area.

    You have a team of experts you work with and if you dont have the solution one of them will. You guarantee quality service and in this age that requires a team of sepcialist.

    Then you eithe find out how to do it or contract that part out.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    Instead of having verbal diarrhea, try asking questions.

    Why did you invite me in?

    What kinds of problems are you experiencing?

    What were you hoping I could do for you?

    How much were you expecting that to cost?

    If everything went great, in six months (or a year), where would you expect us to be? How would you define success?
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    • Profile picture of the author Michael Bucker
      Originally Posted by kaniganj View Post

      Instead of having verbal diarrhea, try asking questions.

      Why did you invite me in?

      What kinds of problems are you experiencing?

      What were you hoping I could do for you?

      How much were you expecting that to cost?

      If everything went great, in six months (or a year), where would you expect us to be? How would you define success?

      I couldn’t agree more. If you are nervous the best way to still win them over is by taking command of the situation best way to do that is asking questions. Write down and ask ask ask. Often when I go in for an interview, for a job, in my past, they ask questions then unlike most I ask several questions. They end up doing all the talking by answering my questions then end up loving me when they did most of the talking.
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    • Profile picture of the author Entertize
      Thank all of you for your input.
      Jason- Thank you writing that because I do get verbal diarrhea and start babbling about everything that I know anything about and it does have a tendency to turn people off. Its because I am more an educator than a sales person and when someone asks me something I tend to OVER explain in an effort to make sure they understand my thought process but it tends to confuse most. I needed that. Thanks.
      So, I will line up a series of questions for my meeting and relax a little bit.

      Thanks to all of you for your advice. Its much appreciated!

      Chriss
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    • Profile picture of the author Masterminding
      Originally Posted by kaniganj View Post

      Instead of having verbal diarrhea, try asking questions.

      Why did you invite me in?

      What kinds of problems are you experiencing?

      What were you hoping I could do for you?

      How much were you expecting that to cost?

      If everything went great, in six months (or a year), where would you expect us to be? How would you define success?
      Well said, but here's an upgrade of this solution:

      First ask yourself... what does a client want to know? Which questions would a client typically ask? Then write down what you would answer to your "frequently asked questions list". Use Google and SEo blogs like SeoMoz, Searchengineland, SEobook, etc. to come up with good answers.

      I've been in the same position you're in now. Just know that preparation is half the work. Typical questions SEO people could ask:

      - How many traffic will you get me?
      - How many page one rankings will you get me?
      - How many #1 rankings will you get me?
      - When will I see results?
      - How many keywords can you help me with?
      - Budget?

      - Guarantee? Tip: don't do pay per keyword, pay per link or any other kind of pay for performance deal. The only time that works when doing SEO is if a client knows what he's doing and, frankly, if he/she knew then he would hire a SEO firm and not a freelancer. Newbie SEO's are easily fooled by black hat stuff and thus if you go ahead and get paid for performance you might NOT get paid because the eager business owner is screwing up or has screwed up in the past.
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    • Profile picture of the author sb
      Originally Posted by kaniganj View Post

      Instead of having verbal diarrhea, try asking questions.

      Why did you invite me in?

      What kinds of problems are you experiencing?

      What were you hoping I could do for you?

      How much were you expecting that to cost?

      If everything went great, in six months (or a year), where would you expect us to be? How would you define success?
      Basically took the words out of my mouth Jason. Perfect advice. Ask and listen.
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    • Profile picture of the author Blase
      Originally Posted by kaniganj View Post

      Instead of having verbal diarrhea, try asking questions.

      Why did you invite me in?

      What kinds of problems are you experiencing?

      What were you hoping I could do for you?

      How much were you expecting that to cost?

      If everything went great, in six months (or a year), where would you expect us to be? How would you define success?
      Man it's easy to pick out the people that know what they are doing.
      Great response Kaniganj, and in my opinion, right on the money.
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  • Profile picture of the author believemarketing
    make them like you, be caring of them and not salesly, make them know you know what you are talking about....
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    • Profile picture of the author sodomojo
      So did you end up winning this deal?
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  • Profile picture of the author gabem86
    Well I think you first need to learn as much as you can about SEO. Learn how it's done, especially after Google updates, learn what other people who have used SEO want out of it. For example, call businesses that have used someone else to do their SEO and figure out what exactly those clients are looking for. It always helps to talk to people who have had to do SEO for their businesses. A little research goes a long way.
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