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OK, Let's all be straight here for a second...

by payoman
19 replies
I am reeling from the 'Who's your biggest client?' thread and I have some hard and fast questions!!

I hope those of you making tens of thousands of dollars per month would care to share your secrets here and answer these questions, would be MUCH appreciated!

1. What are the exact services that you actually get people to agree to pay thousands a month for? Just SEO? If so, how many keywords? How difficult is it to rank?

The reason I ask is, I am ranking small local businesses first page for local keyterms like 'painter city', and they struggle to pay $100 a month, let alone $1500+. Care to share why? Is it the niche?

Actually, that's about it for now.
#straight
  • Profile picture of the author Michael Nguyen
    It all about the niche, you need better paying clients. I've got to position I'm in by partnering up with my former client (still is I suppose).

    Try and get yourself an accountant client as these guys know the types of clients that will pay more money.
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  • Profile picture of the author Baadier Sydow
    I've made sales in +$1000 range but I dont yet have any clients paying +$1000 monthly. Its something that I am working towards. I would be interested in any tips beyond targeting high end niches.
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    Baadier Sydow
    Budget Furniture

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    • Profile picture of the author EnzoBlaque
      Originally Posted by Baadier View Post

      I've made sales in +$1000 range but I dont yet have any clients paying +$1000 monthly. Its something that I am working towards. I would be interested in any tips beyond targeting high end niches.
      The niche doesn't necessarily have to be "high-end".... Just untapped.

      There are hundreds of guys on this very forum that are in the background silently killing it due to the 'strange' niches they have stumbled upon

      Think about it for a minute.

      On every marketing forum, Offliners are told to "target plumbers", "electricians", "law firms", "dentists" and even "pizza guys" etc.. So to go into a deal with one of these types of businesses thinking you'll close anything near a 4 figure contract is slightly naive. Why? Because every other offliner (your competition) has been trained to do the exact same thing..

      These types of niches' have been deeply saturated. There are way too many options out there for one of these "pizza" guys to ever over-pay for an SEO service (or whichever service you supply).

      To really get these high paying clients, you have to actually engage in some Market research which I am sad to say is a lost art nowadays. Nobody does it anymore.. But if you hope to be successful as a consultant then you just can't avoid this..

      You HAVE to do your due diligence.. search google.. find out how much each industry makes per year. Find out how much money the companies within those industries typically spend each year on marketing.. etc

      The only way you will ever be paid five figures per month from one deal is if your market is untapped or not saturated (i.e not spoken about every 5 minutes on online marketing forums)...

      When I started out, my first contract was with a company that produces window frames and I had them down for £4K+ a month for some measly website re-design and SEO work that I outsourced for £200

      This consulting stuff doesn't need to be as hard as people make it out to be. You don't have to struggle making £100 the first month, then £300 the next because I went from 0 to 4K per month with absolutley no experience in SEO or SMM etc..

      It is all down to how deep your market research is, how compelling your advertising pieces are and how often you spend actually putting your business out there in front of the people who actually need your service.

      Just always remember that you can have 10 clients paying you £100 a month and still be 'failing' or not doing so well.. But, if you put time towards finding JUST TWO clients who you know can drop £5k on you for your services each month (JUST TWO) then you'll be doing VERY well earning an easy £10,000 each and every month.. and if you over perform, then comes the referrals and you'll start to see even larger profits each month with minimal effort.

      - Enzo
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  • Profile picture of the author Baadier Sydow
    Thanks for some solid actionable advice Enzo. The key is to be original in your targets I suppose and not be generic. I've seen how competitive some of the blue collar industries and some of popular white collar industries like chiropractors. Thanks again
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    Baadier Sydow
    Budget Furniture

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  • Profile picture of the author Rearden
    We all have the same amount of time in each day.

    In other industries, the heavy hitters target those who can and are used to writing the biggest checks.
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    • Profile picture of the author Baadier Sydow
      Originally Posted by Rearden View Post

      We all have the same amount of time in each day.

      In other industries, the heavy hitters target those who can and are used to writing the biggest checks.
      Are you saying, that if you target the smaller guys you are going to command smaller fees? So focus on the guys that are willing to pay?
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      Baadier Sydow
      Budget Furniture

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  • Profile picture of the author coffeecashnow
    Thanks Enzo for these tips. Hopefully you can help me clear up some clouds...

    Let's say w ewould target companies that build wood terrace. (no idea of potential, but seems somehow not too cheap)

    That would be the niche we go after.

    Assuming we want high recurring income, the best to offer would be SEO right?

    For a company to be interested in working with us, we have to show them we can send local targeted traffic to their site, right?

    So it s all about keyword research at this point.

    To confirm this has potential we'd have to find out if there are lots of [keyword+city] searches. Otherwise to me it doesn t make sense. Am I misunderstanding something?

    I hope you can give me some answers!

    Thanks.
    O.
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    • Profile picture of the author timmykins
      The other aspect of it is, how much do they charge for their service/product.

      If you target a client that sells products for say $5 they'd need to sell an awful lot of products to cover a $1000+ a month seo service, whereas if you target a client that can make $10,000+ from just one sale, they'll be much more inclined to pay $5000 an month if it brings them 2-3 new customers.

      Think what their ROI will be before you set your fees, I guess.
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      • Profile picture of the author coffeecashnow
        I get this, but we don t really know their net profit from the $5k sale, and if there are only few searches, we definitely need to give them #1 ranking!

        Originally Posted by timmykins View Post

        The other aspect of it is, how much do they charge for their service/product.

        If you target a client that sells products for say $5 they'd need to sell an awful lot of products to cover a $1000+ a month seo service, whereas if you target a client that can make $10,000+ from just one sale, they'll be much more inclined to pay $5000 an month if it brings them 2-3 new customers.

        Think what their ROI will be before you set your fees, I guess.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rearden
    Go where the money is.

    I imagine it's a whole different ball game than pitching sole proprietorships and small businesses.

    I would think of all the companies that are heavy lead buyers, like insurance companies.

    You can sell to the individual agent. Or you can sell to the agency. Even better, you could even sell to the marketing organization that houses thousands of agents.

    There's a guy, albeit illegally, he sells B2C voice broadcast leads to independent marketing organizations at $20 a clip. They probably cost him $1-2 to procure. Granted half of that net is probably funding his legal reserve.

    He probably sells them by the hundreds per day. But they're the type of organization that would put up big friggin' money to make it happen.

    That's who you'd want to target!
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    • Profile picture of the author coffeecashnow
      That would mean noth thinking of local biz. I can't seem to think of something like this appart from wholesaler. My mind is blocked on this!

      Originally Posted by Rearden View Post

      Go where the money is.

      I imagine it's a whole different ball game than pitching sole proprietorships and small businesses.

      I would think of all the companies that are heavy lead buyers, like insurance companies.

      You can sell to the individual agent. Or you can sell to the agency. Even better, you could even sell to the marketing organization that houses thousands of agents.

      There's a guy, albeit illegally, he sells B2C voice broadcast leads to independent marketing organizations at $20 a clip. They probably cost him $1-2 to procure. Granted half of that net is probably funding his legal reserve.

      He probably sells them by the hundreds per day. But they're the type of organization that would put up big friggin' money to make it happen.

      That's who you'd want to target!
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    • Profile picture of the author Web Junkie
      Coming from a real estate investor background, I'm not happy with a marketing agreement unless their are large monthly checks coming in. I value my time, and understand that my time is very expensive. You should too.

      Two things are needed to get large ticket clients. First, you need to have the confidence to ask for it without hesitation, and secondly you need to have a client that understands the great value that you are bringing them.

      Nowadays, I ask my clients right off the bat - does a down payment of $5,000 scare you? If you are working with a legitimate business, those kinds of figures should not. Keep in mind of the ridiculous figures a Yellow Pages rep will quote you, and we all know how effective that marketing medium is. Call up one of those penny savers and see how much a small monthly ad costs.

      It's your responsibility as a salesperson to educate the potential customer on how valuable your services are to them. Find out the cost per client and break it down in front of them. Show them how a Google Adwords campaign can directly target their client base and put customers in their office TOMORROW. Unlike the laid back approach that other marketing mediums offer, this is DIRECT MARKETING, and is far more valuable.

      If you're not capable of conveying your message, then get the hell out of the way and hire someone that can. Cut a sales guy in for a portion of your front-end and focus on the technical side. The cold hard reality may mean that you just suck at selling..
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      • Profile picture of the author Voasi
        Originally Posted by Web Junkie View Post

        Coming from a real estate investor background, I'm not happy with a marketing agreement unless their are large monthly checks coming in. I value my time, and understand that my time is very expensive. You should too.

        Two things are needed to get large ticket clients. First, you need to have the confidence to ask for it without hesitation, and secondly you need to have a client that understands the great value that you are bringing them.

        Nowadays, I ask my clients right off the bat - does a down payment of $5,000 scare you? If you are working with a legitimate business, those kinds of figures should not. Keep in mind of the ridiculous figures a Yellow Pages rep will quote you, and we all know how effective that marketing medium is. Call up one of those penny savers and see how much a small monthly ad costs.

        It's your responsibility as a salesperson to educate the potential customer on how valuable your services are to them. Find out the cost per client and break it down in front of them. Show them how a Google Adwords campaign can directly target their client base and put customers in their office TOMORROW. Unlike the laid back approach that other marketing mediums offer, this is DIRECT MARKETING, and is far more valuable.

        If you're not capable of conveying your message, then get the hell out of the way and hire someone that can. Cut a sales guy in for a portion of your front-end and focus on the technical side. The cold hard reality may mean that you just suck at selling..
        Love it and it's dead on.

        Seriously, you have to know without a shred of doubt that your services are going to blow up their business. I've done it. I physically witnessed my clients business grow from $6mil/yr to $24/yr (over 4 years) because of what I did for his business.

        I have no problem asking for $5k, $10k or $50k a month, if that's what it's going to take to get the job done. Remember, you're the expert and if they want expert results, then they need to pay for it.

        As for who to target, there are so many industries to target. I mean, you could target plumbers if you wanted to. Open up the yellow pages and look at the guys buying big Ads. Or go to manufacturer directories and find companies selling big machines worth $50k - these types of guys spend $50k a week for overhead, so spending $5k/mo to bring in more business is a drop in the bucket.
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  • Profile picture of the author Hugh
    For a different perspective, I never go for the really high ticket sale.
    Much rather have lots of painless monthly residuals just keep coming.
    For me, $89 a month is the sweet spot. That's over $1000 per year.
    Easy to over deliver. If you get past the third month, rarely a cancelation.
    Almost a set & forget(not really). Everything is automated. Just pop in
    once a month or so (never with a n invoice in hand). Just be friendly.

    Hugh
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    "Never make someone a priority in your life who makes you an option in theirs." Anon.
    "Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon." -- Winston Churchill

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  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    Don't get caught up with other people's numbers bro... the only thing that matters is your own. Don't fall into a trap where you're trying to be someone else, just be yourself. A person that has a 25K/mo client and spends all their time on that client, is no different than you having 25 at 1K/mo.

    No matter what kind of level you're own, it's about building a real business, and being as efficient as possible.

    Your numbers... no one else matters. You're competing with yourself. If you're stuck at 7K/mo... evaluate, and improve, make adjustments.
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    • Profile picture of the author Zeal4Life
      Thank you for making this point.

      In almost everything we do, we're always comparing ourselves to how EVERYONE ELSE is doing versus comparing to what the person we see in the mirror CAN DO!

      Thanks again!

      (Heading over to your New OP - "Welcome to reality..."

      See you there...

      Originally Posted by iAmNameLess View Post

      Don't get caught up with other people's numbers bro... the only thing that matters is your own. Don't fall into a trap where you're trying to be someone else, just be yourself. A person that has a 25K/mo client and spends all their time on that client, is no different than you having 25 at 1K/mo.

      No matter what kind of level you're own, it's about building a real business, and being as efficient as possible.

      Your numbers... no one else matters. You're competing with yourself. If you're stuck at 7K/mo... evaluate, and improve, make adjustments.
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  • Profile picture of the author vndnbrgj
    I offer a $300/month service, SMS, set up a campaign, and its virtually hands free.
    I offer a leasing program, starts at $500/month just requires an hour or two a moth to shoot the sh*t.
    I have my consulting side, that starts at $3k/month, and requires about 10 hours a month.

    Think about what your time is worth. You can't get me for under $300 an hour.
    But I also don't do any one-time deals, everything is a monthly service.
    At the price points I offer everything, with the value I provide, makes it a no brainer.
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  • Profile picture of the author beeswarn
    Payo, it's like IamNameless says. You're in your business, not theirs. And even if their stories are real, none of these people are going to come help you prospect tomorrow. You have to plan your own work and work your own plan.

    Just remember that in marketing, online and offline, bullshit is the coin of the realm. It's just easier to spread it around online.
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