How to close SEM clients on the first call.

Hello,

I am an online marketing consultant based in Auckland, New Zealand. We offer SEM services to the upper end of the market; specialising in customers which spend more than $1,000 p.m on Adwords that are involved in professional services such as accountants, lawyers, insurance brokers e.t.c

Our customers are heavy lead generation dependent and we charge on average 30% of their monthly Adwords spend as an agency fee. This covers their Adwords account optimization, as well as their landing page which we aggressively split test using Ubounce.

I am 'the business', so to speak. I very rarely go and see a prospect in person, and have developed an method to close $10,000~ deals over the phone.

Our sales funnel starts using PPC ads to direct to a squeeze page. The prospect signs up for a free consultation and we call them back on a time that is convenient.

The consultation is to qualify their business based on variables such as industry, monthly spend and other business objectives. If the lead is outside our target market of professional services we refer them to one of our friends with whom we have a lead generation exchange with.

Once we have established firstly

1. There is a need
2. The customer is motivated
3. The customer actually has some money to spend

We then go on to explain what Adwords is, give them case study examples of previous clients which have worked with us and the results they are enjoying now.

The value proposition we hammer into our prospects' minds is ROI, ROI, ROI!

Business owners are only interested in three things:

Increasing sales
Decreasing costs
Improving efficiency

If your pitch is not crafted to demonstrate one or more of these three things, the business owner will throw you a stock objection such as: 'we don't have the money, we aren't interested, send me an email.. blah blah blah'.

It's important to note that 90% of the time the customer is lying to you, the customer won't admit to you that they aren't sold on your proposal, or the fact that they're afraid of making a commitment to their purchase. How you handle, these types of objections come back to selling on the three customers hot buttons above, if you're unable to do that, you really should ask yourself what business am I in? And start drafting a new script which demonstrates the value of what you are offering.

After we have qualified the prospect by asking lots of questions around their needs and set tentative business goals for their Adwords campaign we break down our costs and get the prospect to commit.

Most likely the customer will try to delay the decision, even if the presentation was very good. Most people are simply afraid of making decisions, even experienced business Directors and CEOs still have the same unconscious fears that every day people harbor in the minds, and it affects in the same way.

Fortunately, if you have made it this far and the conversation is heading towards the sale, all that is required to re-sell the solution based on the need, that you have uncovered by asking questions about their business. It's important to note that the 'last ditch', objection is not really a valid concern, but it is simply the prospect reacting emotionally to the situation.
Be empathetic, don't interrupt, listen with your full attention and make him or feel like this is the first time you've heard a concern like this in your life, answer any questions they may have and attempt to close again.

If the prospect is still delaying making a decision you may probe and ask them politely what their concern is. Most of the time objections arise not of a lack of desire, but because they do not fully understand what you are offering in a way that makes sense to them.
Some times we need to physically see the prospect before we get the business, sometimes we need to send referrals or send them the traffic data to back up our claims of performance.
Whatever the case, prospects buy for their own reasons and every business owner you'll meet will have more or less a standardised method of making decisions, which you must respect and adapt to.

The final point I'll make before I finish this post is to never ever give up, on making your business a huge success, and that price is never the most important thing. Prospects that say your offering is too expensive is really saying you have not demonstrated enough value; or given me enough reasons for why I should buy from you.

They never 'think about it', or talk about it with their wife, spouse, business partner. Recognize these as 'false objections', and continue on selling, ask a question to retake control and demonstrate value to help convert your tentative prospect into a profitable account.

Pantera