One of the most important things you can do in any business is to properly set up expectations for your clients. It’s especially true when it comes to search engine optimization. Most people outside of the Internet marketing world have no clue as to how the search engines organize their results (hell, even many Internet marketers don’t truly understand SEO).  If you want to keep your clients happy, it’s extremely important to inform your clients of the process of SEO and to explain that the optimization process takes time. My personal rule with my clients is to overestimate  the time I think it will take to start seeing results. It’s always been my golden rule in business.  Underpromise and overdeliver. Why? Most people (in any business) do the EXACT OPPOSITE just to get a sale.  It’s truly refreshing to do business with someone who actually overdelivers on his promises. I’m even happy when they tell me 45 minutes for a table and I get seated in 25 at a restaurant. Now if someone tells me 45 minutes and I’m waiting 1:30, I’m pissed. Same thing when it comes to your clients. You don’t want them pissed from the start or they will probably be all over your ass. Having an “underpromise/overdeliver”  philosophy helps in a few ways:

1. If you can beat your time estimate for results, you look really good with your client. For example if you tell your client it’s going to take 3 months before they start to see sales occur as a result of your SEO work, and they start seeing results in month 2…..they love you.

2. It buys you more time if you aren’t seeing results yet. Let’s say competition is a little tougher than you first anticipated, and you aren’t yet moving up on the SERPS like you thought you would. Overestimating the time you thought it would take to start seeing results has now given you more time to move their site up.

3. Referral business will increase. Once your clients start to see results in a shorter time period than they originally anticipated, they will tell others about you I promise. Good businesses are hard to come by and people realize this so when they find someone that delivers results, they tell their friends about it.

Keep in mind, the most important element in any SEO compaign is not rankings but ROI.  All clients want to know how much business they will get as a result of your SEO campaign and of course that’s always difficult to anticipate. Underpromising and overdelivering also applies to the estimated return that your clients will get. In any business, it’s a rule to live by.

Good to see Dave Pasternack working so hard to to link build. Jim Boykin, if you’re looking for a new, incredibly hard working link ninja, Dave may be your guy. Hey, you have to give him some credit…he is up to # 2 in the Google rankings. He really wants that $1,000 dollars.

Update: The DP bio page has now fallen to # 7

He’s added a nice footer link on the Did-it site, and as Greywolf pointed out  , Dave Pasternack has been spamming MyBloglog (Dave…have you been watching those incredibly educational Gary Ruplinger videos?). He’s also been all over the SEO blogosphere leaving comments on people like Oilman’s Dave Pasternack page and even no name bloggers like myself. I didn’t see anything over at the Dave Pasternack page at Threadwatch.

I will give him some props though. He’s taking advantage of the whole situation. He’s even created some pretty funny mugs, t-shirts, etc to sell over at Cafepress. I really do hope you sell some of those things. Here’s some ideas though to increase your sales at cafe press.

1. Add an apron to the list of your products (you know…in case your baking a cake or something)

2. Offer the same items but without your face on them (they’re much more attactive without your mug on a mug)

3. Add some “SEO is not rocketscience” toilet paper.

 Continued success with the link building. You’re doing a great job! 

Mark Simon over at MediaPost writes today on the Search Insider “The Search Engines are Killing SEO”.  He states:

“As search engines get smarter, SEO firms have a harder time providing real value.”

He also says:

“The endgame for all of this is a world in which SEO doesn’t matter. The engines won’t need you to tell them how relevant your page actually is, because they’ll understand on their own. For the same reason, they won’t listen if you lie to them about a page’s true value. Search results may never be unmanipulatable, but they’ll be nearly so, to the point that it doesn’t make business sense to try. “

 And last but not least:

“But as I’ve already highlighted, the engines have smartened up to a wide array of spamming tactics.

Yes, search engines algorithms are getting more sophisticated all the time. What I don’t agree with his comment that the “endgame” is that “SEO doesn’t matter”. That couldn’t be further from the truth. No matter what people like Simon, his boss Pasternack, or Jason Calacanis say, there will always be a demand for SEO. Here’s why:

1. Businesses will always compete with each other.

Companies that want to grow their business understand the importance of being on the 1st page of Google, Yahoo and even MSN. Even more important is being in the top 5 (Danny has a great post on his review of the recent study by MSN. )  Guess what? Only 10 web pages can show up in the top 10. Know what else? Only 5 pages can be listed in the top 5! Wow! Startling revelation right? Good thing I kept that calculator from statistics class in college. The best results usually come from being listed near the top and anyone that has optimized sites for a living understands that the sites with the best content don’t always show up at the top. It’s the uneducated like Dave Pasternack and Jason Calacanis (SEO-wise undeducated) who make rediculous comments like they’ve been making of late. But hey, they may be playing the link baiting game right? For example, the Pasternack bio page (even with the Pasternack SEO contest)  is now # 2 on Google because of the influx of links he acquired after his moronic rant. The bottom line is that competition drives business. Businesses hire SEO companies because they want to grow their revenue by appearing higher in the search engines then their competitors. As long as businesses compete with each other, there will always be a demand for SEO.

2.  Search engine algorithms will always need to rely on inbound links.

Yes, algorithms improve regularly but perfect result query sets will never exist.  Simon says in his post, “But as I’ve already highlighted, the engines have smartened up to a wide array of spamming tactics.” I just have to laugh that they think SEO is all about “spamming tactics”.  There will always be some form of search engine spamming tactics, but MOST have become and will become less effective each time the search engines improve their algorithm. Search engines however have to rely on links to help in determining relevent results. There are some sites out there that don’t need SEO work because they get links naturally (Wikipedia for example) but those sites are rare. Building relevant inbound links are part of the process of SEO and are always a factor with sites showing up at the top of the search engine rankings.  Businesses need people like link Moses and Andy Hagans. Now matter how evolved the search engines get, they will always need to rely on inbound links.

So what does this all mean? I think that as search engine algorithms evolve, this will weed out the bad SEO’s, and weak black hats while at the same time making it easier for those SEO’s who are successful at their trade. Sorry all you haters,  SEO is here to stay.

This is part two of How to Sell SEO Services.  In part one we talked about:

1. Targeting the right clients.

2. Finding out who the decision maker is.

3. Setting up the appointment

So really you’ve done the hardest part. Nobody likes setting up appointments. For me, it’s making the sales call that’s the fun part. 

4. Pre-call planning:

Before you go on your call, you need to make sure you do your homework and find out as much information as you possibly can about the person you’re meeting with, their business and of course their website.

5. The appointment:

Dress nicely. This doesn’t mean you have to wear a suit and tie but look professional. Deoderant would be nice don’t you think?. And no one likes talking to someone whose breath is kickin’ like karate. Go to town on some Altoids or gum. So you’re in the lobby waiting for them to come out. Now it’s your time to shine.

A. Meet and thank them for taking the time to meet with you. Make sure you have Internet access for the appointment, you’ll need it. If you don’t have a laptop with Internet then meet them in their office where they have a computer with access to the Internet. MAKE SURE to meet only in a place where you have Internet access.

B. Set the agenda. Why are you there? You’re there to find out more about their company, their business goals, their Internet marketing objectives. After finding out that info you’d like to show them how you can help them achieve those goals and then show them how you’ve helped other businesses to grow company sales.

C. Conduct the Interview. Want to know what the great salespeople do better than anyone else? They listen. They get the other person to talk. In order to get the other person to talk you need to ask good questions that get the other person to “open up”.  Be prepared with plenty of questions. You’ll want to take notes on the call so feel free to write down a bunch of these questions on your note pad prior to the call. Here’s the most important part (and where many sales calls go wrong): Listen when they talk. Sounds stupid….but the truth is most people are too busy thinking about their next question to ask instead of listening to what they have to say. Getting them to open up will also let them feel they their in control. One of the most important questions you can ask is what an average sale or new client is worth to them. For example, if you’re meeting with a law firm, ask how much on average is a new client worth to them. Suppose they say $3,000-5,000 on average, this will be important to know when it comes time to close the sale. Again, make sure to take notes.

D. Show them how you can help them meet their needs. If you were listening, you’ll know what their goals are. Now, show them how you can help them meet those needs. Jump on the Internet (if you’re in their office, ask them to “let you drive”.) You need to be in control. Now jump on the Internet and conduct some searches for the types of searches they want to come up for. Explain why the sites that are ranking for those search terms are ranking on the top of the search engines. This is your chance to show them your expertise on SEO. Now, this is one of the most important parts of the sales call. In order to gain their trust, you need to show them what you’ve done for other clients.  Showcase some searches where your clients are # 1 (or at least on the 1st page) on Google for targeted search terms. Share their success stories and how you’ve helped these other companies to succeed with their Internet marketing plan. If you don’t have any success stories to share you don’t belong there in the first place. If possible, show off some web stats and how people are finding other sites you’ve worked on. This can be pretty damn impactful for clients that have never had web analytics on their sites before. By showing them how you’ve helped others out this should get them excited to work with you.

E. The Close. At this point, if you’ve done a good job of understanding their needs and showing them how you can help them, they will want to know how much your services are. In almost every case for me, I have to set another appointment to go over costs.  I explain that I need to use my keyword research tools, study competition, estimate hours, etc. in order to come up with a price quote.  Don’t leave without setting up another appointment to go over costs. These price quotes are best handled in person. Remember when I said it was important to find out what a sale or a new client is worth? This is where justification of costs come in to place. Take the example of the law firm for example. If you can help them pick up 4 new clients a month (remember their average was $3-5k a month per client) then they should have no problem spending $2-3 a month for a localized SEO campaign.  As a marketer, I’ve always thought that a 5-1 return on my marketing budget was a good number.  In this example, spending $2k-$3k with a goal of $12-20k exceeds that number. Bottom line is if you spell out your costs this way then you have a much greater chance of turning that call into a new client. You should never have to hard sell anyone. If you’ve made a strong case for why they should work for you it should be a natural decision for them to make. With me, it always comes down to budget. There are going to be clients that can’t afford to work with you and that’s ok. Sometimes you just need to walk away in those instances.

 Happy selling.