How to sell Search Engine Optimization Services.
Our company provides several sales acceleration services, one of which is business development, as in selling more. So I thought I would give the SEO and Internet Marketing firms that are struggling a little with sales, a few thoughts on what has worked for us, and what works in sales in every thing.
Our company, My One Call, LLC gets about 95% of new clients through referrals from happy clients, and other business influencers in Colorado. In the distant past we did some pay per click and other marketing. For any of you who have been down that path, you know the challenges associated with selling to an advertising generated lead, those being, they are shopping (that’s how they found you right?) so you will be competing against mainly price, and they don’t know you or trust you. A well known marketing guru once wrote; “if you think about it, advertising is really an admission of failure” Or some thing like that. I think the point is if you provide spectacular service you shouldn’t need to advertise, that your happy customers will send you lot’s of business and to an extent that’s true, but you need to remind them that you need that from them.
In sales there are four steps with a prospect.
- They don’t know you
- They know you
- They trust you
- They buy from you or refer you to others who will.
Trust is the point you need to get to with all prospects. The best way to get a prospect to the trust category is get a 3rd party endorsement of your service. If someone they trust tells them that you are the cat’s meow, the big dog, and the best ever, you are in great shape.
So selling more means getting more endorsements. I am not talking about a written testimonial for your site (although that’s great!) but the reality is most prospects need more than that.
- We send out a monthly email to our current and past clients. It has very specific copy written to encourage them to tell other companies about us. Frankly, we bug them all the time for referrals.
- We also refer business to them at every opportunity.
- We also try to provide out of the box free services, as an example we hold quarterly networking meetings with business owners to discuss how they can help each other in business.
- If we hear about or see something working well in advertising or promotion we investigate it, and pass on the information to our clients who might benefit.
- We provide a free research service for clients who are approached with new advertising opportunities. We call the references, speak with the sales peoples, and give them an honest opinion if we would do it or not.
- And we bug them for referrals in very systematic and persistent ways.
- We play golf with Clients.
- We try to find new ways to be valuable every day. Not new ways to make money.
The final point for now is you should target influential businesses. If you spend all your time working with start ups, your span of influence is limited. If you work with businesses who are part of the community, and well respected, your referrals will go through the roof.
I know that many web design firms and Internet Marketing companies are very good at what they do, but selling doesn’t fall into their skill sets. It’s frustrating to see other companies that may provide less service and a lower quality product sell more month after month.
We have a great marketing and business development program for these type companies. Affordable and strategic, they return over $20.00 for every $1.00 invested. They are the Business Development program, and our sales coaching programs. If you need to grow your company, and are outside of the Denver Metro area (Hey, you guys don’t need the help) call me for a free sales and marketing assessment. I guarantee you will get at least one new idea that will build your sales fast. 303 500 3053 ext 1 <<< That’s me… Mike Bayes
www.salesjumpstart.net
I am in Grand Junction.
We have developed a new method of creating backlinks for websites looking for organic search results in the 1-2-3 rankings on Google.
We launched a week ago — looking at Facebook, considering direct marketing by phone and local established business.
I want help taking this service national and also some ideas on how to market it to dealers. (Designers, other SEO’s etc.)
Rob Wallace
Rob,
Let me check out your web site for some basic information. As long as your using
white hat tactics, we may be able to help. Thanks for reading our blogs!
Good post, I agree with the 4 stages that clients go through. The main question, and I suppose it’s for a different post, is how to find those clients in the first place. At some point it comes down to word of mouth and referrals from existing customers, but how to get those customers in the first place? I’d love to read more about your experiences with PPC advertising and tips on client acquisition as a start up!
Michael,
Very astute question. The process of building a new customer base is in fact the most important work a start up company will do. It doesn’t matter what industry, or service, the way and the process you employ to find those first 10, 50, 1000 clients will effect your company’s future more than anything else.
We have very specific tactics for start ups. They are not easy, and they require either a decent marketing budget, or a great deal of time and effort invested on the principles part to get rolling.
Brad Sugars (the founder and CEO of ActionCoach, the worlds largest small business coaching company) said on a call a few months ago that Marketing is nothing more than buying customers. So, a company has to start by marketing (buying customers) with what ever currency they have available.
I’ll post a blog soon on this. You can always call us as well.
Mike
I also agree With this in the SEO world the people that understand it typically do it the ones that don’t we have to find a way to as I call dumb it up to get them to understand the fundamentals of a proper SEO campaign . Good article Right on que! I am struggling with selling my services and you are correct my biggest client base is from referrals! KUDOS!!!
Hey there, You have done an incredible job. I will certainly digg it and personally suggest to my friends. I’m confident they’ll be benefited from this site.
Number 3 is so crucial but really hard to get to do you have any advice on going from knowing to liking?