Are you tired of getting rejected when trying to sell your SEO services? I have put together a few tips to help you along in making the sales process less terrible.
1. Help People Understand What SEO is.
It may be 2012, but hardly anybody outside of the SEO and internet marketing community really has any idea what SEO is. Plenty of businesses know that they need it, but they may not be able to explain what it entails.
Don’t be afraid to take the time and energy it requires to answer the questions that your prospect might have. Take this time to build a relationship with the client. Now is not the time to try and be smarter than the prospect. Nobody wants to feel belittled.
2. Sell what your prospect REALLY wants
Are you selling links? No. Are you selling rank? No. Are you selling traffic? No. You are selling growth, prosperity and business security via an online model.
Prospects really only care about “what” you can do for them, not “how” you are going to do it. They want to know their money is going to be returned to them (think ROI).
3. Have a list of references or a portfolio.
How many times have you been burned by a contractor only to realize that they had almost no references or portfolio to speak of? Established businesses and freelancers ALWAYS do better than newbies.
Make sure that you have a portfolio of clients with good references. How can you get around this if you don’t have any? Work with non-profits, friends, families and your own sites until you. Compile all these into an awesome looking report and you will close prospects faster than you can handle them.
4. Make sure your sales letters reflect you as a person/company
Sales letters will never go out of fashion, but the key is to be authentic. If you aren’t a pushy sales person than don’t be one in your sales letter. Sending a sales letter just to say hello is totally ok.
I like to incorporate SEO right into my own sales letters. I often send 30 page reports to prospects that I think will be interested, examining their site against their competitors. When they get a thick envelope like that they always open it AND I have added value before we even talked for the first time.
5. Explain your systems and procedures
More explaining? Yes. Not only should you explain SEO as a whole, but explaining how you are different is very important. You can only do this once your systems are set in place.
If you add these five basic ideas into your sales process, you will be surprised at how many more clients you will close. Just remember to appreciate your clients. Without them you would not be able to work in this amazing industry of SEO.
Before you go wasting another dime on Search Engine Optimization try Pay for Performance Search Engine Optimization. Pay ONLY for results.
Posted under SEO
This post was written by Mike Shreeve on February 6, 2012

