Meeting my first seo client tomorrow

thelenny

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So I've been a member of BHW for about 2 months now and I got a lot of ideas from the forum. I've been plugging away and I finally got a call back from a potential client who needs website design and SEO services. I plan to outsource all the work if I clinch the contract. I just wanted to know how I should prepare myself for the meeting, what points I should keep in mind. Also any links where I can outsource the SEO & web design (not too expensive) would be appreciated. The niche has very low competition so am considering using fiverr.
 
Theelenny
First thing which you should do is to talk about non-work related stuff for 5 minutes.
Dress professionally..This will create good first-time impression.
Don't try to woo him by using technical jagron, rather show him what you could do...
For example, inform him about latest SEO stuff like Google authorship, page speed, star rating and tell him you will be doing all this things to ensure he stays ahead in the crowd....

Listen to your client carefully, and try to understand how much he knows, and how much he needs to be educated...Do remember, your goal and only goal is to turn him into the client...
Best of luck!!
 
It would be a good idea to know exactly what you re selling before you meet the client right???

How are you going to know what prices and options to offer clients if you still aren't sure of what you are going to be offering.

You will be shooting yourself in the foot if you go in not prepared.
 
go back to your folder and study up on the client and the niche. Dont overdo or overthink it - a rule of thumb, the longer you wait to call, the harder it will get and the more you will want to prepare yourself, only to let it slip through your fingers. Failure is not an option! BullSh!t Failure will almost be certain, unless your extremely lucky, made the prepwork so good that even with a bad start the prospect wants to know more or your just a freak of natur -an ubermensch. Have this in mind: you have one goal and one goal only with the callback - Setting up a face to face meeting (be it in person, gotomeeting, skype or whatever makes you able to directly communicate with the prospect). The less you talk and more focus on getting the meeting, the better.

7. The meeting: write down questions that actually makes sense to ask in order to make the best actionplan possible for the client. You need to max out all the details of ensuring the best possibe meeting. Send your own branded whitepaper provided in this tread, to prep the prospect. Here your delivering the perfect reciprocation item: "I have studied some of the sharpest minds in online and offline marketing, gathered some of the freshest reports and summarised them in this report. This report is normally $ 200, but since I want us to be on the same page for the meeting I have enclosed it as a gift to you. blah blah blah"




Suit and tie, polo and chinos, hawaian shirt and shorts - dress properly. Sidenote: clean nails Study the material again and get some more questions ready. [...............] Paretos law 80/20: 80 listen / 20 talk.




You have two main focuspoints
# make them really FEEL the bad reviews, put them in the right mood, make them sick.
# give them the remedy, the benefits, the solution to their problem.


Again, DONT go into to techtalk. 7878 said it so many times: dont focus on the HOW, focus on the WHY. That applies to all aspects of selling, so the more you train on this, the better you will close. When discussing the pricing: you've already made the guy feel really sick to his stomach and you provided the medicine, he feels better and sees the light in the tunnel. How much is it worth to him? A sh!tload, in that moment. Up front money and a monthly - dont be shy, your doing this guy a favor - your his hero! How can I defend the monthly cost? You shouldn't have too, if proper executed (read sold). But it all boils down to perceived value: your making the tested and proved sketches for the graphical material (actual value), the hosting of a reviewsite (actual value), the tested html code sequence (actual value), your training of the staff/owner (value), your weekly or mothly reports etc etc etc etc. AND! should you want to spice it up: strengthen the owners notion of perceived value and deliver some actual actionable value (either as a bonus or as an upsell / better go upsell with discount - "normally this mobile landing page costs $ 395 setup and $ 69 / month. Just pay me the setup fee and I will add it to your reviewhostingplatform". You just gave incredible value, heavily discounted.)


8. Closing: Ok, you didnt fail totally, the prospect wants to become a client. Now what? Dont leave that meeting without a written commitment, either by cash/cheque/napkin agreement. The prospect is in the exact right mood, you want them hooked NOW, a few hours later they will have forgotten everything, now you have the momentum - finalise! Already set up the next meeting and make plans to prep the staff/customers. The less left hanging in the air, the better.


9. Execution: depending on the niche and client, the battleplan should be laid out based on the meeting and Q&A. 7878s general battleplan is a no-brainer, should be made the base of everything you plan to do for the client. Does it stop there? Why should you charge a monthly? First off. This is rehabilitation and prevention. Rehab in the sense that knowing which parts of the bad reviews reoccur time and time again = fix, prepping the staff and keep training them to get better and better to pinpoint the right kind of reviewers, prepping the customers (what will up the conversion), report bad and good reviews (let them know when things are going good). Add additional value(see above). (example: A customer wrote something bad on the Facebook wall of the client - you know this cuz your monitoring all your clients. You inform and give suggestions to neutralise the situation - maybe even upsell an additional service of handling their FB responses). And all the 100s of other things you can do to keep the client happy.


10. No calls: Something obviously went wrong. 0/20 in response is a no way. This is why you need to call. Dont even consider the first few calls a "sell". You are seriously concerned that some a$$hole at the postoffice went mental and shot up offices instead of delivering this priceless package. "blah blah... just calling to check up on whether or not you have received a mysterious package filled with bad kharma." Yes/No. "Great, when would you be able to meet up to discuss the proper action in this matter?"... He would prolly go into defensive mode "Hold your horses, im not signing up to anything!". Ok, time to start asking questions and S T F U and listen. Meeting booked or another bankrupt company in the making (anyone who doesnt even want to meet to at least suck out all information in such a serious matter is surely a retardo).

Source: http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/offline-marketing/354896-22-letters-17-000-profit-3-weeks.html
 
Yep, Fiverr will do the trick if you want to make this customer your first and last SEO customer.
 
When in an interview it is much harder to lie to the person, so just try to sell yourself and the abilities you have. Don't oversell yourself. You don't want to seem desperate, but you want to show that you care for his/her business and the outcomes he/she want's.

Also throw in something extra for free that will just sweeten the deal for him/her.

Good luck OP.
 
i do not recommend to use fiver as full seo service

Find cheapest seo provider, but with some reputation in here on sales thread

And place +50% and will make some money and get some skills

Otherwise if they will find it works you can offer more powerful seo

they will be happy to pay more get better service resell...

But it just my opinion....
 
everyone has said it already but i'll say it as well, SERIOUSLY? FIVERR? your're going to risk your reputation, or lack of it with your first client by outsourcing to FIVERR?

To be honest, I would cancel because no real seo that works for clients is going to outsource everything, yeah maybe some graphic designs etc but not everything. I had already done 2 years of building my own sites and ranking before I even took on my first client, and the only thing I outsourced was the photoshop stuff, everything else I done myself, cos frankly if anyone goes wrong with the site you can't really be running back and forth with your outsourcers.

Let me ask you something, do you even know how to build a properly structured site? or what about onpage seo is? and if you think it's just title tags, meta tags, then clearly you haven't a clue about seo. If the client knows a thing or two he will see right through you.

Also, what sites have you ranked? sites that you have built? you'll need to show all this via a laptop to your client, to prove to him that you can do what you say. It's no point turning up with a pen and paper cos frankly that just won't cut it.

SOURCE: My own experience.
 
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OP, if outsourcing to Fiverr is your idea of SEO then you should change your user-name to TheLooney
 
don't go and make a bad reputation by outsourcing to fiver. use reputable seo services here on bhw. there are plenty in the marketplace. Your first client may come back if you do get a reputable seo service or they may go and talk about "your" great knowledge and service, bringing you more clients. your first client is crucial.

also there is low cost reputable website designers here as well. you want to make your service appear as the best that the client could find and make the price they are willing to pay more worth while. leave them with the feeling that their money was spent wisely. you will benefit from doing so and so will the client.

if you use a low rep seo service you may end up sinking your business plan in the water before it even begins.

when or if you meet the client make sure that you have studied about their business so that you can pretend to care about their business and also have a good depth of knowledge about it.

also only dress up a bit more than you normally do. that way you don't appear desperate for their money and uncomfortable in the clothing you are wearing.

also best of luck op. hope you get the client's business and take everyone's advice here about outsourcing.
 
I think you should try some seo services from BHW and not from fiverr.good luck with your first client,i hope for the best
 
Just wanted to leave something that might get you going (Plus what twitter.followers have already mentioned).

We already know you'r a noob (you'r not alone, belive me I know nothing about IM) at this but getting the meeting is already a starting point, i don't think you should cancel the meeting, if you don't go you'll never know what it would happened, plus you'll learn more if you go and make mistakes than not going at all.

If you've read over most of the threads people here tries to inspire everyone to take action, so good for you, happy you've made at least part of it, now comes the hard part (for some of us).

That's the Business 101: Selling, for me it's an art, but still nothing that can't be thought, and the best way you can at least test the waters and start thinking about closing the deal is "What's you'r client looking for?"

He already wanted to talk with you, so you've done something right on that part, now imagine you'r him, imagine you'r the owner or manager of the business you'll meet tomorrow. What would you ask if you were him?

Doing this you'll try to understand the needs, what he might be looking for and start targeting that. Do some research about other businesses related to the niche and see what they are doing.

Write down what you have imagined he might ask you and above it all try to get answers to all those questions, doesn't need to be technical language, try to understand if you'd buy that service for yourself if you were the one buying..


Be honest about it and on a face to face conversation my advise is to forget the fake it till you make it, because that will only bring bad business for you in the future.

Hope this helped and try to be as calm and prepared as you can, a good night rest is always advised too.

Once again, Congratulations on taking the action and hope you close the deal, don't forget to keep us posted on it.

Good luck,
Cheers
 
I would experiment more with your own websites and learn how to do this more before you go out and sell people $100's of dollars a month on a service you provide.

You will lose customers quick and waste time and money if you don't know how to get real results that provide value
 
Since you asked for our help there's 2 things needed here:

1. Have you considered any of our advise?

2. How did it go with the client? Have you closed it or what?

Cheers
 
How did the meeting go? Did you close the deal or did the client know more than you about SEO and laugh you out of the door?
 
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