Why or why do they pretend to be a potential client?

So i get calls from people who want to try us out and send some freelance seo work our way.

Then they want to know exactly how i do things and whether i outsource, i get grilled then they say well i know about seo, i do it myself and im made to look like an idiot because their trying to trick me.

Does this happen to you too? Do you reveal your methods to potential clients, no and i dont want to tell them but they wont go any further without knowing all the ins and outs so they can trust us.

So im caught in a catch 22.

Does this happen to you and how do you deal with it?

Thanks in advance

If they need to know real details (not fluff) of your work, instead of worrying about how much money you can bring them, they 're not interested in hiring you. Fire them and concentrate on others.

Trolls are everywhere, not just BHW

Seriously, it happens in EVERY business. Competition sniffing around, trying to get an edge. Don't let it bother you.

It would happen if you were selling cars, houses, anything...

Tell them you have your own methods proven over time. Tell them also that the methods are changing all time time along with the Google algorithms.
If somebody is asking you difficult SEO questions that can mean two things.
1. He is worried that his website could be harmed somehow from unproven methods and he want to avoid this. In this case you can just ashure him that the methods are save and his website will not be harmed, but opposite will raise rankings.
2. He just want to learn for free some methods and start using them. That case is easy to recognize because they are asking too many questions in detail. half of those people will never pay you for SEO work, but the other half can be convinced that they dont have the needed knowledge to do anything complete and help their websites, so you can convince them to buy without revealing any sensitive information.

just my 2 cents

Happens almost everybody in Social Media Market
And every time i give them fair treatment

When I worked in the auto industry, this was a very common practice. It was effective in a learning environment as we were told to go in teams to look at cars at other dealerships to see how the salesman sold, closed and turned us to management. This same type of this happens in SEO as well. You'll learn to recognize it pretty quickly and be able to get off the phone to save yourself time without being rude to them just in case they are serious about hiring you.

Companies do not reveal trade secrets.:sgrin: