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This is my 11th year selling SEO, and my skills have evolved and gotten so much better each year. But, I’m only as good as my experience. So instead of waiting 11 years to get my level of experience, read my 7 Super Secrets of Selling SEO. These are the things I do every day to make sure my prospects choose my team, and not my competitors.
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#1 Response time is critical.
When a prospective client reaches out to you, your response time is critical for two reasons. One, you have to keep the momentum high because people who are at work have a million other things to do. But, right now their focus is on finding a new SEO team. So respond quickly to every email and message or the client’s momentum could be lost in as quick as an hour or two.
The second reason response time is critical is because you get to build a relationship with the prospective client first. Chances are, this prospect is reaching out to 3-5 other companies for SEO proposals. Most of them won’t get back to the prospect right away. This is where you can take advantage, and build a relationship first.
#2 Face-to-face meetings close deals.
After ten years of closing SEO deals, one thing is obvious: face-to-face sales meetings have a much higher closing rate than sales meetings over the phone. People buy from people, and by getting the chance to meet you face-to-face, you’ve established a much more personal relationship with the client. You can shake hands, get a better vibe for each other, and buildway more trust than you would over the phone.
#3 Proposals should be short and simple.
My proposals use to be 20+ pages long. Not any more! Who the hell wants to read 20 pages of fluffy bullshit about how great you are. They’ll know how great you are when they meet you face-to-face. My proposals are 5 pages or less and very easy to understand.
Download my Killer SEO Contract template
#4 Give them a free audit of their website.
Don’t ever worry about giving too much information away. Your prospect is too busy being a lawyer, real estate agent, or whatever. Even if they tried, 99% of people who are not in our industry couldn’t follow a professional SEO audit to improve the optimization of their site on their own. That would be like you or I trying our own court case.
So, give away the farm. Impress the hell out of your prospects by auditing their website and their competitor’s websites.
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#5 The better you dress, the more you can charge.
Don’t think “better” means a suit and tie. It just means better. So, don’t wear a raggedy t-shirt and F*** You flip flops (unless your Mark Zuckerberg). Dress like a cool nerd. That’s what clients are expecting and that’s what they want to see.
#6 Introduce your team. Sell your rock stars!
People buy from people. People buy personalities, vibes, and gut feelings. So introduce your team. Let them shake hands. Most importantly sell rock stars! Tell your prospect how great Joe is, and how easy he is to work with. Introduce them to Laura, and tell them how easy she is to get a hold of.
#7 Don’t tell them, show them your work.
Telling your prospects about the great work you’ve done is about as effective as telling a buyer how great the car is you want to sell. You need to show it. If you’re in a face-to-face sales meeting show them your work. If they’re on the phone, make them do Google searches so they can see your high ranking clients. Email them links to awesome infographics your team created. Show them all the shares your client’s blog gets.
Conclusion
I guarantee if you follow each of these steps every single time you will close more SEO deals. It’s impossible not to. In fact, here’s a free PDF checklist of the 7 Super Secrets of Selling SEO.
Good luck!