An SEO Gets Shopped

June 11, 2008

This post goes back in time to when we first began to domination all searches related to SEO and internet marketing in Tucson. We are were just begining to emerge nationally as a force to reconed with in the SEO industry in the US. I will interject some points as I go.

If you have been any business long enough a competitor will dial you up on the tele or, as the lazy ones do they send a email to get the shopping going. They always start the conversation off by inquiring about the fees that you charge. This is especially true if your product or service pricing is not posted on your website. One must be quick and clever to determine who is a real potential client and who is a competitor trying to acquire your pricing structure.

The shopper is rarely an established player in your industry, but the could be. This is where I love to being to direct the conversation to where I am the inquirer. The shopper usually doesn’t have a website yet or they are in the process of acquiring a business that has an existing website. Then there is the new kid on the block who starts of with “I have a client.” That may be true or they are breaking into the business and bidding on a job and that are looking for pricing guideience.

I don’t have a problem with this at all. I have done this hundreds of times over the decades myself so I am very familuar with the sport and I play it well!. When someone calls I’m a very good judge of who is real and who is not or at least I have convienced myself that’ this is so.

Another clear giveaway is if someone starts off by asking a whole bunch of questions without identifying themselves first, you can almost be certain that you are being shopped.

If they pause or stumble when you ask these questions you know you’re being shopped.

• What is the domain name?
• What is your business?
• What do you want your website visitor to do on your website?
• Who are you trying to market?

If the visitor hesitates on any of these questions you can be sure that your time is being wasted by a shopper. However, those who are skilled shoppers may be prepared for these questions. They are a little harder to catch. After all I role play the call many times before I shop a business. If you know how to ask the right questions it can be easy.

If someone seems more interested in pricing then anything else in the conversation I explain that everything starts with a website review and that a paid service. I then ask them to email me from their website to get the ball rolling or something to that effect. If they are a serious inquiry they will email while you’re talking. If they make excuses, at this point, you know this is a waste of time and I quickly end the call. If they ask you why this is needed you can state its company policy to assure that this is a genuine sales call.

I mention this because I got shopped today by someone from the San Francisco Bay area code. We have just started targeting the area in advance of our new website launch. So I have been expecting these types of calls.

Sometimes the caller jumps right into the deep end of the pool from the get go. They asked if we did page titles, page descriptions, Meta tags, and ALT tags and what we charged. Well, nothing like cutting to the chase. What they didn’t realize is that real customers don’t talk like that. They just want to acquire search traffic and had read that SEO is the way to go. They don’t generally understand how we do what we do.

That’s was 2 years ago and things have changed dranatically. Callers  inquiring about our services are smarter and more aware about the process of SEO. When I began this business back in 2007 things were much different as far the the potential client knowledge of SEO. The responce was mostly “I read something on a blog like you need SEO to rank well, but that’s all that I know.

Yesterday, I was being shopped by an inexperienced shopper I thought I would have a little fun. It started with the basic questions I mentioned previously, and of course they didn’t have a website. They went on to explain that they wanted to market to the 48 states and that he was going to be selling computer parts.

Well, our website is very clear that we don’t provide service for highly competitive markets that are national. I went on to explain that if his market was local we would gladly consider him as a client. I further explained that we only take on clients that when know going in can benefit greatly from our services.

Trying to take a website that sells computer parts nationally to the first page of Google is not a challenge that we will undertake. While I noted that it can be accomplished given enough time and money but that it was not anything that we wanted to be involved with. Its just not our market.

This person quickly became very defensive and started talking SEO slang and started to explain how it could be accomplished. I thought this guy is so clueless that he is being played and he doesn’t even know it. Then he started talking about Page Rank. I have never had a client or potential client that knows what Page Rank is. Now this person is talking straight-up SEO shop talk. To this day I have never had a real potnetial client know anything about Page Rank this was so obvious that I could barely contain my laughter

Since I had flushed him out the conversation needed to end. I politely ended the conversation by informing him that we don’t work on these kinds of sites and moved on. I have become very skilled at ending a conversation quickly and abruptly when I have finally gotten bored.

The moral of the story is if you’re going to shop someone get the story straight first and don’t sound like you know so much that you really don’t need my help. If this caller knew about page titles, Meta tags, page descriptions, and ALT tags then why would they need me?

With the economic slowdown like many I have had sometime on my hands. When I get shopped these days I am more likely to get up on a soapbox an give a long winded lesson on who we provide ethical services based only on the specific needs of each client. I go into great detail about our manual link building program Called Scratch My Back Marketing.

I also provide a detailed explaination about our website review. I gouing throught just about every step in our processes for our client. I provide them a map, a oral blueprint of how to provide services that assure that the clents needs are assured. If by change it tuurns out that it an actual potential client then they will certianly know that they are dealing with a professional.

For the shopper, I am an unashamed braggard. My attitude is, and I express to whomever I am speaking with. When I simply stae “the difference between myself and most other SEO providers is that we simply this; I like to think that I work smarter and I put in more hours at this than they do.” If you are willing to do what it takes you will succeed. I also remind my inquirer of our monthly ranking report. I also never fail to mention that we have never failed to get a client onto the first page of the Google results (pause for effect) multiple keyword phrases.

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