In my last post http://massa.techndu.com/2007/11/09/TheSEOGuruExposesTheWorstSEOSalesAdviceOfAllTime.aspx
I told you:
I’ll show you some of the top qualifying
statements you should look for
So as I began
making my notes for the post I quickly realized that there are just about as
many qualifying statements as there are prospects. To me it makes more sense to try to explain
the “concept” of identifying qualifying questions instead of trying to give
exact examples.
If I give you
exact statements, then you hear some variation of that statement, you may not
realize you are hearing the same thing as I had pointed out and miss an
opportunity to serve someone who needs your help, (that’s sales speak for make
more money). So, I’m going to use an example that if you have not heard some
variation of yet, you will!
I
know all about SEO
The client
calls you up and very early in the conversation he tells you he has done a lot
of SEO and has done well but he wants someone to get him a little higher.
Notice he didn’t say he knows a lot about link
building or social media
optimization or anything specific. He said he knows a lot about SEO.
I apologize
if you think I keep “harping” on this but it is just soooo important. Satisfying
your client’s needs and desires, (again, sales speak for making more money), is
more about LISTENING than about talking.
So, what is this client really
telling us?
If he knows
so much about SEO and has done well but wants someone to get him higher, isn’t
that a contradiction? If he knows it and has done well, why is talking to you? Obviously he doesn’t know that much about it
and/or has not done that well. So, do we want to accuse the prospect of being a
liar? Or do we want to understand what he is REALLY telling us?
Go ahead,
accuse him of lying and see how far you get. If you do that, do yourself a
favor. Get the want ads out and find yourself another job because you couldn’t sell
a free buffet to the Rosie O’Donnell fan club !
He’s telling
you he doesn’t TRUST you. He’s telling you that he doesn’t know much about SEO
and that his efforts are not producing the results he wants but that he’s read
the horror stories and all the bad press our industry seems intent on providing
and he is telling you that if you try to cheat him he will catch you.
Of course if
he could really catch a cheating SEO, he wouldn’t have said something like this
in the first place. He said it because he is telling you he doesn’t understand
the process, he is concerned that you could use knowledge you have that he
doesn’t to take advantage of him and he’s telling you he’s scared of being
ripped off and made to feel foolish.
The Easiest
Prospect in the World to Close
He is also
telling you that he is the easiest prospect in the world to close if you can just
overcome the trust objection. He is telling you that just making the decision to call was difficult because in some ways it is like admitting he can't do something. He is telling you that he does not relish having to keep looking and he is hoping you can be the one so he can stop looking. Anytime you can identify a statment from a prospect that tells you he has a trust objection, he is telling you all these things and making your job much easier.
In fact, I
chose this single qualifying statement as a conceptual example because the trust
objection is the single biggest factor in lost sales for online promotion
services. If you never learn to “hear” any qualifying statements other than
this one, your numbers will jump dramatically without any more expense in
advertising or promotion IF you overcome the trust objection.
The Easiest
Way to Overcome the Trust Objection
There has
long been a heated debate within the industry regarding SEO guarantees. Conventional
wisdom seems to be that there are no guarantees in SEO.
http://www.internetmarketingherald.com/2007/03/03/seo-guarantees/
http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/archives/2006/09/seo_too_simple.html
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291
I certainly
do agree that no one can guarantee specific placements on a specific search
engine other than the search engine itself, but I also believe that anyone can
guarantee their performance.
Back in 2004 in
a discussion about SEO guarantees at searchenginewatch, I said:
***************************
Stop thinking in terms of guaranteeing
positions or even return. Think more in terms of what you can control and what
expected benefit that gives to the customer. For some broad examples:
**We will review your
keyword selection and perform 3 hours of research. When completed we will send
you a report to review. If we have not completed this task within 10 days of
your order, you will be entitled to a full refund.**
**We will build 10 pages with up to 500 words of text and send you the
completed pages for your approval. We will have this done within 30 days of
cheerfully refund your money**
Start thinking more in those kinds of terms and the task of
putting your client at ease becomes easier. Remember this though.
If THEY offer a guarantee and you don't, your sales could suffer. THEY have the
competitive edge. There is a reason most businesses offer a guarantee. As
someone else stated earlier, IT HELPS SALES. Consumers expect a certain level
of commitment from the provider that they will actually get the value they
think you are selling. You expect it, I expect it and to not assume your
potential customers expect it, is basically forcing them to my doorstep reading
my billboard, (me being your competitor of course). http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?threadid=1429
******************************
Back in ’97
and ‘98 I could literally place in the top 10 of Infoseek, Alta Vista, Excite
and Hot Bot, within 48 hours, (those were popular search engines back in the 90’s for those of
you who aren’t old fart SEO’s http://searchengineland.com/). I did it time and time again and by ’99 I had done it enough
times that I started offering the net’s best SEO guarantee.
·
Top 20 Search Engine Placement Service
Best Guarantee on the net. We will place you in the top 20 of the
major search engines and you don't pay a dime until we do!
Of course things changed and placing in 48 hours became a
little more difficult even for the SEO Guru, (it can still be done but #1 I don’t
guarantee it anymore and #2 it costs a LOT more than it did back then), so that
guarantee had to be modified. We now offer to refund every dime paid to us if
we can not prove and fully satisfy you within the first 30 days that we do what
we say we will do. Whether we are working for a single client or an SEO firm as
a wholesaler, we will provide detailed weekly reports, we will deliver strategy
proposals that must be approved and we will review the project at least once a
month to make sure the project is producing. http://outsource.techndu.com/seo_guaranteed.html
If you really can do what you say you will do within the
confines of their budget and your costs, (those are the types of qualifying
questions you need to find out from them and we’ll talk more about that in an
upcoming post), then all you need to do is get the prospect to give you the
chance to prove it. The easiest way to do that is with an honest, iron clad
guarantee that can eliminate the prospects fears that he may be taken
advantage of.
Just remember that every statement a prospect makes is telling
you something about his needs or desires, what he thinks is a fair price he can
afford and what he thinks is a value proposition but if you are talking instead
of listening, you’ll never hear it and you’ll waste their time and yours.
Next, time I'll tell you how to identify closing questions or "how to tell when it is time to poop or get off the pot".
You kids be quiet! Gunsmoke is comin’ on
Peace y’all
The SEO Guru