On occasion, people ask me how Peak District SEO manages to stay so busy despite being a small company. There’s no secret to it really, except I always try to be myself, as opposed to what people expect me to be as a company director.
I couple that with techniques taught to me by business coach, Mark Self, about putting in processes.
When a lead approaches me, I immediately investigate them. Not to be a creepy snooper but to evaluate whether working with this lead could benefit both my business and theirs, or whether it’s going to be one of those difficult projects or even possibly one of those nightmare clients.
Questions to ask when evaluating a lead
- Are they the type of person/business I want to work with?
- Do they have any credibility in their field?
- Have they been in business for a while?
Are they the type of person/business I want to work with?
When considering whether they are the sort of people I want to work with, I try to look beyond subjective snobbery. I don’t choose clients based on how much money they make or have made previously. Their revenue can be a positive indicator, but can also be a negative one, which actually requires more consideration than just face value accounts judgement. Gender, ethnicity, and physical ableness are never a factor.
More importantly to me, is this person I’m engaging with a decent person? Someone who has noble aims, and wants to either help their family or help society at large by providing a good service that benefits the world. We don’t work with companies whose values are at odds with our own.
- Is the business ethical?
- Could I go for a drink/coffee with this person?
- Will they pay their bills?
- Are they truly interested in their online presence?
- Will they take responsibility for their part of the project?
- Are they open to difficult decisions such as changing the hosting provider or having their site rebuilt?
All of these factors play a part in whether I select a client to work with. Simply because I want my clients to do well, we do not want to clash with clients about issues that will hold up or damage the project leading to lengthy delays and possibly failure of the project.
Do they have credibility in their field?
Has this business got any trust kudos? This isn’t snobbery against startups, We’ve worked with lots of startups. You can still have credibility and qualifications when starting a new business. It’s more about, do they know what they are doing, and do they come across as organised and professional. Is there evidence of them being who they say they are? Do they have case studies? Very often it’s just a case of getting businesses to acknowledge just how credible and trustworthy they actually are. We Brits tend to be overly modest in this department, and so many businesses fail to display their qualifications and accreditations.
How long have they been in business?
As I said before, this isn’t a pre-requisite, but it is a factor to be weighed. The longer the business has been established, the more chance there is of it having stability. Working with people who clearly know their niche and how to deal with suppliers is a bonus and a comforting factor.
I consider the company, their location, the type of products that they sell and how its overall business marketing comes across. Do they have reviews and testimonials? Also, I’m interested in how much effort have they invested in marketing before speaking to me.
If they seem credible, I’ll immediately set up a call. It’s important to be speaking to them before they become distracted by other companies.
In that call, I apply simple rules when discussing the opportunity:
- DO NOT promise the moon on a stick. All projects have limitations, timescales, budgets, etc.
- DO NOT – embellish our capabilities and say you can do page one on Google in a month.
- DO NOT – pander to their egos. If their site is naff, tell them. Just be real. People prefer it.
- Be realistic about the time it might take to improve things and the need for our relationship to be LONG TERM.
Turning Around Leads
With all that done…I get my SEO review in promptly. This helps to make sure the client understands what I’m talking about instead of just sending them an automated report from some SEO software. One of the reasons SEO or PPC can have a high dropout rate is companies, or rather the people booking the service, don’t have a real appreciation of just how long the processes take to get traction and don’t understand that external factors such as budget restrictions and their competitors’ activity can have a strong effect on what we are trying to achieve.
” If you say you’ll deliver a quote within a week and then don’t send it for 3, what does that say about your trustworthiness? “
Following up with the lead after submitting the report is crucial. You have to win their trust early on, otherwise, the job will fail.
If you say you’ll deliver a quote within a week and then don’t send it for 3, what does that say about your trustworthiness?
Well, before you answer that, let’s just say…if you’re offering a service and that’s how you operate, you won’t be getting my business any time soon.
Too many companies take too long to land the lead. If it’s taking weeks, that’s a red flag for me. More often than not, it indicates that the lead company suffers from a lack of decisive leadership, or that you haven’t convinced them of your powers.
Terms are Terms
How many companies have landed a juicy lead only to be haggled with about pricing, payment dates or even working practices? If this is something, you recognise as a marketer, then take some steps to protect your sanity and your business.
There are chancers everywhere and there’s nothing wrong with a little harmless opportunism. But if you’re being asked by clients to drop your rates or provide free work then something is off. Either your terms aren’t clear enough, or people think they can take advantage of your kind nature.
Can you imagine taking your car to the garage for its MOT? You know the cost already because you asked in advance. The average cost of an MOT test for a car in the UK is currently £54.85* at the time of writing.
But when you turn up to collect the car, you say:
“Tell you what, how about 46 Quid? ‘because Daves’ Garage said they could do it for that.” You’d be laughed out of town.
It’s simply not appropriate for people to try to barter with you about price. Furthermore, if you accept this behaviour, it won’t stop there, they will haggle with you on everything.
Let me know if you can relate to these points. I have more I can share but this article is long enough already. Have a great day.
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- The Power of Patience: Why Businesses Should Embrace the Wait for SEO and Paid Advertising Results
- PPC Case Study: How Peak District SEO Drives Stellar Results
- Google Ads for Plumbing Website
I’m Phil Gregory, the MD and founder of Peak District SEO.
I’m an SEO & Google Ads Consultant with 27+ years of experience in I.T and helping UK Businesses improve website performance.
I built my first website in 1998, then I discovered the joys of website optimisation and never looked back.
If you want a no-nonsense, no-hard-sell approach and to actually get your website fixed with a solid, affordable, long-term approach, hit the contact button today.
Peak District SEO is a UK-based Digital Marketing Company.
We help businesses make more money, using traditional Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) , Ai Search / GEO and paid advertising (PPC).
Why Peak District SEO?
27+ years of experience.
80+ 5* reviews on Google
Our customers have hundreds of page one and position 1 rankings, and we can prove it.
We’ve helped hundreds of SMEs in the UK
We have numerous articles published across the web discussing SEO.
We regularly publish case studies about the work we’ve done
Customers trust our service – See our reviews on Google, Trustpilot and Facebook
Our customers have hundreds of page one and position 1 rankings and we can prove it.
