You’ve heard of people who are so good at sales that they could sell ice to an Eskimo, water to a fish, and prescription glasses to a blind man. Every business wants to hire such a vendor for their products or services. Big sales makers like this are invaluable to companies that have them.
For many companies, the sell-at-all-costs approach can often bite back. The good salesperson is doing their job, but a problem arises when the products or services don’t live up to the sales rhetoric to entice the buyer. It is the result of a seller overselling and overpromising but the products or services do not (or cannot) meet the buyer’s expectations.
This frequently happens with search engine optimization companies. It’s easy to tell people what they want to hear: “19 days to #1!” “Ranked in the top three!” fulfill that promise. In a previous article I debunked top ranking SEO guarantees. Others in the industry have discussed this quite extensively and even Google has chimed in with their own statement, saying “no one can guarantee a number 1 ranking.” There are still plenty of “SEO” companies that insist they will magically get your site to appear in the number one position. The truth is, they could actually pull this off, but for keywords that no one is really searching for, or for a very limited time until your site gets banned in the process. And if the SEO doesn’t deliver on these promises, he or she will simply point out the many loopholes that are spelled out in fine print in the contract.
The SEO industry is aggressive; the motive of every SEO is to convince potential customers that the services he or she provides are above those offered by competitors. This is why so many hype with the promise of spectacular results that may or may not be achievable. Few SEOs go out of their way to provide a truthful assessment of what is possible and on what kind of timeline. New sites will take a year or more. Competitive industries require a larger budget. And, poor websites… well, top rankings can be achieved, but you may need to make drastic changes if you want to improve conversions.
SEOs who are honest with potential customers find that they lose many who are looking for a quick fix, instant results, or a guarantee. But they’ll also find that those who become customers have a better understanding of what’s at stake, how long it will take, and what kind of results to expect. And if you’re honest and capable, you’ll always be able to meet and often exceed customer expectations.
My company strives to inform our clients that we set benchmarks for achievement during the first year of their campaign. Currently, 70% of our clients are performing better than expected and more than 80% are performing at or above expectations. Yes, that means 20% are currently performing below expected levels, but this is not necessarily a failure rate. It actually reflects the percentage of clients that are not performing as well as we hoped, but many of them have shown significant improvement in targeted traffic and ROI since the start of the campaigns.
But this is something most SEOs won’t tell you, especially those who make pie-in-the-sky claims. They know they have oversold their service and have largely underperformed. When our clients call to inquire about their ranking performance, we give them an honest assessment, including letting them know if we think they should perform better. We are also letting you know that your site is being aggressively scrutinized, tweaked and linked and we hope that you will soon be up and running at or above benchmark levels. We are rarely wrong.
We are guided by the Scottie Principle, based on Scottie from the original Star Trek series, which is about underestimating your abilities and then achieving superior results. While the client may expect certain results in higher rankings, they can achieve more if you actually helped them increase their sales and ROI. If you can do that, top search engine rankings don’t matter as much because the client is busy handling the new sales they get as a result of optimization and marketing efforts.
SEOs don’t need to go overboard by making promises and raising expectations beyond their ability to deliver. Those who educate clients, provide a truthful assessment of expectations, and then work aggressively to achieve results beyond those expectations will find that they have to worry less about getting their next client to replace the three that just left. Instead, the focus can be on developing and maintaining a strong, profitable relationship with each client for years to come.
You’ve heard of people who are so good at sales that they could sell ice to an Eskimo, water to a fish, and prescription glasses to a blind man. Every business wants to hire such a vendor for their products or services. Big sales makers like this are invaluable to companies that have them.
For many companies, the sell-at-all-costs approach can often bite back. The good salesperson is doing their job, but a problem arises when the products or services don’t live up to the sales rhetoric to entice the buyer. It is the result of a seller overselling and overpromising but the products or services do not (or cannot) meet the buyer’s expectations.
This frequently happens with search engine optimization companies. It’s easy to tell people what they want to hear: “19 days to #1!” “Ranked in the top three!” fulfill that promise. In a previous article I debunked top ranking SEO guarantees. Others in the industry have discussed this quite extensively and even Google has chimed in with their own statement, saying “no one can guarantee a number 1 ranking.” There are still plenty of “SEO” companies that insist they will magically get your site to appear in the number one position. The truth is, they could actually pull this off, but for keywords that no one is really searching for, or for a very limited time until your site gets banned in the process. And if the SEO doesn’t deliver on these promises, he or she will simply point out the many loopholes that are spelled out in fine print in the contract.
The SEO industry is aggressive; the motive of every SEO is to convince potential customers that the services he or she provides are above those offered by competitors. This is why so many hype with the promise of spectacular results that may or may not be achievable. Few SEOs go out of their way to provide a truthful assessment of what is possible and on what kind of timeline. New sites will take a year or more. Competitive industries require a larger budget. And, poor websites… well, top rankings can be achieved, but you may need to make drastic changes if you want to improve conversions.
SEOs who are honest with potential customers find that they lose many who are looking for a quick fix, instant results, or a guarantee. But they’ll also find that those who become customers have a better understanding of what’s at stake, how long it will take, and what kind of results to expect. And if you’re honest and capable, you’ll always be able to meet and often exceed customer expectations.
My company strives to inform our clients that we set benchmarks for achievement during the first year of their campaign. Currently, 70% of our clients are performing better than expected and more than 80% are performing at or above expectations. Yes, that means 20% are currently performing below expected levels, but this is not necessarily a failure rate. It actually reflects the percentage of clients that are not performing as well as we hoped, but many of them have shown significant improvement in targeted traffic and ROI since the start of the campaigns.
But this is something most SEOs won’t tell you, especially those who make pie-in-the-sky claims. They know they have oversold their service and have largely underperformed. When our clients call to inquire about their ranking performance, we give them an honest assessment, including letting them know if we think they should perform better. We are also letting you know that your site is being aggressively scrutinized, tweaked and linked and we hope that you will soon be up and running at or above benchmark levels. We are rarely wrong.
We are guided by the Scottie Principle, based on Scottie from the original Star Trek series, which is about underestimating your abilities and then achieving superior results. While the client may expect certain results in higher rankings, they can achieve more if you actually helped them increase their sales and ROI. If you can do that, top search engine rankings don’t matter as much because the client is busy handling the new sales they get as a result of optimization and marketing efforts.
SEOs don’t need to go overboard by making promises and raising expectations beyond their ability to deliver. Those who educate clients, provide a truthful assessment of expectations, and then work aggressively to achieve results beyond those expectations will find that they have to worry less about getting their next client to replace the three that just left. Instead, the focus can be on developing and maintaining a strong, profitable relationship with each client for years to come.