Tuesday, February 14, 2012

From Cold To Sold In One Conversation


How To Sell More Of Your SEO/SMM Services, Easier, and for MUCH More

Before I get into the report, know that you can download this as a PDF from Google Docs.



Businesses of every stripe and color can use much more help in the the SEO/SMM space.  Far too few are gaining the benefits that come from being found in the search engines and being engaged with their markets.

The thing is, I believe that with the global economy the way it still is that we SEO/SMM consultants have a duty to help small businesses.  Think of it like this: No matter where you live in the world, small businesses are probably the number one growth area for new employment.

If you can help a business to make more, then they can hire more people.  More people working means a better economy, which means more people working, and so on.

We, the SEO/SMM consultants, literally have it in our hands to improve our local economies and through that the economies of the countries we live in and through that the globe itself.

However, doing any of that assumes you can do two things:

  1. That you can get business in the first place
  2. That you are charging enough for your client to take you seriously and do what you say they should
What I want to do is show you exactly how you can do both. I want to show you exactly how you can close about 50% of the people (or more) that you talk to as a customer at the same time you are increasing your prices by at least ten or twelve times what you currently charge.

Would you like to do that?  Would you like to close business easier while charging much more?

Read on and I’ll show you how.

 The Paradox Of Price


Lets start by posing this scenario (and there is a reason I’m starting here, stick with me)

I have the keys to two different cars in each hand.  You can have which ever one you want with the agreement that you can not sell it.  You have to keep it and drive it.  When you don’t want it anymore, I get it back.

There are no strings attached, no money you have to pay, I’ll even foot the bill for the insurance.

The two cars are this one:


That’s a Ferrari 458 Italia.  I think you’ll agree that it’s a beautiful car.



Or you can have this one:


That’s a fully loaded, top of the line, Dodge Neon.

Remember, neither car will cost you anything other than the gas you need to drive it, but you can’t sell it.  Which one do you want?

I’ve asked this question at numerous events, speeches, and trainings.  About 75% of the time people will choose the Ferrari.


You probably chose the Ferrari.

Probably, you chose the Ferrari as well.
The other 25% of the time people would choose the Neon only because they didn’t want to appear “ostentatious” or something.  But if I then ask, “really?  you really would rather drive a Dodge Neon over that objectively gorgeous car?  Honestly?  Or are you just saying that to be different?”



The group that initially chose the Neon, when pressed like that, will sheepishly admit that they really would choose the Ferrari.



With that out of the way I’ll ask my next question, “Why did you choose the Ferrari?”



I’ll get answers along the lines of; because it’s a beautiful car, looks amazing, handles like crazy and well, it’s just a better car. Sometimes people will look at me like I’m stupid.  I’ve had people laugh at me and say something like, “hmm, dodge or ferrari?  Are you serious, who wouldn’t choose the Ferrari?”



Even if you’re reading this I have found that with perhaps at most two exceptions, people will readily agree that the Ferrari is the better car, even if they would still choose the Neon because of their situation or what ever.



So why is Ferrari considered the better car?


Could it be that it has:
  • A bigger, more powerful engine?
  • Could it be the better handling?
  • The better interior?
  • The better tires?
  • The better everything?

That then begs the question, “why is everything better?”



The answer is pretty simple and straight forward; because it costs insanely more that’s why!



The Ferrari can be better because it costs so much more.  Think about that with your own pricing. How much more and better value can you provide if you simply charge more?



One more quick story.



Following the 2008 global financial collapse GM had a very difficult time selling their cars.  They tried reducing prices to the point that they hardly made a profit at all and still they couldn’t sell them.



This lead to them ending up in such deep financial trouble that the US government had to bail them out to the tune of tens of billions of dollars just to keep them in business.  Now I don’t want to get into a political discussion about the right/wrong of the government doing that.  Honestly it doesn’t matter to me anymore.  It happened, that’s water under the bridge.



What matters is that it did happen.  GM, in every single solitary ad for every single solitary car they sell talks about how much better their pricing is compared to their competition.



In fact they still sell cars like this today.



They’ll use words in their advertising like “lowest priced car in its class” or they’ll compare the lower price of their car to the higher price of some other manufacturers car.



They are constantly trying to be the low price provider of their cars.  Even Cadillac is sold on the premise that it’s a better, lower priced car than a competing BMW or Mercedes.



This is stupid, beyond idiotic, and now I’m going to show you why.



During the same time period that GM was going out of business and needing a handout from the government (actually multiple governments intervened in GM in several countries) … a car company you may have heard of by the name Aston Martin continued to sell out of every single car they made with a waiting list.  Aston Martin has a starting price well over 6 figures for it’s “low end” car, could not make enough of them fast enough to satisfy the demand.



Aston Martin is one of the most expensively produced cars in the world.



Despite their astronomical prices, at the same time GM was going out of business, Aston Martin had some of the best years in their company history.



The profit margin on the average GM car is in the single digits.  The profit margin on an Aston Martin is estimated around 30%.  So would you rather be the GM of your industry, or the Aston Martin of your industry?



There are two things at play here.
  1. People value more what they pay more for
  2. Things that cost more can have more features and benefits because the person selling the thing has the ability to make it better.

In other words there is a synergistic relationship at play.



If you charge more for your consulting services, your customers will value you more.  Further, because you are charging more, you can do better things for them.



That translates into them actually getting more value as well.



So let me ask you this, “would you rather sell your services based on price like GM and constantly struggle, teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, or would you rather sell cars like Aston Martin and be the envy of your industry, enjoying fat profits and doing great things for your customers?”



Obviously that was a loaded question, but in my mind it’s a fair question.  People that try to be “the low price leader” almost never succeed.  Sooner or later someone will come along and either sell something cheaper than you or else they’ll simply out market you.



Case in point, Kmart and Walmart.  Kmart for most of my childhood was the undisputed king of selling cheap stuff cheap.  Along came Walmart with lower prices and more expansive marketing and now Kmart is struggling to stay in business.



If you’re going to sell based on a low price you are dooming yourself to struggle.



Not only that, as Pete Meyers explains in his post on SEOmoz, “6 Reasons You Need to Charge More”, if you charge a lower price, you can’t possibly succeed with it.  Charging a low price like $25 per hour or something will almost ensure that you experience little else but struggle.



Further, far too many consultants don’t even understand even what the going rates are for what they sell.  Check out this infographic by Ask Your Target Market that shows average pricing by country for SEO/SMM consultants.



Notice how quite a number of people in the US are charging between $2,500 and $5,000 per month.  


You don’t even need very many clients at that kind of pay scale to make a very nice living at the same time you are able to provide incredible value to your clients.  Yes, there is also a large grouping at the cheaper $200 per month range.  However, which would you rather be doing, providing massive value and making a super comfortable living for yourself, or providing little value while you struggle?  I mean really, what can you do for someone for a measly 200 bucks?



So what if you come right out to a potential customer and say, “Look, can you get some other cheap idiot who charges you less than I’m asking?  Yes, you can.  But there is no possible way they can do the same work for you that I can; if for no other reason than because they aren’t charging enough.  


Not only that, let me ask you, are you really willing to trust something like this, which can either generate an enormous number of ready to go leads for you, or do absolutely nothing but suck away your time or money, to some underpriced, underpaid, idiot?  Doesn’t it make much more sense to invest a little more into someone that you know has the ability to produce actual results?”



See how that works.



Here’s the bottom line: I want you to start right now, from this very moment, with the understanding that you are worthy of charging more and that you are going to charge more. I want you to realize that the more you charge, the more value you can bring to your clients which therefore makes charging extra worth it.



However, charging more won’t help you if you can’t get customers, so lets talk about how to do that.  


Actually, let me explain something first.



The entire process can be boiled down like this:



Amount of traffic times lead conversion rate = Number of leads
Number of leads times sales conversion rate = Number of sales



In other words, you first have to get some traffic, then you have to turn that traffic into a lead.  Once they are a lead, you need to get them to become a customer.



Done correctly, that process removes every possible objection, especially the four real objections that anyone might have.  They are:
  • Not in a hurry
  • Can’t afford it
  • Don’t need it
  • Not enough trust

If you do the process of getting traffic, and converting that traffic into a lead the correct way, then three of the four objections are handled before you even have to talk to them to become a customer.



If you then run your sales process the correct way, you eliminate the final objection and basically put your customer on a greased slide that moves them right to you.


Why Do People Go To Visit The Pyramids, The Great Wall Of China, The Eiffel Tower, or the Hoover Dam?



That may seem like an odd question, but it’s very much what I want you to think about when you’re looking for a strategy to generate traffic and convert that traffic into leads.  Allow me to explain what in the world I’m talking about and why the things I listed in the heading matter.



They matter because they are all undeniably great things, things that are “epic” even, and constructed by people.



Other people go to see them because of their greatness.



The very beginning of a strategy for your SEO/SMM practice is to create content that is truly, no joke, no-two-ways-about-it great.



Content that is incredible, awesome, even epic.



Before you moan and groan, stick with me.  



This is NOT some lame article marketing strategy.



You see, most articles that are posted on various blogs, or ezine articles, or something like that are anywhere from 500 to 700 words.  Even articles “guest posted” to other blogs are often little more than 1000 words.



Here’s the problem.



Articles that short don’t generate traffic or links, not really.  They also don’t do much to demonstrate your expertise.  If someone reads something like that it’s too much like everything else they’ve seen or read and thus it has little value.



On the other hand, posts that are much longer … 2700 words plus, that have lots of graphics and visualizations, that have headings, bullet points, numbered items, and so on, are heavily linked to, shared, and passed on.



Things that you create at that length can dig more fully into a subject.



Not only that, but let me show you something:




Articles more than 2500 words in length generate an insanely larger number of inbound links.



This data is compiled across all of my clients across tons of industries.  On average, longer articles are much more linked to.



This spreads notoriety much better.  Here’s the thing.  Articles at this length allow trust to spread.

In other words, you can eliminate one of 4 reasons to not do business with you right out of the gate. Before someone has even contacted you, trust is already being established, your expertise, your ability to do what they need done is already known.



Now, here’s where it gets even more interesting.  If you noticed from the chart above, at 5,000 words the number of inbound links to the article fell off a little bit and recovered when the article was around 8,000 words in length.



You might conclude that you should keep your articles between 2,500 and 5,000 words.  That however would be a mistake as you can see from the chart below:





If you notice, once an article reaches 5,000 words, the number of leads the article can generate jumps upward dramatically!



This means that the longer the article, the more likely a “call to action” for someone to become a lead for your business will work.



Longer articles, (I will sometimes call these “special reports” to make them seem more valuable) plain and simply work better for your business.



This is what I’m talking about with building something great.


Peep Laja, the owner of ConversionXL (a fantastic blog about how to improve your conversion rates) wrote a guest post on Think Traffic, “How To Get Over 50,000 Visits To Your Blog In One Month.”



In that article he talked about how much more often larger articles are linked to.  More importantly, he talks about how to “spread that content” so that as many people as possible hear about it in the best possible context.



This is what I mean when I talk about “content marketing”.  This isn’t some lame, idiotic, “article marketing” thing where you spam a bunch of article directories with B.S. “spun” garbarge to generate links to your website.



If you want to take this to a whole new level, make sure that you are truly producing the content that your market needs and wants.  How do you do that?  Online surveys at forums or your blog for starters.



Kathryn Korostoff, also of Ask Your Target Market, but also the founder of Research Rockstar has an article on “The Voice of the Customer: Find Out What They Really, Really Want.”



By following her advice, you can find out the true wants, desires, problems, and challenges your market is facing.  Now you can create your content centered on that thus helping your content to be received positively by even more people.



This is you being so great, so awesome, that other thought leaders want to link to you, they want to share you content.  They want to be associated with you and your content because that content is so incredible.



However, just creating great content isn’t enough.  People have to see it.  For this to happen there simply isn’t anything better to read than that post/link I gave you above for how to get 50,000 visitors to your blog in one month.



By following the advice there, you can move your content around, let other people know it’s there.  If you truly do focus on creating great content, people in your market will hear about it, read it, and therefore respond to it.



However, Make Sure That Everything You Write Has A Call To Action To Become A Lead!



It does you no good to spend hours upon hours creating something great, then doing the work so that it spreads into people’s hands, if all they need to do is read it and be done.



A good call to action gives people a reason to move from your content and into your “lead funnel” (typically a mailing list) so that you can give them more great content that moves them to become a customer.


Why is original art in a top notch art gallery valuable?



Once again, I want to start by asking you something that may seem like it has little value but actually does, and probably not in the way you are used to reading about.



If you’ve studied marketing at all then you’re familiar with the concept of “framing” where you make sure that your content is framed properly so that people will see the value in it, and therefore in you.

You may have heard about the value difference between art being sold by some dirty guy on a street corner where all you get is the canvas (value of maybe $10) and the art you would buy in an art gallery that is beautifully framed when you take it home.



What I’m talking about here goes far beyond that.



I’m talking about setting people up with the proper perception of you and your services before you are even contacted by them in the first place.



Let me give you an example with this.  I tell pretty much everyone that I am the highest paid SEO/SMM, traffic generation, and sales consultant on the planet.



I say it often, and for some very good reasons.  Doing this does two things.  First, it immediately gets rid of the idiots that are going to try and “get a good deal” or try and negotiate, or do any of a number other things that are a waste of my time by attempting to get me for a cheaper price.



It also attracts real business people, looking for a real expert to help them out.  It attracts people like yourself that want to make more.



In other words I set things up from the very beginning to repel the kinds of customers I don’t want, while attracting the people I do want.  Me telling people that I’m the highest paid consultant of my type creates a very specific kind of impression of me in their mind.



I’m not just framing myself, I am literally getting people to think of me in a certain way all the way down at the subconscious level.



We all know that when it comes right down to it, more expensive = better. While from an intellectual standpoint you might disagree. The fact of the matter is that psychologically everyone actually does make that very distinction.



If I am the most expensive, very nearly everyone will automatically translate that into “he must therefore be the best.”



That is what I’m talking about, and it ties into my earlier example about the Aston Martin.



Now I am not at all saying that you should call yourself the most expensive or the highest paid of anything.  When you say something about yourself it has to be true.  What I’m saying here is that you want to say things about yourself in your content and as part of your call to action, that creates the right kind of perception about you in the mind of your customer.  You want to say things that repels the idiot customers you don’t want, while attracting the great customers you do want.



Not only that, but by charging more, you cause your customers to automatically consider that you must be better.



Jonah Lehrer has an article “The Essence of Pleasure” where he shows how people will automatically perceive a more expensive wine as better tasting than a cheaper wine … even if both were actually the same!



Charging more can literally mean that customers perceive you as better. I have presented at events where people disagreed with me. As a matter of opinion, be my guest. The objective, scientific fact of the matter is that people do consider more expensive items to be better than cheaper items.



Once someone becomes a lead, your process from that point makes sure that people that you don’t want as customers you won’t waste your time on in the first place.  Your lead process needs to further the process of attracting the kinds of customers you do want while repelling the idiots.



And this is where far too many people with an SEO/SMM consultancy practice screw up big time.  


Far too many people will take just any customer that comes their way.  This is a direct result of being “hungry” for business and that is a direct result of not charging enough or attracting the right customers..



You see, when you charge too little, you have to take any jerk or idiot of a customer that comes along.  That means you end up working too hard, for too little, for someone that won’t appreciate what you’re doing for them anyway.



It sucks.



I’ve been there and it literally seemed like every single customer would hire me, not follow any of my advice or do a single thing I said needed to be done, and would then proceed to blame me for the lack of results.



Fortunately, a free report I downloaded some years ago (can’t remember even the title, let alone where I got it or who wrote it) gave an example of a report that was split tested at several different price points.  $19, $97, $197, and lastly all the way up at something like $4,997.  



The up shot was that the people that paid $4,997 got far more value out of the report because when the thing cost so much, the people that bought it took massive action because.  For them, the report had massive value, because they paid so much, and therefore at a subconscious level they had to take action to justify spending so much.



The people that only paid $19 however got nearly zero benefit out of the report even though it was the exact same thing.  They paid next to nothing, therefore the information was worth next to nothing, which means no one really felt a need to take action.



When you charge more, your customers will value you more.  They will therefore listen more to your advice and do what you recommend which means they will actually get more value.



That article I referenced regarding wine prices from Jonah Lehrer proves this point.  If you charge more, there is no question that your clients will value your services greater.



On your side it also means that you’re making enough that you get to choose who you do business with.  You get to do business with people you will enjoy having as a customer; and that means you’ll enjoy your business that much more.


So lets finally talk about how to make more sales!



At this point you’re creating great content that builds trust and drives people into your lead funnel.

Now lets talk about some psychological magic that is some of the coolest stuff ever.



Like I said earlier, there are only 4 reasons that someone won’t buy from you.
  1. The don’t need it
  2. They don’t trust you
  3. They can’t afford it
  4. They aren’t in any hurry to buy it

That’s it.  Those are the only four reasons someone won’t buy from you.



When you generate leads the way I just explained, you have automatically eliminated two of the reasons.  They’ll have at least some trust (but I’m going to give you a process that will psychologically require a deeper level of trust), and because they’ve taken the time to consume some very long content of yours you also know that they need it.  No one is going to read multiple reports and articles with lengths over 3,000 words unless they need the information.


No one asks for help from people they don’t trust … no one.



Let me tell you put you into a situation.



Lets pretend that it’s the middle of the night.  You’re on a long windy road up in the mountains and your car has broken down.  You haven’t seen another car for hours and you don’t have any cell signal so you can’t call for help.  The last town was hours away and you know from the signs that the next one is several hours more down the road.



Worse, it’s subzero temperatures outside and the wind is howling.  You know that if you were to try and walk the distance you would surely freeze to death.



You think you’ve gotten lucky when you see some headlights in your rear view mirror pull up behind you.  The “car” is a 1970s model panel van with no side windows.  It’s making a ton of racket and backfires.  From the drivers site gets a mountain of a man with a dirty face and unkempt beard.  The light in the cab of the van reveals multiple rifles.  As he approaches your car you can see a small axe handle poking out from his jacket on one side and the barrel of some higher caliber pistol poking out from under his jacket on the other side.



As he gets to your window he asks in a voice with gravel in it, “You need some help?”



Preciously few men would take that guys help, and not a single woman I have ever presented this situation to said they would.



Lets instead change who pulls up behind you.  Instead of an old rattle-trap van, it’s a brand new BMW.  The person that gets out is wearing a suit.  He pulls out a nice overcoat as he gets out and wraps it around himself.



That guy walks up to the window and says, “I’m headed home from the doctors convention, do you need a lift at least to the next town so you can call for help?”



Nearly every single person has said they would except that offer.  The reason is simple.  The person appears upstanding and respectable.  There is an air of being trustworthy about that person partly because they explained that they were an authority (a doctor or at least gave that inference) and they explained what they were doing there.  You know from the car that they will probably have no trouble getting you to additional help.



Here’s the thing.  The instant you mentally agree to accept help from that person, something known as a “minimal trust level” is established.  It is automatic, it is unavoidable, it is a psychological fact that this will happen.  You may still be cautious, but there will still be some trust established.



No one asks for help, or even accepts it, from someone they can’t trust.



This is a very important thing to understand.  So, lets talk about your call to action again in your content again real quick.



Your call to action needs to include something that says “Do you need to learn <insert what you teach when they join your mailing list> to help your business make more?”



Do you see how I worded that?  I asked if they needed to learn.  It requires that at a subconscious level they are effectively asking for your help.  If your content has been created properly, if it really is great content, then you are the guy in the BMW with the nice suit.



If your content stinks, then you’re the guy in the rattle-trap van.



You want to make sure that when the correct situation arises you have demonstrated that you should be the person they ask for help from.


Become an LDS’er



In this case I’m not talking about “LDS” in the context of the Mormon religion.  However, I mention the Church of Later Day Saints (or LDS) on purpose to serve as a mnemonic for you; a way to help you remember the “LDS” letters.



LDS in this case referes to “Listen, Diagnose, and Serve”.  It is such a powerful method of turning leads into customers that if I told you the results I got with it personally you wouldn’t believe it.  So instead of talking about results, let me explain the LDS sales process to you.



If you are going to help a consulting client you are going to need to know two things.
  1. What are their goals
  2. Why can’t they reach their goals on their own.

Once you have that information, the LDS process involves literally repeating it back to them.



In the “L” or “Listen” part, you’re simply listening to them tell you their goals and what issues they have obtaining their goals on their own (this also creates a subconscious “without your help” which means they are asking for you help and increasing their trust in you)..



In the “D” piece of the system you are going to diagnose the problem … by simply parroting back to them what they said their problems were.  You will finish with “Did I get that right?”



If you repeated back what they said, they’ll say yes.  Trust increases subconsciously and automatically.  Again this is not something they can help, it’s automatic.  The reason it increases trust is that they are agreeing that you know what their problem is.


You are doing something in the real of "neuro-linguistic programming" called "establishing rapport."



You have demonstrated to them through your content that you know what you’re talking about and now they are agreeing that you know their problem. Once you establish this sense of rapport it literally pulls your potential customer to you.



At this point, you move into the longest part of the process, the “Serve”.  For that you need four specific strategies you can just give them that they can use to achieve their goals.  After each strategy, you explain how that strategy gets them more customers.  You finish with “Do you see how getting more customers this way helps you get closer to your goals?”



That’s a stupid question and nearly always the answer is “of course.”  The reason for doing this, is that you actually are serving them freely and without questions asked.  However, four times they have to admit that what you are telling them they need to do will help them reach their goals.



During this phase, you tell them WHAT they need to do, freely and without strings attached.  You don’t tell them HOW to do it, only what they should be doing.  This way, even if they don’t end up doing business with you, they have obtained incredible value from speaking with you.  They’ll talk fondly about you to any other business associates they have and very often they’ll refer you to someone else.



Not only that, but almost always they’ll come out and say, “but we don’t know how to do that” or perhaps “we don’t have the time to do it ourselves.”



That’s great when it does happen.  You see, this whole situation is designed to eliminate all four possible reasons they won’t buy from you.



It’s why I talked about setting things up from the very beginning to attract the right kind of customer.



So what is the “right kind of customer”?

  1. Someone that can easily afford the value you bring
  2. Someone that will massively benefit from the value you bring
  3. Someone that will implement what you suggest to the fullest possible extent to obtain the most value.

If you focus on attracting that kind of customer, then you know they can afford it.



There is one final piece of the “Serve” portion and that is to have them obtain your services so that you actually can bring them incredible benefit.  Remember, that you actually do your customers and yourself a disservice by charging too little.  If you charge to little, they won’t value your service and therefore won’t fully implement which means they won’t obtain the full value.



You have to charge enough that they fully and completely understand the value of your service.



The issue however is the “not in a hurry” objection.



I still haven’t explained how you overcome that one.



You start with a price that is really to the point of being astronomically high for your service.  


However, if they will complete an order, literally while on the phone (just send them an invoice using Google Checkout or PayPal), then you’ll cut the price in half and break that price into 4 payments.



Tell them (and this is true) that you can work with more customers if the people you work with are decisive business owners.  That’s the reason you can offer such a steep discount and break that up into payments.  Business owners that can’t be decisive and take action, you can’t work with as many, and so it’s only fair that they pay more.  The only way for you to determine if the business owner is decisive or not is for them to order your services now, not later.



If someone does not order from you in that conversation you have to stick to your word.



Your price becomes the higher price and they have to pay it all up front (no payments).



The idea here is to eliminate the “not in a hurry” issue.  You are also automatically separating out the people that can not “easily afford the value you bring to the table.”



I don’t like squeezing blood from a rock.  If they can’t afford it, then they can’t and my price at that point is irrelevant.  If they can there isn’t a good reason for not ordering now.



You see, they’ve asked for your help.  You’ve proven you have the knowledge and skill to help them.  Followed that up with proving that you know what their problem is, and finished that off with them constantly agreeing that the things you want to do will help them.



After saying yes to all of that, how can anyone possibly say they now don’t want your help?



What moron wouldn’t take a 50% discount  and payments on top of it from someone they asked for help from in exchange for getting started now?



Often there will be some “business reason” why they say they can’t pull the trigger now.  Let me assure you that the reason is utter B.S.



There is not one single legitimate reason for not signing up with you right away … except that they can’t afford it.



They might tell you that they are waiting for a customer to make a payment or something and then they’ll pay you.



That’s fine, ask when the payment is, send them the invoice so that they are charged on that day, but they have to fill out the invoice today.  In other words, things are set up basically while I’m on the phone or they have to pay the higher price.



They are still signing up with you that way, and still doing it the same day for the lower price.

It puts them “on the hook.”



Now, this is important, under no circumstances should you start work until the payment has cleared and been received by you in your bank account.



Far too often people will pay with an “echeck” that won’t clear, or they’ll give a credit card that won’t have enough room on it, or some other such thing.  ALWAYS wait until you’ve actually got the payment before starting.



You can get the preliminary information, you can get the invoice put into Google Checkout so that they won’t be charged until the future, but don’t actually start the work until they’ve physically paid.


How To Do It



It’s been said and proven many times, that you need to “touch” a potential customer several times before they will actually pay you anything.



This process starts with creating incredible, top-notch information because it allows you to “touch” a potential customer several times without them having to “risk” giving you anything, even their contact information. You producing incredible information that gets spread around, pulls people to your site/blog where they find multiple other pieces of information.


Each piece of content that you product is a "touch" to that customer that then also includes a call to action to drive them into your lead generation system.



Your call to action should be something that allows your potential customer to get more information, better information, for which they simply join your mailing list.  An autoresponder should then proceed to send out 5 to 7 more absolutely, unquestionably great pieces of content to them.



Only now should you begin to ask that customer if they will spend an hour, totally for free, with you on the phone where you will give them strategies to help their business.



Once they are on the phone, you run them through the LDS process you’ve learned here to sell your SEO/SMM services.


Bottom Line



I said earlier that I didn’t want to tell you how well this process worked because you wouldn’t believe it.  At this point you should understand why this process would work so well so I’m going to share the kinds of results you can get.



You understand how at the very basic level of a person’s psychology you are doing several things to instill trust, make them ask for your help, get them to agree that you can help them … how can they then say “no” to you if they can afford it?



They can’t.  That’s really the bottom line.



When I teach this to people they usually find that they will close 30% to 50% of the clients they talk to, and that number will move upward steadily as they get more comfortable with “presenting” their services in this way.



I, along with my best students, convert between 73% and 78% of the people we talk to.  Very nearly every single time I get a potential customer on the phone, they go from “cold to sold” in that one conversation.



If you would like to get more details, and learn how to build a thriving SEO/SMM practice with customers hunting you down, literally begging you to choose them to do business with, I do give completely free one hour strategy sessions.



I’ll give you exact tips and strategies you can use to get more business with less effort.  Just check out my Free Strategy Session page for details.



Please understand that I can only do so many of these so give me a couple of days to respond.  I do try and reply quickly, but depending on my work load it might take a little bit.



If you have any questions, my email address can also be found on the Free Strategy Session page as well.  Feel free to send me your questions or even better to leave your comments on the blog.

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