There are a lot of talented SEO consultants out there but it never fails to surprise me how many of them are broke. If not broke, complaining about how hard it is to find “good clients.” As Quadszilla (no nofollow, because nofollow is a joke) once pointed out, even a Snake Oil Salesman SEO shouldn’t have any problem making $200GR/year. 500 large should be the target of every good SEO Consultant.
So why are so many truly great SEO’s not doing that number? These guys are really good. They have a history of successful client campaigns to point to. They are nice, hardworking, trustworthy people. You’d want them to marry your daughter. But their book of business looks like crap.
Outsiders always ask, “Who is the best one of you guys…like, the Michael Jordan SEO?” I don’t think there’s such thing as “The Best SEO in the Whole Wide World”. That guy (or gal) doesn’t exist. There are so many facets to SEO that nearly each of the Top 100 “names” could lay claim to being the Michael Jordan of any one or two particular facets. I mean, I have seen a guy who couldn’t spell SEO with a two-letter headstart go out and absolutely kill a popular pharma term using XSS. It’s just one of those types of occupations. Everyone with one of these hooks is sitting on an elevator pitch to get them the $500GR/year client roster.
So, if you’re going to be an SEO Consultant (which I certainly wouldn’t suggest as a career path for anyone, but that’s another post), figure out what you do better than the other guys. Or most of the other guys (and gals).
For me, it was access and biz dev. I certainly wasn’t being the most technically proficient SEO when I started. From my previous lives, I had a Rolodex and Buddy List of C-level execs all around the Fortune 2000. It’s often said that the single most important asset any business can build is a contact list. Well my contact list not only let me jump into a healthy SEO biz, if I wanted to sell pens next week, I’d start in 6th gear doing that, too. So, build your lists.
If you don’t have that kind of leverage, think about where your “dream client” is when they aren’t in the office or online. For me, I knew that I wanted to deal with maverick executives. SEO was still new enough that you needed serious internal sponsorship at the C-level, but that exec had to evangelize it for you. This person would have to be a risk taker.
I was in luck. I am a risk taker. My “hook” in that genre of executive was motorsports. You see, I’ve been racing & tracking my cars for a long time. In college, I was always getting over on my peers’ McKinsey & Co. networking seminars by simply going to the racetrack and instructing for or participating in Porsche Club, Ferrari Club, BMW Club, etc. events. That’s where a lot of “My List” started. When the CEO of a major oil company is calling a 19 year old kid in his college apartment asking him what the alignment should be on his Porsche Turbo, that 19 year old kid is in great shape when he’s 25 and selling something worthwhile.
Admittedly, tracking exotic cars isn’t the cheapest way to go find clients. It might be golf. It could be your church. It could be sailing. Define the type of client you want to have, figure out where they hang out, and then go participate where you also share a passion. The most critical part…aside from not being a douchebag when you get their time…is to share that passion. Don’t try to fake this. You’re trying to form real bonds.
Another example…I maintain two country club memberships. Again, not a cheap endeavor, but if you amortize the revenue of picking up just one or two of the right clients against the initiation fee, it pays for itself in spades. And the prime rib is great. All I do is, a couple times a month, pick up the Callaways and go join a group of old guys with room for a single. Inevitably, the “What do you?” question is going to come up and if you can’t give a passionate explanation of how cool SEO is (and I really think it is), you don’t deserve to be working for them anyways. Trust me. Google is doing all your PR for you. Just explain to Joe Sr. Vice President that you can improve his business’s web reach on the cheap and he’ll be calling you the next morning.
I think the biggest problem I see with really good SEO’s who aren’t balling out of control (I just typed that to see if you were still reading…I’m not Mike Jones), is that they are too afraid to reinvest in themselves. I think many of us still think this whole thing could fall apart on the next algo update. It’s an ongoing business discipline guys. It’s not going anywhere until Search goes the way of the yellow pages.
Take that next $20GR check from your client and spend $5GR of it on new business development. Join a country club. Sponsor a Little League team in the right neighborhood. Give it to a PR agency. Don’t buy another plasma. There’ll be plenty of time to buy those when you’re knocking down a half mill a year with “the right type of clients”.
And that’s exactly what you can earn. Look at what most of us are billing. I know at one point I was billing at $750/hr because I needed to cull the singles and doubles from the herd of home runs. If you bust your ass and run your business like other professional services, each of you can bill 2000 hours a year with a full client roster. That’s a million bucks of revenue at most of our average rates of $500/hr. But you need to client bait rather than hanging your shingle and seeing what falls into your net.
Here’s another hot tip. Those clients aren’t at conferences. Chicago SES was the first conference I had been to in nearly two years. Listening to some of the “clients” beg Todd, Andy, and Neil to work them scared the hell out of me. And to each of those guys’ credit…it scared the hell out of them, too. Go speak at conferences for the intra-SEO-Community links and partying with your friends. The good clients don’t know who Danny Sullivan is, what a Pubcon is, or why Neil Patel isn’t in his AP English class. The good clients are out baiting their own clients. Go jump into that network effect.
So, what does your client baiting look like in 2007? For me…well, I’m trying to fully immerse myself in my own infinity edge pool of Kool Aid and justify a Ferrari F430 as Scoreboard Media’s top client baiting asset. I know, I know…I need another car like I need a hole in my head. But if I wasn’t busy doing the media company, it’d be a no brainer. The math makes sense based on the last 12 years of my life. It’ll cost me about $3500/month to buy it and an average consulting client brings in about $7500/month. Does the badass Ferrari get me that one new “right client?” Man, I sure hope so…
I guess my next topic should be: “You Can’t Scale Top Notch SEO Work, So It’s Really, Really, Really, Really Hard to Make A Million Bucks As An SEO Consultant”
Did you enjoy this post? Subscribe to the RSS Feed and follow me on Twitter!
19 Responses to “Client Baiting: The Personal Viral Marketing Plan for SEO Consultants”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Neil hasn’t been in an AP class since the 4th grade! (Dougie Howser style)
The F430 is bad ass and a good write off.
BTW - Mike Jones’ contributions really helped.
BP Edit: Thanks, Chris. Fixed the comma you had between the www and the 10e20 in your link, too.
Thanks Brian - typing too fast I guess. Have a great New Years!
Great post and I agree completely. Despite how many ‘great SEO’ers’ are out there, it doesn’t really mean much if you don’t know how to run a good business. A Top 100 list of SEO gurus doesn’t mean much if they’re not making money.
The people making money are the smart ones that reinvest in themselves and their businesses. And this applies to any industry. You could be the best in any industry, and make decent money, but if you aren’t looking for ways to grow and expand then you’re going to plateau at some point.
I think anybody working for themselves or starting their own business needs to pick up some good business books (and there’s a million out there) to just pick up on the basics of running a business. The same universal themes of cash flow, growth, etc, apply to any industry, whether its SEO, web design, retail, house cleaning, etc.
People are making a lot of money in this field and if they knew how to reinvest in themselves they would make significantly more. Personally, I do not know any big name professionals so I wouldn’t know who’s broke or not haha, but I do read a lot of feeds and there are some really talented people out there.
Great post! I agree that too many SEOs stay within their own safe environment.
Man, what a great post!
Three years ago I decided to direct an agency and help them build their SEM business.
After more frustrations than I can recount, I’m rethinking the whole idea. The CEO just doesn’t “get it”.
So here might be one reason many SEO’s are struggling - they’re being held down by agencies they work for. For me? I’m looking to get out on my own and do things right.
Your insights in this post (along with advice from Andy Beal) confirmed many of my beliefs - thank you!
Great post, and all very true…
I even had to shell out some money for a few golf lessons to go with my membership!
Volunteer work with big charities too, is way to give back, feel good, and maybe get a little (or even a lot) in return. That was unintended with my first “volunteer job”, but it sure worked out well!
[…] 1. Scoreboard Media on Client Baiting […]
I think a key point is that many SEO’s are much better techies than salespeople - so taking business problems and solving them is home territory, but actively seeking business is deep water.
2c.
Why not save some money and impress them by driving a different exotic car each weekend!
Exotic car club memberships cost roughly 3-20k a year, and you’ll even be able to run elbows with some of these elite folks.
http://www.kineda.com/8-million-dollars-of-exotic-cars-at-your-disposal/
Terry -
It’s an interesting business model that I have some experience with. One of my friends underwrote a few exotic car clubs funding and my other friends at Helium Report http://www.heliumreport.com/exotic-car-clubs/ cover the space, too.
While it definitely makes sense for some, that model of ownership is not really going to fit into my lifestyle. I don’t really care about “acting the part” or “sampling” because I own or have owned some of those cars already. It’s more about increasing the number of conversations. I’d say about 50% of the conversations I get into turn into a business lead. Also, I tend to track all my cars and beat them to shit.
Thanks for the comment and hopefully some folks will take the time to learn about your exotic car club memberships.
Brian Provost
Interesting Brian…
I’m quite a car enthusiast myself. I’d be interested in the cars you’ve owned and if into aftermarket tuning. Shot ya an e-mail!
I’ve been doling out marketing advice for a long time now and this is the first time I’ve heard someone else tell people to go where the customers are, not where your peers are. These SEO conferences are ego boosters. Imagine if you managed to get a speaking position at a conference attended by a bunch of CMOs- you’d fill your year up pretty fast because the sad fact is that virtually none of these people have even heard of SEO. I know because I work in an ad agency and meet them everyday.
If you spend all your time on insider sites, even great ones like this one, you’ll lose perspective: 98% of all sites are not optimized at all! And you can’t find clients?
Great great post. Collectively the management of our agency belongs to six country clubs. Airplanes are another great client tease (wanna fly up to the mountains this weekend? Who says no to that? Captive audience!)
Wow, what I charge is almost embarrassing now!
Interesting post.. I actually do a bit of motorsport myself and have joined a car club, within a few months of joining I did some work for the club president and some more work for his brother.
I never really intended to join for business, but alot of the guys that do motorsport and drive sportscars would probably make good clients.
After reading this post I don’t feel quite as guilty for going out and spending money on motorsport. Thanks!
Paul
I am a sales veteran-internet addict… turned SEO. This post charged me right up and I believe what you have written here because what I charged my first client wasn’t much and he didn’t flinch. So when I went to the next prospect just days later I doubled my monthly fee and he wrote the check up front in minutes.
I took this story to some friends who run some large 6 figure sites with no SEO and these guys don’t offer it? The numbers I suggest we/I go in with for SEO Services to their clients almost choked them.
My response was either we go in or someone else will any day now!
So go get em guys! nice find here!
the completist
I’ve had alot of success picking up clients that have common hobbies. One of my college professors taught me that good networkers move up in the business world faster than those who are great at their jobs.
Once you share some common hobbies with someone, you feel connected in a certain way, as both of you would think of that particular hobby quite similarly.
This sense of connection makes it not an awkard moment while giving out your business to the person. Thats the way i do it as well, try to find out something common with my clients and talk on it to make them seem comfortable.
Great tips … SEO is cool . Nice ideas on picking up clients