Closing a lead starts with the intro.

TommyCarey Level X³

August 25, 2016, 7:15 pm

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Closing a lead starts with the intro.

I recently posted a discussion about how you people close leads on LinkedIn and I got some good info in return.

Now I'm pretty new to LinkedIn even though I have an All-Star profile. But this post isn't about closing on LinkedIn, it's about closing in general.

Let's begin.

You're not going to have a flood of traffic coming to your website wanting to pay you thousands a month in order for you to perform your services for them. You'll have to get out there and look for people that need your help. Don't wait for them to find you because they could find your competitor first.

What I normally do:

Search a specific local keyword like "Yoga Studio in Chicago" and I'll comb through the results to see who is lacking in the SEO and/or Web Design fields and put their main URL into a .txt file for later.
After I get a good amount of URLs I will type up an email that can be unique by just switching out the persons/businesses name, email, phone number and whatever business info I can find that is necessary.
Now that I have the URLs and Email written up, I'll go back to the websites and look for a contact form or an email. If they have a contact form I'll fill it out and copy/paste my email template into the description box and customize it to the website. If they just have an email I will send the customized template to them from my websites email.
I try to stay under 100 emails a day to avoid getting labeled as spam. The email template also helps because I don't load it with 10 different links when 1 will work better.
I'll get a few responses and this is where you have to be diligent. Respond back to them as soon as you can and as detailed as possible. Be friendly and push that you're willing to help them out, not that you're going to work for them. If you push that you're helping it's more friendly than "Hey, pay me to do this!".

If they contacted you after the initial email, they are interested usually and will be looking for a price. They'll usually ask a few beginner questions and then lay it out there that they want to know the price. When I give them the price I'll say "We charge between $XXX and $X,XXX per month for the services you're interested in. If you can't afford that, we can set up a custom campaign to fit your budget. I do want to let you know ahead of time that if we reduce the pricing it could take a little longer for the campaign to take full affect". Normally when you say this they realize you're not just chasing a paycheck and you're willing to bend the rules to work with them. People love that kind of behavior

You can use software to automate a lot of this so that you're not searching for websites all day long. I'm currently using a piece of software but I just started using it so I don't want to recommend it until I've tested all it's functions. So far it's pretty good, but I want to make sure it's great before I let everyone here know about it

If you use any software like this please let me know so I can check it out as well

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idealmike

Pretty awesome ingenuity Raz! Just goes to show that if you put your mind to something, you can find a way of tapping into something and leveraging that to your benefit. A lot of people get stuck not knowing what to do, they seem to over complicate things that aren't even complicated, that could be streamlined and simplified. It might be a bit clunky and cumbersome at first, but the more you do it, the more proficient you become at doing it and the faster you can do it. The better you'll know what to look at for and will know how to say the right thing to the right person. Sometimes even though you have a template of what to say to them, you may come across a site where it would be better to say something more related to them, say something that shows you are knowledgeable about that thing their site is about. Plus asking them questions about that as well. That will pay dividends come the time they read it as it will show you're someone that knows something about the niche they're in and they'll be much more likelier to employ/hire you and your services. As opposed to someone that is just trying to close a sale, doesn't really know anything about their niche or isn't really asking any questions that motivate them to respond!

10 years ago

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TommyCarey

Sometimes the simplest approach is the best way to close a sale

Getting clients is the toughest part about working online. If you can master that, everything else will flow pretty well lol. I still have problems obtaining clients from time to time and I've been in this field since 2003

10 years ago

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Lynne

Thanks for a great topic Razzy. I have received loads of emails before from companies looking to provide SEO services but none of them have impressed me so far.

Very often I have received promises of ranking my website #1 on Google easily, fast and cheap which obviously doesn't do it for me.

I just delete these emails without responding in any way. Often they email me again asking why I haven't responded which I find annoying and gets that email dumped in the trash too!

If someone had to send me an email that is more personalized and not full of BS promises that cannot be fulfilled then I always respond, usually with a no thank you because I do most of my work myself but at least I reply.

10 years ago

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TommyCarey

Oh man, there are so many SEO companies out there spamming potential clients and it just makes it more difficult for me to actually close a deal. I actually closed a deal today, before lunch

, and it took me 3 months to get the guy to sign up because he was on the fence. He to had heard from plenty of companies that he can get to #1 in a few weeks guaranteed and he'd be making $1,000s extra each month. He signed with me because I had the no BS approach and told him the truth lol

I let him know that it could take 3 months to start seeing a positive ROI and it could even be as long as 6 months, but he knew I would get him there. I actually reduced the original pricing because he was a retired firefighter, so maybe that's one of the reasons he signed up with me lol.

I feel like you have to be yourself when talking to potential clients. Even if it's through an email, people can tell you're being genuine with them and they are more at ease when deciding to work with you. I know that I personally treat all my clients websites like they're my own, and they know that too. I tell them this in the beginning but they probably don't think I'm telling the truth until 2 or 3 months in when I'm adding loads of content and making their website popular

10 years ago

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Lynne

Yes Yes Yes Razzy! I agree with everything you have said here. So often I don't feel like people are treating me like a person but more like a piece of meat LOL. This does not sit well with me at all and I just put my wall up.

I like it when I receive an email that looks like it was written just for me.

One thing that does my nut in is when I receive an email trying to get business and I see loads of other people have been sent the same email. Not good LOL.

When someone sends me an email and talks to ME and in a normal way then I read it.

10 years ago

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Cristian

Razzy, what kind of SEO services are you offering them? Just curious on what works for you and what kind of stuff you end up doing for your clients?
Do you offer both on-page SEO optimization and link building campaigns?

10 years ago

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TommyCarey

I offer a myriad of things for them lol

Most of my packages are custom tailored to fit what they need. I'll research their website and figure out what they're lacking and what needs to be fixed, then I'll write up a plan of attack for them. Usually I try to stick around what their budget is, but sometimes it just isn't possible to do so

In short, I normally do on page optimization and off page optimization because the client usually hasn't done much of either lol

10 years ago

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Lynne

Yeah I am sure a lot of companies budget and idea of what should be spent on SEO is very different picture than what needs to be done!

When I first started working online I had no on page optimization, and I knew nothing about it. I think loads of people that have a website don't actually have a clue about it.

I was recently just asked to help out a friend of mine and he knows nothing and his website has to be completely redone, it is an html website. I am going to set him up on Wordpress and get things going for him and then show him how to carry on.

10 years ago

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Closing a lead starts with the intro.

Closing a lead starts with the intro.

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idealmike

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