Local SEO and web marketing consulting is one of the hottest career fields to re-emerge in today's new economy.
If you're even remotely thinking of buying into any one of the plethora of make money with offline 'gold' riches type programs, I want to warn you not to buy or subscribe to any SEO or offline consulting program. At least not until you've read this revealing report.
When I first began looking for ways to enter the SEO consulting field, I read story after story of 'every day' people making $1,500 to $5,000 a day selling their online SEO marketing skills to local offline businesses. I ran out and got my hands on just about every SEO and consulting workbook, guidebook, report, and video that promised to teach 'insider' secrets.
But once I read all that stuff and came back out of the ether...reality set in. All those SEO and consulting products fell short on their promises in three big ways.
Failing to recognize those challenges can lead to untold frustration and wasted energy. Not to mention the cost of lost opportunities.
This article deals with the first challenge; finding high-quality potential SEO clients quickly.
Most 'offline gold' type SEO programs require would-be consultants to spend countless hours running around chasing business people who don't know them, don't trust them, and don't want to talk with them.
Go through the high-rejection motion of cold calling and chasing enough complete strangers and you'll soon find yourself feeling like a gerbil on a treadmill -- expending a lot of effort but not really going anywhere.
How do you overcome this image of being 'just another salesperson'?
First you need to target and uncover high-probability SEO clients -- before you speak to anyone.
One way is to grab the yellow page directories and go online. Check the SEO web ranking of as many of the companies in your area for their likely keyword combinations as possible. See how well the companies rank for your city, county, and state. You want to know which sites are ranked well from an SEO standpoint and which aren't.
Automating this process of SEO ranking many sites at once is the quickest way to find potential SEO clients who actually need offline services. If you have tools to automate the process, great. But if not you can still do the SEO pre-qualifying steps by hand too. It will just take longer.
"Getting Paid"
Some offline consulting programs say to just walk into any business and ask "how's business," hoping the owner will start a conversation complaining about how bad life is. But that's not going to happen.
Only the most depressed and disgruntled will tell a customer the truth. All other business owners will lie so customers think the business is doing well. So instead of walking out with a big fat check you walk out with egg on your face looking like an idiot because you had nowhere to go in the conversation after the owner lied about business being great.
To walk out with a big fat SEO client check in hand you must walk in with something specific to talk to the companies about i.e. their exact poor search engine ranking and proof you can beat what they are already doing.
"Not Another Slimy 'Snake Oil' Sales Person"
After you've searched in advance and determined a site's SEO ranking, you next need to position yourself to avoid being viewed as an unwelcome pest. You want the prospective SEO client to see you as a welcome guest.
How? Not by cold calling every business in town and trying to sell your widget to everyone in arms reach.
Instead you contact companies intelligently. Determine what's important to them about getting the improved SEO ranking for their site.
And never ever go into a business and try to 'pitch' your services without knowing in advance a specific SEO marketing need truly exists.
You'll create resistance because the 'pitch man' approach is antiquated. And is associated with snake oil days of scam sales reps who promised everything and anything to get a sales, only to end up ripping people off.
In this day and age prospects are more informed than ever. The moment a business person detects 'sales speak' a defensive wall goes up. They begin to mistrust you. Your goal is to determine SEO and web marketing needs of the business, from the buyer's perspective.
Instead of 'pitching' your services be sincere, honest, and ethical. Focus on sincerely helping people. This will set you apart from all the con artists and snake oil dealers.
"Instant Expert.... Just Add Credibility..."
To be believed you must position yourself as a local expert, not approach businesses as just another sales person.
Do whatever it takes to ethically and legally remove the image of being a self-centered, commission-chasing sales rep. That way once you have completed your research and are finally face-to-face with a business owner or decision maker, you've placed yourself one step closer to entering what is likely the hottest career field to emerge in quite some time -- SEO and Web Marketing Consulting.
Andre Bell, founder of SEOGoldSoftware.com, helps people enter the web marketing and SEO consulting field. Visit his site at http://www.seogoldsoftware.com/offlineconsulting/ for a free report of The Three Biggest Problems Everyone Runs Into With Most SEO and Offline Consulting Training Courses.
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