Sometimes you’re stuck.

You try to grow your business. Make a decent living.

But you can’t find new clients.

Sure, you go out there and pitch to whoever you can find. But with no result. You start blaming other SEOs with their lower prices for your misfortune. Hell, you even begin to fear that one day you will have to reduce yours too. Or go out of business.

SEO is very competitive. There are new providers popping out everywhere. In spite of a large market, it does get difficult to bring new business in. You can feel that, don’t you?

High price is not a problem though. Quite the contrary, you can sell SEO at a higher price without a problem once you know the secret to getting the customer to say yes.

That secret is understanding why they want your services in the first place.

And note that I said “want” not “need”. There is a fundamental difference between the two.

Need implies your point of view, a question YOU would try to answer yourself. Need implies that it is you who know what is the reason, not your prospect. It puts you in the center, a wrong approach from the start.

Want on the other hand can only be answered by your prospect. This is the very thing that keeps him or her up at night, a problem they know must be solved, otherwise their journey towards reaching their business goals will not progress any further. This is also exactly what they want to hear when you pitch to them. They want to know that you understand their problem and will help them to overcome this obstacle, regardless of its size.

Finding out why your clients want to hire an SEO is a key to winning them over.

These problems, these customer ‘s wants are often referred to by sales people as customer pain points. And uncovering them is a goal of any sales person. Without it, a sales pitch is nothing more but a shot in the dark in hope that they might, by chance hit the right note with prospects.

Every customer has a different pain point. Many of them, however , can fall under the same few categories:

1. Lack of Business Generated Through a Website

The most common and obvious one. A prospects site generates no business in any way, be it sales, email signups, contact form completions or anything else. They know they should expect at least some results but they get none. They also know that an increase in targeted traffic can be a solution and thus, want someone like you to help them.

How to uncover: Even if there are no signs on the website, prospects from this group reveal this pain point at the very beginning of the conversation. Otherwise, a simple question or two can reveal if that’s why they want to enlist a help from an SEO.

2. Penalties

These are the Google Penalties times. It is hard not to know someone who wouldn’t be struck by either of them at one point or another. Website owners who have been penalized by Google form quite a substantial group of potential SEO clients. And, recovery from a penalty is what keeps them up at night. This group needs strong convincing that you in fact can help them and honesty plays a big part in winning them over.

How to uncover: This is a relatively simple pain point to uncover. Mostly because these prospects actively seek new provider who could help them recover from the penalty.

3. Dissatisfaction with a Current or Previous Provider

Many potential clients have been stung by their SEOs, it is an unfortunate fact. They may have been penalized as a result of their former suppliers actions although not necessarily. Perhaps they just didn’t see any results from the other company’s actions. Or saw the exact reverse of what they expected.

Making a sale in such case is extremely difficult. Prospects will approach any potential provider with caution or be completely reserved towards them. Your best chances at making a sale is to first show your expertise and authority, perhaps through speaking at local business events, networking, blogging, publishing in magazines the prospect reads etc. The key is to convince people who were once burnt that the same thing won’t happen again (and delivering on the promise of course).

How to uncover: There are usually no obvious signs although you might overhear something at a networking event or be told of a friend whose friend got burnt etc. Analyzing their link profile can further reveal potential problems that previous supplier had left behind.

4. Inability / lack of time to do this themselves

Not all SEO prospects hire someone for a sheer reason of getting help with sales or penalties. Some simply don’t have the time to master SEO themselves. These prospects usually seek for someone who not only will help them achieve better online visibility but also guide them in taking over those tasks at a later date. This group is relatively small yet can offer some good opportunities for a short-term contract and building up a business portfolio.

Conclusion

Finding new SEO clients is not an easy game. With so many other providers, huge variances in price and offering, diminishing perception of the industry (partially thanks to Google penalties) certainly doesn’t help with convincing potential customers to buy from you. Understanding their pain points however can greatly increase your chances of winning their business.