Depending on your business structure and needs, support can be a be a huge factor in choosing a SEO provider. If you are looking for a SEO provider to expand your business into a new area and provide synergistic service offerings, choosing a provider that offers comprehensive, end to end support is absolutely critical. Without it, the probability that you will be able to properly integrate SEO into your portfolio of business offerings is extremely low. If you are looking for a SEO provider to reduce business overhead and increase profitability, support is still important because it can have a significant impact on the the effectiveness of your sales and customer service efforts.
There are a variety of ways your SEO provider can support your business. The two main divisions of support are sales support and campaign support. Sales support is focused on developing and implementing a strategy for interacting with a potential client, providing a customer value proposition, creating a concrete plan to realize that value proposition and getting the customer commit to the plan and retain your services. Campaign support is focused on managing client expectations, providing rationals for SEO campaign decisions and maximizing retention rates.
Your sales proposal provides the customer with a concrete roadmap for implementing the value proposition. It is important that your proposal is clear, focused and concise. Without a strong call to action and defined plan for implementation, you can have the best value proposition in the world and still have difficulty closing a sale. A really good proposal builds comfort, generates enthusiasm and paves the way for a strong close. Effective Proposal writing represents a unique challenge because it simultaneously requires significant research, technical and sales knowledge. If any of those elements is missing, the proposal will lose a great deal of its power and in some cases it could even end up hindering your efforts.
If SEO is not the focus of your business, proposal support is an absolute requirement. Without a strong understanding of the factors involved in developing a successful campaign it is impossible to write a proposal that will accurately reflect exactly what needs to be done to achieve the goals of your value proposition. Even if search engine optimization is a part of your core business competency, proposal support can still significantly increase your closing rate and free your sales staff to focus high value activities such as following up on new leads and closing sales.
Once a lead has been qualified and a proposal has been produced, the final step is to close the sale. Frequently, potential clients will have last minute technical questions and miscellaneous concerns that have to be addressed before they are willing to proceed. This can present an significant impediment if you don’t have the expertise to answer knowledgeably on the spot. In these circumstances, having a vendor that is willing to join a conference call and provide private label technical sales support can make the difference between a closed sale and a missed opportunity. Even if you have experience with SEO, the additional technical and sales competency a top notch vendor can bring to the table can make a significant impact on your closing percentages. Once the sale has been closed, it is important to work closely with your customer to affirm that they have made the correct choice. This will prevent them from developing cognitive dissonance and greatly increase your retention rate. There are several areas where a SEO vendor can provide guidance and expertise to help you turbocharge the relationship building process.
One of the most important things to pay attention to when building a relationship with your client is careful management of their expectations. Not only does this avoid large disappointments and the concomitant haranguing and customer service headaches, but when you repeatedly provide accurate estimates you build a great deal of trust. Another important thing that will turbocharge your client relationships is to educate them on the technical reasons behind campaign activities and decisions. This reinforces their perception of your competence and provides a great opportunity to personalize your service. This kind of hands on customer service can be difficult if SEO is not a core focus of your business. Even if you have significant experience with SEO, some vendors will be able to provide a level of knowledge and expertise well above your own. Post sale support has the potential to add significant value to your product offerings and make a long term impact on your bottom line.
