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Potential first client, now what?

Wiezel

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I've launched my own Digital Agency and currently I'm talking to a company owner who has multiple locations for their niche they are active in. Next Monday I will have a call with him for the very first time and I'm a bit insecure on how to prepare and what to really ask him.

I got in contact with him by introducing myself as a consultant who's looking for needs/challenges in the niche mentioned above and he replied pretty quickly with; "constant expansion and adaptation to changes. Not just in terms of growth, but the industry is evolving rapidly, which has to be followed."

My agency is focussed on improving the online presence of a company by giving their online marketing strategies a boost. This can be anything of course (SEO, Adwords, ads, copywriting, website upgrade etc.).

The problem I'm facing is how do I figure out or how do I know what THEY need? Why would I pick advertising above SEO as an example? I'm outsourcing all the work via Fiverr/Upwork and I only know the basics of the services I mentioned before, so clearly I'm not an expert. That's why I use Fiverr/Upwork.

What kind of questions do I need to ask to really find out what they need? What services I can offer them later on? He is my first client I can agree with to have a deal and I don't want to blow it. Of course it can happen they are not interested but I learn from that. I just want to prepare as best as I can and get this deal done.
 
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astr0

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Ask him about his business, his current situation, his current problems, and possible improvement.
Figure out the best way you can help him and communicate this to him.

There's a lot of threads here on this topic.
Fox's 2019 Make $100k Starting Web Design from Scratch Challenge
Came on my mind first.

Check out his youtube channel too, lots of GOLD there.

P.S. Would be pretty hard to do consultancy if you're not an expert yourself.
 

astr0

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The problem I'm facing is how do I figure out or how do I know what THEY need? Why would I pick advertising above SEO as an example?
This is not exactly my expertise, but I'll try to help as much as I can since you short on time and no one replied yet ...

Do a background check of his current state with online presence:
  • Where he appears on google by typical customer keywords for his type of business.
  • Does he have some other sort of online presence? Like social media/youtube/niche forums, etc. Do he needs it?
  • Does his website look crappy/outdated?
  • Is copy on the website ok? Angles? Calls to actions? Would someone be convinced to stay on the website after looking on his landing page for 5-7 seconds and scrolling 1.5-2 pages?
  • Does he currently have Ad campaigns running? What about his competition?
Use the info you found to discuss how you can help him. For me the order would be:
  • Website if it's crap since all online marketing channels would lead there
  • Website selling potential for the same reason
  • Ads, cause I don't how people do SEO nowadays and how effective it is
  • SEO if he's really far behind on Google and it's really possible
  • Social media if he's ok to go with you long term and you think that it would be more beneficial for his business
Prepare yourself, but you should really

Ask him about his business, his current situation, his current problems, and possible improvement.
Figure out the best way you can help him and communicate this to him.
 
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Andy Daniels

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You have a warm lead in your pipeline, that's great!

Trust me, you're not the only one who's overthinking next steps and worried about what you can provide.

-------------------------------
"What if I do bad work?"

"What if they want something I know nothing about!"
-------------------------------

I get it, I really do. Now, something that I've found on my journey, as surely you will too, is to simply dive in and figure it out along the way.

In this digital era, there are countless step by step guides about how to fix someone's website, improve social media presence, and yes, even:

constant expansion and adaptation to changes


** It's going to feel scary and deeply uncomfortable. You will be intimidated. **

You have to embrace that! That's how you know you're taking real action!



So in summary:

  1. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. This means you are moving forward. The path ahead of you is filled with bumps and dark corners. One must have the courage to soldier on in these times of peril.
  2. You won't have the answers to everything. Nope, you won't. BUT, you can be a resourceful entrepreneur, and find out those answers as you go along! We have an amazing thing called the Internet right at our fingertips, and everything can be accessed, almost always for free.
  3. Keep it simple. Don't know what exactly they want? Ask them. Point blank. "So, what services are you looking to get out of this? How can I best help you achieve your goals?" You won't know unless you dig and find the answer.


I wish you luck young apprentice. I want to know how it turns out for you, so reach out and let us all know! PM me if you need any more nuggets of wisdom. I am happy to provide.

-Andy
 

MHP368

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maybe do an seo / website and social media audit before the meeting?

They can tell you what they want but then they might also have NEEDS that they don't see , hence paying you to consult.

Audit tools for SEO/Website
Website Grader
Analyze Websites With Our Free SEO Audit & Reporting Tool - SEOptimer
SEO Auditor - Free SEO Audit Tool by ZadroWeb.com
SEMrush - Online Visibility Management Platform
For Social Media audits
Meltwater - Likealyzer
How to Perform a Social Media Audit (Free Template Included)
Analyze and improve fan pages - Fanpage Karma
White label audit tool:
Free SEO Audit Report Tool - White Label & Embed Options
2)

what is it your business does though? seo for b2b companies? b2c? which business or customers are these folks selling to?

"My agency is focussed on improving the online presence of a company by giving their online marketing strategies a boost. This can be anything of course (SEO, Adwords, ads, copywriting, website upgrade etc.)."

thats too broad and how can you measure success?

"constant expansion and adaptation to changes. Not just in terms of growth, but the industry is evolving rapidly, which has to be followed."

so on top of the person wanting you to grow sales (so your efforts need to lead to that somehow and the correlation needs to be measurable) he seems to believe some big change is coming in the industry, read everything you can about the indsutry now and maybe you can deduce what this person believes is on the horizon and have a solution ready for presentation when you meet.
 
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The Abundant Man

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