Prospect: Impossible

By Author: John Tang
Total Articles: 512
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I received a phone call from a new prospect recently. The first mistake I made was answering the phone. Seriously, the caller was actually ideal for the Paid Search Management Services and Organic Search Engine Optimization Services we provide.

The initial, no-obligation consult, revealed a great deal, all of which, on its face presented a great opportunity for both companies. The facts were pretty clear:

1. Prospect was paying Google over $600 a day or $18,000 per month on Adwords.
2. He has been doing this for some time and having some success.
3. However, he saw his leads declining, possibly due to the economy, but more likely because the Adwords campaign was being poorly managed by the prospect.
4. It was clear that he was wasting up to 50% or more on non-productive keywords.
5. He had no landing pages with strong call to action to enhance conversions.
6. There was no analysis of stats measuring key areas of click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates.
7. He couldn't even tell me what his close rate was claiming he really didn't pay attention to ...
... these kinds of things.
8. He has made no effort to optimize his site organically for SEO although he readily acknowledged that he may be missing out on a great deal of traffic.
9. He made clear that his first priority was the improvement of his Adwords campaign. He was also advertising on Yahoo but did not want to include it in our conversation at that point.

I was able to demonstrate live results of our clients for both PPC and SEO and illustrated how we were able to increase CTR, Conversion Rates and Sales in some cases by as much as 20 fold.

He appeared to be very interested and even moreso. He asked for and I agreed to send him 2 separate proposals; one for PPC and one for SEO. When he received it, he called me and I was really very surprised / disappointed that he did not react positively to the cost of the services proposed; this is despite the fact that we had reviewed them in some detail before the proposal was actually sent out. He also objected to the 12 month term of the agreement.

To sum up, he wanted a 30-day out clause and wanted a lower cost. I asked him to propose exactly what he was looking for. He came back to me with a ridiculous number that we could in no way agree to. And all that is even ok.

Then I told him, in no uncertain terms, exactly what we could agree to. FYI, the revised proposal would have surely saved him more money in Google Adwords in just 3 months than what he would be paying us with the original proposal. He asked me to revise the original proposal to reflect the numbers we had just discussed. When a prospective client asks for a proposal already knowing exactly what the proposal would say, it is almost always a strong indication that he was prepared to sign it. We ended the conversation on pleasant terms and he indicated he would be calling the next morning.

When he did call, I was rather floored to find out that we weren't going to do business. Things happen for a reason but it was just incomprehensible that despite all of the proof I had provided, including references, live results and host of other data, including a full blown analysis of his Google Analytics and Adwords campaigns, that he had the audacity to say that he couldn't or wouldn't shift a small fraction of the money he was wasting on Google Adwords to get it managed correctly to increase sales at lower cost to him. I repeat: more sales at less cost I even gave him a 30-day out after 90 days!

I can only conclude that I was dealing with someone that knows he needs help but can't make an affirmative business decision. Without getting into more detail, his reasoning just didn't make any sense. I can only come to the conclusion that this prospect just wasn't a prospect at all. While seemingly interested, he really wasn't really ready or able to invest in something he really doesn't know anything about or wants to know anything about. It was clear that he just didn't hear or want to hear what real PPC management was all about how important keyword resarch is great landing pages adtext stats analysis bid strategy, etc.

What can we learn from this? Some prospects are not really prospects. Its imperative that I establish agreement on every step of the process and get verbal commitments that need only be confirmed in writing. I thought I did that but must have not done a very good job of it. It's most frustrating for me that I had a potential client that would surely benefit from what we do but I am making the same mistake all over again this guy was really not a prospect.

Live and learn!
Optimum7.com is an Internet Marketing Consulting Company with primary focus on Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises (SME's). Optimum7.com offers a rich consultative approach that our clients find refreshing. We actually listen to our clients to learn exactly what their problems and objectives are. Through a proven process, we collaborate with our clients to truly understand where they are and where they want to be next month, next year, and in 5 years. Prospect: Impossible.