A suggestion to SEOs that cold call potential clients

[wreevesc]

Learn some basic salesmanship.  Do you realize that business owners are getting 3-4 phone calls and emails a day from other SEOs claiming to be the best?  Be polite, ask questions, and don't insult me or yourself through ignorance.  Ask questions.  You might just discover that we could work together.

When you tell me that I'm not ranking for "competitive keywords" it tells me that you don't know what I'm trying to rank for.  When you tell me you can get me to the top of Google in 3 months or less, you're still telling me that you don't know my business and what I want from my website.  Who said I wanted national ranking anyway?  Oh right, not me because you never asked.

And if I answer the question "Do you want more business/leads?" with "No." Then politely end the conversation and move on.

The rare time that I do get asked about my current efforts, don't insult me by calling me an amateur.  I may be one, but talking down to me, or trying to make SEO sound like you're turning lead into gold will get a quick hang up from me.

If you want a contract with me, learn to negotiate based on my needs, not your process that you feel married to.  There are a lot of business owners out there that would be willing to work with you if you treated you leads with respect rather than iteration 23 of your cold call script.

And in response to the person this morning that sent a "free report" of basic SEO fixes for my website, make sure you put that report together using **my website. ** I know you're working from a template, so it should be really easy to remove the info from the wedding company and the lawyer's webpages before you email it to me.

[irvingw]

I'll go one better. DON'T COLD CALL ME. I know how to use the internet to find things.

[mike_sif]

Wow! lol...made my day.  I hate cold calls from these type of dimwits, half of the time they have no idea what they're talking about.

[WebbyNabler]

This is just my opinion, but the fact that someone would have to cold call to find SEO clients throws up all kinds of red flags.  A talented SEO NEVER needs to cold call. In fact the problem is not finding new clients, the problem is having to pick and choose who you take on. Isnt the point of seo to bring in leads and clients? If your own seo skills are so poor that you have to cold call, then...well I am go out on a limb here, but get the he k out of our industry and giving real seo's a bad reputation.

[WebbyNabler]

A really good seo gets more referals than they can handle!  So sick of low quality, unethical, high volume crappy seo scammers out there....AAARRRGGHHHHHH!!!!!

Ok, I feel much better now....

[mike_sif]

lol

[EGOL]

Always have your competitors telephone number handy to give to these people.

[DanielFreedman]

I can't imagine any sensible person ever buying anything from someone who cold calls.

It is not a practice associated with reputable businesses, IMHO.

[PatrickCoombe]

This post is deleted!

[DanielFreedman]

Thanks for the response, but we'll have to agree to disagree.

I maintain my position: cold calling is wrong. I would never try it.

Most sensible people already hang up. More people should.

And then fewer people would cold call.

And the world would be a better place.

[PatrickCoombe]

This post is deleted!

[DanielFreedman]

Thanks for the courtesy.

Not to belabour the point (so this will be my last response):

But I never said cold calling was ineffective.

I just said that it was wrong.

In the grand scheme of the universe, it annoys people, gives business a black eye, and invites government regulation that over reaches.