Sometimes do you need to sell what doesn't even matter?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, but sometimes do you need to promote certain aspects of a service when in reality, they don't matter all that much, mainly due to people's misconceptions? 

For example: 

• SEO: the PageRank fallacy, the quantity of links fallacy...
• Social Media: The followers/likes fallacy. 

My rankings are pretty hot, however I would never recommend an SEO client judge an SEO Company based on where they rank in search - it's conceivable that a company could rank no. 1 for "SEO", and another company could rank in effect nowhere of any great note, and still attract a LOT more traffic through other keywords e.g. long tail terms. 

Thoughts?

Hi Gareth, interesting. Are you saying that it's tough to convince clients of (for want of a better analogy) the benefits of having lots of fingers in a pie rather than just one big toe??

My take would be that your average business owner is 'drawn' to the headline offer. i.e their site being on page 1 for their chosen keyword. It's the same in any business I suppose, the 'headline deal' is the one that attracts the attention, and I would imagine that most businesses would go for this. - It's easier and more tangible for a client to understand rather than being told that 'overall' they will receive more traffic to their site as a result of a more structured 'longtail' service. I think it's simply down to marketing & presentation (isn't everything).  

Regrettably, most business I would think , have a fixation with the keywords floating around their core business, rather than thinking outside the box and looking for other possible longtail terms that quite rightly as you say, may be more beneficial to their traffic (and of course perhaps easier to seo too). People are also of course lazy, rather paying for seo on a page rank for somethingthat's close to their heart- as opposed to thinking about it for a bit and coming up with something a bit more creative. Offering both services is the best option, but the headline 'seo service',  is the one which panders to every business owners wish list, and that's to appear well on Page 1.  

Of course, if that's what this thread is not about, then you have my apologies.
Paul  

What you've touched on here, Gareth, is a challenge that affects most, if not all, businesses.  That's selling features when your customers buy benefits or even the benefits that those benefits give them.  

Let's take your SEO example. Being #1 in the search rankings is a feature.  People may feel intuitively that being #1 will be of benefit to their business, but as you say long-tail marketing might be the way to go.  As a business owner, I want to increase my customer base - after all the purpose of any business is to attract and retain customers - and will respond positively to anyone who can demonstrate that they can do this for me and give me a good ROI.

How do you get over these benefits?  How about sending out an email asking  "Why being No.1 in the Google Search rankings is harming your business" and see what responses you get?

Malcolm

What you're actually selling is the sales coming from quality traffic driven to the client's site from high performing keywords with a good level of visibility on Google and Bing.

What the customer wants is to see their site at position one on Google for whatever colour of widget they sell. 

So while you're more comfortable talking about the long tail and the ROI based on traffic cost / quality not just quantity - your potential client's may only want to talk about where their site will rank on Google for their pet keyword - so you need to talk about this in your marketing efforts even if it is less relevant to the eventual benefit the client may get from hiring you to do their SEO!

I think this is common to most industries - all I really want to talk about is how a website acheives its desired visitor outcomes, how the user experience drives an enquiry or sale, and how we can use analytics data to keep improving after the site is launched. Most clients think XYZ site looks nice and could they have one a bit like that (even though it wouldn't work for them due to their target market being completely different).

Even in today's fuel price conscious market most auto makers will have a whopping great picture of a shiny car, possibly in an exotic setting with a headline promising excitement. The MPG figures will be set in 9pt text at the bottom of the page. 

Go figure ... 

Thats an interesting one, I get brief with the objectives of delivering more followers/fans more often than one stating they want to integrate social media into their business and develop long term strategies that will deliver efficiencies, cost savings and increased revenue. They might be asking the wrong questions but their misguided objective is achieved by looking at and manipulating the things they didn't consider, its a side effect if you like of getting everything else right.

I suspect that in your game the effects are similar, the question is though do you offer everything and then work back from that point?

Personally I tend to focus on what they want to achieve with their more likes and follows and work back from that rather than offer that as a solution. If they dont want how I do this then I move on a strategy that means I am getting into jus the kind of businesses I want to work with and doing it in the way that I know delivers results.

In your game they want "SEO" how you deliver that and what KPI's you use to demonstrate your impact is up to you. After all if the client knew everything they would be doing it themselves, be an expert and tell them what they need and why what they are asking for is bobbins then you will get the right sort of clients ;)

I didn't answer this question from a purely SEO persepective, even if that was the example that Gareth originally gave.  The point I am really making is that perception equals reality and what your customers beleive - misconceptions or not - is their reality.  As businesses we should address those beleifs and, if necessary, change them with the power of our logical arguments.

It's a tricky one. The problem in areas like SEO and Social Media (and many others) is that people are aware that there are a lot of people out there who'll talk well but don't deliver, so they don't know who to trust. In order to judge a potential suppier's ability they're wanting to see that they're doing well against the limited criteria that they understand. But if those criteria are wrong or misinformed the supplier has to first educate the client. Catch 22 is that the client may not yet be willing to trust the supplier to educate them, and may not even get the opportunity if the client doesn't bother to contact them. 

There should always be a process of identifying what is most appropriate in order to meet the requirements and desired outcomes. But clients will often think they're saving money by bypassing that phase, or by specifying exactly what they want they'll avoid being ripped off. So I think you sometimes have to cater for that type of enquiry in order to give yourself the chance to then speak to them, build trust, and steer them in a more appropriate direction. Depending on your industry and the specific issues within it, it may be that you headline a package in order to draw in enquiries, but don't really ever intend to sell that package once you're infront of a client.

Be honest, quick to the point and different.  

Do what your competition aren't doing.  If you rely on selling to idiots, you'll be stuffed when/if the market wise-up.

I think it's not necessarily about selling what doesn't matter, but simply selling (truthfully!) and answering the questions the customer has, even if they're not the right questions.

For example, I migth get asked "will it be ASP/.NET based" - because they heard it somewhere. So I would explain no, it will be based on open source using PHP and explain the difference. It's not so much selling what doesn't matter as educating the customer to the important facts or things they should be considering instead and selling your strengths on those alone.

That's really true. Where you rank for a certain keyword does not give you your overall ranking or success.

Don't even bother to explain the how.  Quite frankly most people don't understand and actually most don't really care as long as what you are doing is legit, and if it's not - that there's zero risk you'll get caught.

Anyway...ask people what they want, if they say page 1 number 1 on google for their term....

then....

"What would that mean for you as a business being at the top of Google?"

-"I'd imagine a lot of enquiries.."

"And if you got all those enquiries, what would you do with them?"

-'"Well, we'd convert a bunch of them!"

"And what would that mean for your business?"

-"We'd be making a lot of money!!!!"

"Great, and what would you that money enable you to do?"

-"Well, I'm thinking about sending my eldest daughter to one of the top schools in the area."

"Excellent, what else would it mean?"

-"Honestly, we'd be able to get a new car, which as a family we really need."

"Sounds frustrating at the moment, is it frustrating?"

-"Yes, very"

"So if I can generate you enough enquiries that enables you to send your eldest daughter to that school and also enable you to buy the new car, I guess you'd be interested, yes?"

"Ok, great - sign here..."

Now, obviously that's a bit OTT but you get the point.

Sell the outcome, forget all the technicial stuff - no one cares. 

I use it in my presentations, see below - it's 100% true.