Many metaphors and comparisons have shaped the relationship between SEO agency and client, but the marriage analogy remains the most enduring. From the integration-honeymoon phase to the anniversary, and throughout the dreaded divorce, there is no step without a reference.
And as with any good marriage, being picky is crucial.
But how do you define what to be picky about?
Prequalifying prospects can seem like a never-ending meeting phase. There is so much to consider and yet no clear answer. In addition, you have to devote a lot of time to it. And maybe this client will turn out well in the end, so why not jump straight to the task at hand?
One simple solution is to examine your SEO agency's past with misaligned clients and remember what it cost you: resources, hours, emotional energy, team motivation, or whatever.
If you could prevent this from happening again, your business would gain more than it would lose.
This is why saying no is difficult but necessary.
Once you begin to analyze what went wrong with your past clients, you will be able to understand the elements that make for a successful partnership.
There are many ways to qualify a prospect, so you need to find the right ones for you.
Based on budgets and resources
An important question you need to ask yourself from the start is, "Is the budget right for us or would it be more suitable for another SEO agency?" "
As Gareth Morgan, the founder of Liberty Marketing says, there is a minimum running cost for each agency, and the client needs to be at the point where the budget meets their needs and can afford the level of growth they are looking for. .
"What are their resources?" is another critical follow-up issue, Morgan says, as the client should be able to support their part of the partnership with various internal resources such as content writers, technical specialists to make website changes, provide data, etc.
You can explore several avenues to identify these aspects of your potential client's business:
A prequalification questionnaire in response to their request, including questions regarding their team, the desired schedule and the available budget.
In-depth research of the client's business and industry to assess its growth stage. Take a look at their financial situation, have your network assess the client's stakeholders if possible, find out what their clients are saying about them, use the research data to assess their industry's current growth potential, and more.
An analysis of their social media presence and website can also reveal clues. However, this can be misleading, so be careful because sometimes websites don't paint an accurate picture of the business situation, as Edward Coram James, CEO of Go Up, puts it.
Based on verticals
The positioning of your agency will be closely linked to the verticals you serve.
If you are focusing only on a specific business size (SME or company) or on a particular industry (e.g. lawyers, dentists, car dealers), this variable is already taken into account.
But if vertical specificity naturally emerges from your client portfolio, you may want to re-evaluate your services. For example, Liberty just created Foundation, a spin-off digital performance agency focused on beauty brands, due to their rapid growth during that time.
Or maybe you want to generate new business in line with industry trends, so that you only focus on the booming companies and their RFQs:
You can gauge this, once again, through the annual search trends and gauge their rate of growth.
You can research investment trends, venture capital funds and their portfolios, and find useful information about potential leads.
Also pay attention to the positioning of the prospect. As the CEO of Go Up points out, if a jack-of-all-trades company shows up and wants to play in the specialist space, then it's a ban from the start.
Based on SEO opportunity
Is this a realistic business case?
This is another key and tricky question to ask yourself. The answer depends on your SEO research knowledge and the accuracy of the data you are working with.
Edward Coram James talks about “viability testing” through a forecasting tool that allows you to assess the overall potential of the business goal and SEO as the right marketing channel. “It keeps us honest as an agency and allows us to reverse engineer the project, so we're sure the head investment is on the right track,” adds James.
By looking at your list of targeted keywords and the variables that influence them - from search volumes, their year-over-year trends to seasonality, SERP functionality, device distribution, and CTR curves - you can model scenarios and assess the difficulty of this objective.
Of course, an established fashion brand will have high search volumes and big margins, so the agency knows it's worth taking the project without any predictions. But for a niche business such as software automation or cryptocurrency, analyzing the numbers and evaluating potential additional traffic and conversions (if certain ranks are achieved) will give the agency a realistic idea of how successful this might be. prospect.
If there are 3-4 years left before the prospect's business reaches this stage, you will need to assess their willingness and patience to embark on this project with you, as James concludes.
Based on the culture of your agency
It's probably not the first thing that comes to your mind when talking about qualifying a client, but one of the crucial aspects in keeping the relationship happy and long term is definitely this: is- what a cultural fit between your agency and this manager?
Gareth Morgan of Liberty Marketing calls it the attitude and ambition point. The agency assesses the communication and growth potential of this relationship:
- Can you work together for many years?
- Can you build a relationship with them?
- Do they trust you to experiment and take calculated risks for their projects?
This point is also echoed by the CEO of Go Up, who points out that you can say a lot about a prospect from the first email request about their willingness to be transparent, to make a follow-up call, etc. If they just want a price offer without any further contact, then clearly something is missing. That's why the agency always makes a cultivation appeal before moving on to business goals and profiling.
Additionally, there may be areas that you don't want to get into or areas that you want to focus all of your attention on. For Go Up, it is essential that their customers are ethical businesses. For IO, these are just large-scale international brands. And for Climb Online, it is first and foremost a shared entrepreneurial mindset.
Based on your agency's growth objectives
A final major point that we address here is the convergence of your SEO agency's growth strategy with the business model and market position of the lead.
Is there potential to expand the scope of the initial project and get more business from this leader in the future? Is there a potential to deepen your agency's expertise and education through this direction?
You should think about the many avenues that you can develop together, whether through innovation or increasing a specific market share. Gareth Morgan wants to make sure his agency is at the forefront of their industry, which is why they created an innovation manager role to oversee their data analytics capabilities and then look at other departments for s 'make sure they all have a head start. It will also shape their customer portfolio.
Another approach targets established brands, which involves evolving the agency's business development or sales team. Go Up is currently in this process, targeting big names to add to their portfolio while reaffirming their positioning as a leading SEO agency.
In a word
Choosing the right clients for your SEO agency is crucial for the long term growth of your business. Even if there are times when you feel like you are missing something or have to compromise, always keep in mind old failed clients / projects and what they are costing you.
There are different ways to approach this qualification process, but some of the key points to consider are:
- Budget and resources: is the client able to offer the agency's services?
- The business sector: is it a sector in which you have expertise? Is it a growing market?
- The SEO opportunity: is it a realistic business case?
- The culture of the agency: is it a good match in terms of attitude, mentality, communication?
- The SEO agency's growth objectives: is there a potential to expand the collaboration or to gain prestige?