Chad Kimball Rant

[chadkimball]

I think a big mistake many google maps consultants make, no matter how elite their skills are, is not focusing on what an average business owner WANTS. Many of us get too geeky and try to talk about listings, citations, links etc... But we forget, the average business owner doesn't understand SEO, they don't understand web design or google maps, they don't understand google's guidelines, but they do understand one thing: THEY WANT THE PHONE TO RING.

This is what they want. More customers. More leads. More sales.

The key is to not confuse the business owner with a lot of technical terms. Just focus on ONE THING, if they pay you, their phone will ring. You will bring them more business. Working with google maps is fairly easy once you learn it. Most of us fall in love with google maps SEO and realize how straightforward it is to help a business owner, but don't bore the business owner with that stuff. ... just keep focusing on the increase in phone calls!.

If you can prove to them that you are the cause of their increase in phone calls, their increase in sales, they will pay you every month. Connect yourself to their increase in profits and they will LOVE sending you money every month. Make sure to document the changes and remind them.

 

[JustinB]

Agreed, talk about three things:

• Brand Exposure & Engagement
• Cultivating Trust
• Generating Leads

You're wasting your time if you're talking about anything else to the average business owner...

 

[freerunr]

This is what they want. More customers. More leads. More sales.

Too bad they often think they want "rank."

But that's when you pull out a bunch of very long-tail searches that they're "ranking" high for to show them, and then explain that it's not a relevant metric (totally stole that from one of the presenters at LocalU yesterday -- I think it was Darren).

 

[chadkimball]

if they want to "rank" in google maps and they ask "how much does it cost?" just do the analysis and give them a price. -Chad Kimball