Receiving a query from a client is half the success.
The other half is finding a solution to their problems and meeting their needs.
The SEO industry is so interesting because you have to be knowledgeable about technical aspects (the spectrum of SEO) and understand your client’s business. And that’s what raises the bar in this industry.
If you’re in this field, you know that sometimes a contract is closed within a day, and sometimes half a year is not enough.
If the second scenario is more familiar to you, you’ll find a list of 24 questions that will make you an expert in the eyes of the customer.
And for yourself, they’ll help you fully understand the prospect’s business and their expectations.
To make it easier, I’ve divided all the questions into three groups:
1/ Strategy-Based Questions
2/ Business-Based Questions
3/ Fear-Based Questions
Each of them is equally important.
Let’s get started.
In short:
Strategy-Based Questions
1/ What Prompted You to Come to My Company?
I like to ask this question. It’s always an icebreaker.
The client feels that they’re not talking to a stiff guy, but to someone who can conduct a good conversation.
For a prospect to want to go into details, they first have to like you.
This question will definitely bring you closer to that.
2/ What Has Been Your Experience with an SEO Company So Far?
If your client has worked with someone, they will gladly tell you about it.
Customers then talk about what was problematic for them and what they liked.
Everyone is willing to talk about their main concerns to avoid them in the future.
I also recommend describing them in an email (as a summary) and, as a bonus, writing what your company’s solution to them is.
And if there’s no solution yet, talk to the decision-maker at your company in this aspect and try to find the answer.
The more positive stimuli you surprise the customer with, the more likely they are to choose your company.
3/ How Do You Imagine Working with My Company?
Clients always have expectations. And this is the moment when they will share them.
This open question gives your prospect space: for reflection and the feeling that you know what you’re talking about.
No matter how experienced the prospect is and how much they have in their account. By giving them a sense of security and openness to their vision, they will always choose you.
However, be prepared for specific expectations. Such clients are the best. They tell you what they care about and how much they are willing to pay for it. That’s it.
4/ What Matters Most to You in Collaborating with Another SEO Company?
This question is similar to the previous one, though asked differently.
The more open-ended questions you ask, the better you’ll understand what matters to your customer.
P.S. What is the outcome of this?
At every stage, there will be a question for which you won’t find an answer. I guarantee it. And this you can turn into a positive element of your offer.
You didn’t know —> you found a solution —> you added it to your offer —> prospects started to buy your solution more often.
This is roughly what the sales chain looks like, which every up-and-coming company should take into account.
5/ What Has Been Your Approach to SEO So Far?
In other words, a detailed presentation of the current strategy.
Sometimes I talked to a customer who had been through several companies. Fair enough, an experienced player.
Nevertheless, sometimes I was potentially the first choice for a prospect. Then he focused on the vision and assumptions.
By asking this question, you’re able to get many insights, including about the budget.
The client doesn’t necessarily have to tell you what their budget is, but you can deduce it between the lines. This will give you a better picture of how to tailor your offer.
6/ Apart from SEO, What Services Would You Like to Implement in Your Campaign?
A holistic approach that helps for quicker results and a high ranking for your client’s website.
In the process, the prospect feels like they’re having a conversation with a company that provides comprehensive services. That’s the advantage your company has over the competition.
A plus for you is that you can get a higher commission by offering cross-selling.
- Link building
- Media buying
- Content creation
Each of these elements is important for outperforming the competition. Yours & your client’s. A holistic combination almost guarantees mutual success.
This is how search engine optimization really matters.
7/ Will Anyone Else Be Performing Marketing Work for You Besides My Company?
Notice something interesting?
This question implicitly says: “You’ve already chosen me, but will someone else also be involved in this work?”
This question allows you to find an answer to an important issue, but it also gives your customer a subconscious feeling that they’ve decided on you.
Usually, clients want to give 100% responsibility to the SEO agency, but not always.
Be geared that in the case of larger e-commerce, you’ll have contact with an in-house marketing team.
8/ What is Your Strategy for Running Your Business in the Coming Months?
This sounds like a great question, and it indeed is.
It works perfectly if your SEO agency has several business models.
The more business models, the better.
Example: When talking to an e-commerce company that currently has 5,000 products, but plans to add another 15,000 in the next 2–3 months, it changes the rules of the game.
Now, you can suggest a solution where you charge the customer based on the increase in traffic to the store.
Or based on sales. Or number of sessions.
There could be another, performance-based business model.
Every client loves to be charged based on KPIs.
Business-Based Questions
1/ What’s Your Monthly Budget?
This question is not just about the money.
Knowing how much your client can spend allows you to prepare the right offer without beating around the bush.
Of course—this question must be asked.
Sometimes salespeople struggle to ask it, but without it, you can’t move forward.
After all, you might have great ideas and an uncanny company, but everything comes down to how much your customer is ready to pay you.
2/ What Are Your Target Keywords?
Now we’re getting into the details.
To my surprise, when I asked clients about keywords, over 90% didn’t have a list of keywords.
Customers fully wanted to rely on my suggestion. They also wanted to feel that someone would do a better job than they could themselves.
Now the entire process is in your hands.
Choosing the right keywords will help your client’s site rank highly on Google.
But focus on the business aspect.
Select keywords for your customer that are actually searched for.
Those that sound nice but have almost zero searchability will not improve your client ROI.
Use these tools to find the best keywords:
3/ Who Are Your Main Competitors?
Clients always know their competition.
And this question allows you to model your approach after better-performing companies in your client’s niche.
By receiving examples of 3–4 companies in the client’s industry, you get a better picture of how to choose adequate keywords and understand the overall strategy they use.
The customer feels that they are talking to an industry expert who wants to base the analysis on the competition. And you gain better access to knowledge & data that really work.
4/ In Which Months Does Seasonality Occur in Your Industry?
There are businesses that prosper equally throughout the year.
However, there are those who count significant increases and decreases in specific months.
These industries include:
- Tourism: travel agencies
- Agriculture: sales of agricultural machinery
- E-commerce: sales of winter equipment and clothing
Knowing your client’s assumptions, you can tailor your offer to specific months.
It makes no sense for your customer (and for you as well), to pay 100% of their capabilities in months when there’s no full turnover. On the other hand, in months when profits are soaring, you can negotiate a better deal.
Adjust your SEO strategy to your prospect’s needs—mutual success is guaranteed.
5/ What is Most Important to You From the Perspective of Our Cooperation?
This question is not as obvious as it might seem.
Sometimes a client wants to reduce costs compared to previous expenditures.
It happens that a customer wants to change the previous agency because the form of communication didn’t suit them.
And sometimes it happens that they have simply done the research and want to focus on an efficiency-based business model.
Pro Tip: The performance-based business model is the one most often chosen by clients.
Knowing the answer to this question helps you tailor the ideal proposal—one that adequately responds to the needs of your client.
6/ What Steps Does Your Customer Take Before Making a Purchase?
A technical question that allows you, the SEO agency, to verify what exactly happens before your client receives an order.
This question works well for e-commerce and service-training companies.
If your client has an online store (e-commerce), they likely use tools for tracking and optimizing conversions. Ask them for details.
If your client runs a consulting company, they probably know how the customer journey occurs.
However, this isn’t always the case.
It won’t surprise you if I say that a free tool for tracking conversions is Google Analytics.
For tracking all calls, I recommend Ringba. It’s a reliable tool that provides real-time data.
7/ What Are Your Key Products or Services?
Knowing the answer to this question allows you to better:
- Prepare an SEO strategy for your client.
- Choose more suitable and promising keywords.
- Increase ROI for the client; after all, you are selling what you exactly earn.
In the end, ROI plays the most important role in cooperation.
I’ve never heard a story about a client leaving a company that was making great ROI on SEO, but the communication didn’t suit them.
However, you have certainly heard of companies with whom it was “awesome to talk”, but they did nothing.
Get to know the client’s strategy, and it will pay off for you.
Salespeople often overlook this question, assuming that they’ll draw conclusions from the website. And this is often a mistake.
It’s said that there are not too many questions, there are only those that are poorly asked. Overcommunication always wins.
Knowing the client’s strategy always equals a bigger profit for your company and for him.
8/ What Can I Do to Get Started with Our Cooperation?
I personally love this question.
Depending on how you ask, it may seem nonchalant, but it’s the best icebreaker.
If you’ve already set up all the steps and the outline of keywords with the client, ask this question.
Why is it that important?
Let’s face it—in sales, time counts. In this industry, and especially in SEO, there is always too little of it.
Clients buying SEO are 100% B2B sector clients. Time is most important to them.
If you are sure that you have established all the steps, just ask.
You may ask with bad timing, and the client responds: I’m ready, I just need to specify…
Fair enough, it’s just the way to close this deal.
Fear-Based Questions
1/ Is There Anything in Particular You’d Like Us to Focus on Or Avoid in Our SEO Strategy?
The client will surely appreciate such openness.
This question refers to the entire SEO campaign.
If you talk to someone experienced in the industry, you’ll learn what to do and what you shouldn’t do.
If you’re talking to a person who is choosing an agency for the first time, this question most often comes down to reports and the form of communication.
Such innocent questions always raise your expertise in the eyes of your client.
2/ Why Did You Finish The Cooperation With The Previous Agency?
This question is thought-provoking, but be careful with the way you ask it.
If you feel that the cooperation with the previous agency cost the client a lot of money, don’t ask this question.
Getting an answer to it gives you a straightforward way to avoid repeating the same mistake.
Sometimes, it could be a trivial reason.
Example: The client opted for a full-time SEO employee, but it didn’t work out, and now he’s getting back to an agency.
Clients often, upon hearing this question, strip away the reason and suggest what they would expect from a new company. An ideal scenario.
The more knowledge you gain from the client, the more you’ll satisfy them and the longer you’ll retain them.
3/ What Challenges Did You Encounter While Working With The Previous Company?
Now that’s a question that really opens doors.
The client will like your openness and will surely be eager to share what they have struggled with.
With the answer, you already know what mistakes not to repeat.
4/ What SEO Business Model Have You Been Working With So Far?
If you haven’t yet discussed billing issues with the client, this is the perfect moment.
A very innocent question showing in what form the client is able to pay you.
There are many business models in SEO, and if your company works on adapting to the market, you don’t have anything to worry about.
If your agency gets only one, usually a fixed payment, there might be a problem in negotiations.
Unless your client indicates that model; lucky you.
Take into account:
>> Flexibility.
>> Adapting the business model to the client.
>> The desire to achieve high ROI for your client, not just your agency pure profit.
Implementing these three elements into your business strategy will definitely help you outperform the competition.
5/ What Are Your Expectations Regarding Communication & Reporting?
Sometimes a small thing, like too frequent or infrequent contact, can lead to contract termination.
At the very beginning, I recommend establishing a form of contact with your client.
The client may want to talk once a week or even once a month.
Reporting is part and parcel of your cooperation.
The more juicy reports your client receives, the better for your cooperation.
Remember to make reports understandable. There’s no point in sending the client data with jargon they won’t understand.
Similarly, with communication, every email or phone call from your company to the client should contribute something.
An email like Hi, how is it going, is a waste of time for your employees and your client. Don’t send them just to check off a task as completed.
Settle the details of communication with the client and adapt to them.
A small step that will make your cooperation jump to a much higher level right from scratch.
6/ What Specific Aspects Of The Previous Agency’s Service Did You Find Most Lacking Or Unsatisfactory?
Clients often change companies because they have specific reasons for doing so.
Lack of results, loss of money, and contract conditions that forced them to stay for 12 months—all these factors make a client look for change. And as a result, they may become prejudiced against the entire SEO industry.
Therefore, meet your client’s expectations.
Show them why your agency stands out from the competition, and ask the client what went wrong so it doesn’t happen again.
Asking sensible and bold questions always leads to solving the problem.
Find it, and don’t allow a lack of results or satisfaction to come up again.
7/ Is There Anything We Should Avoid Doing In Our Communication?
A small element of communication enhancement.
The entrepreneurs you work with have certain time blocks in which they work.
Or selected email addresses/phone numbers for cooperation with partners.
It may happen that a client will ask you not to call between 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, or to send reports to a different email address.
It’s worth it to straighten out and apply such minor elements to your cooperation.
8/ How Did The Previous Company’s Strategy Align Or Misalign With Your Expectations?
Don’t promise results you’re not sure you can deliver.
If the client has specific expectations, make sure you can meet them, then confirm.
Most often, clients in the digital marketing industry leave companies because they were given guarantees that were never fulfilled.
This is not a good option.
A guarantee carries great power only when it is delivered.
Before signing the contract, make sure everything necessary has been considered.
This is the only certainty that can mutually lead to realization.
Work according to the client’s guidelines, and when an unexpected, great result occurs, it’s only a plus for your company.
Afterthoughts
A good discovery call is about understanding your client’s expectations.
And in the stage of cooperation, striving for its realization.
The world of SEO (search engine optimization) involves many variables that agencies don’t fully control. This is why an extensive offer and several business models are so important.
This list of the 24 best questions for an SEO discovery call will definitely help you conduct better meetings with clients.
However, if you have an idea of what questions would work even better—hit me up, I’d love to write another post about it.
And if you liked my post—share it with your network. You will help me get a better reach. Don’t forget to add me on LinkedIn & X.
P.S. If you enjoy the tips I give you, you can also support my blogging venture! 😉
Thanks for contributing!
Simon
Author Profile
- Simon Gorlak is a Digital Marketing Expert with over 8 years of experience. He specializes in 3 areas: SEO, Lead Generation on LinkedIn, and Email Marketing. Simon's blog gathers knowledge that helps Marketers & C-level to increase profits from their online businesses. Also, his content helps to reach the most difficult customers, make others' content to be read & purchased. Besides digital marketing, Simon speaks 4 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Polish & works as a Head of Business at an Indian Start-up.
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