If you’re an independent webmaster with total control of your site, salesmanship is most definitely not a part of the SEO process. You simply conjure up your strategy and implement. It’s not real complicated.
However, if you work for a corporation or an agency, SEO success is often measured by your ability to “close the deal” more so than your strategic or tactical ability.
Incidentally, “close the deal” is not a reference to securing new business. Instead, it refers to the rapport that must be established with marketing and development stakeholders in order to have strategic and tactical recommendations implemented. It also refers to the positive and non-adversarial attitude that must be injected into interactions with stakeholders.
If you’ve worked in the corporate or agency landscape long enough, you’ve undoubtedly run into this utterly demoralizing scenario:
“We’ve delivered our recommendations but they’re unable to implement them.”
Chances are that your recommendations are solid and well-intentioned, but delivering them to the client (or boss/colleague for those of you working in-house) is typically just the tip of the iceberg.
Here are a few questions you might want to ask if you find yourself at this implementation crossroads.
Who are the main stakeholders responsible for giving final approval and/or technical implementation? Have you spoken to them directly? What are their main reasons for pushing back?
Are there multiple stakeholders, and if so, have you coordinated your efforts with all of them?
Is there a third-party developer or competitor agency involved in some facet of implementation, and if so, have you coordinated your efforts with them?
Has anyone taken the time to present a point of view on the recommendations, complete with a value proposition and ROI estimate?
Inevitably, there are likely dozens of other questions that can be asked to get to the bottom of what’s preventing implementation. And sometimes, implementation is simply not feasible. More often than not, however, stakeholders need to simply be coaxed and educated much in the same way a sales prospect would.
So the next time you’re stuck in implementation limbo, make sure to ask yourself if you’ve done everything possible to “close the deal.” Answering this question and acting upon the answer properly could lead to some of the biggest SEO wins of your career.
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