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1. Dorway pages, and how I don't care if it produces great results for all our competitors pages, which I know that it doesnt.
2. We can get you to nr. 1 positions in overture and espotting. Really, what magical method might you be using?
3. Lycos banners (you know who you are!).
4. Offering me advertising space on search engines which pop-under dead domains and other strange sites.
5. Telling me: "wouldn't you like to be top in Google for relevant keyword A?" Do some research mr. sales person - I already am!
6. And the worst phrase of all "10,000 quality leads for just £499"
/rant over. I'm sorry. I'm having a bad day with these people.
There's worse things than have sales people ringing you: BAD sales people ringing you!
Nick
When they go out of business. ;-)
Those that are any good don't need to call.
Have a sit down and a nice cup of earl grey - here comes the weekend. ;-)
When asked who "is responsible for the marketing of the website", some of my clients transfer them all to us. :(
[edited by: Macguru at 2:28 pm (utc) on May 16, 2003]
"But they say our site will be seen by 100000 people...."
I also hate the emails that have a little screenshot of your site and say, "do you know that your site cant be found in major search engines?".
Er, I beg to differ......
Scott :)
"See the little boxes on the right hand side? That's where YOU could be listed!"
"See the normal results on the left hand side? Well that's me at the top."
<click>
:)
i like to let the conversation run and see how they work their routine, i find it quite enlightening to see how they pitch.
After reading the part of the Google guidelines that underlines that in no way is google affiliated with seo's blaa blaa blaa to her, i lost my patience and swore at her.
She then rang me back after i slammed the phone down in anger, and *gasp* i was forced into swearing again.
I sympathise with you edit_g.
"That would be Mr. Smith. Hold on and I'll transfer you...".
You of course, put them on hold....until they hang up.
And when he sent me to look at one of those pages - it was a barely "cloaked" meta refresh stuffed with keywords and keyword-links that made no sense... Still it was entertaining. Oh and they don't actually submit to anyone - or DO anything to your site... SEO without the "O"
And then he offered a greatly reduced rate, if I'd call him back by the end of the day and commit. Yeah, that happened.
LisaB
However, I must say, it is pretty great when one calls up and you know more about SEO than they do. They get all flustered and don't know what to say.
And yet, some STILL won't take no for an answer.
Coffee all over the place again!
Scott :)
When you get bored of playing with them just tell them that your Geo targeting is something like Bishop Rock. Stops the conversation dead :)
Rich
I used to just put the phone down then, (as they still talked at me).
Now I keep listening, to see how many times I can say "goodbye" before they get the hint and finally go.
My record is easy to beat, only 5 times. I works with double glazing, insurance etc, etc.
Any chalengers? :)
George
This can be a real pain. I had one client who used to send me all the spam he received about web marketing, and then he asked me questions that took time to answer about the nonsense he was forwarding.
This reminds me to come up with some sort of a tactfully worded paragraph to put into my initial agreement or working agenda to the effect that most of this stuff is nonsense and I don't want to see it. Anyone have some wording that won't offend?
This reminds me to come up with some sort of a tactfully worded paragraph to put into my initial agreement or working agenda to the effect that most of this stuff is nonsense and I don't want to see it. Anyone have some wording that won't offend?
I always remind my clients that these ppl are using the search engines to find them.
Then I usually point them to Google's SEO page which has that great quote that compares unsolicited emails from SEO companies to nigerian fraud letters.
After reading the Word from Great Google, most of them bow their heads reverently and never mention the subject again. ;)
When folks stop buying.
