As a service provider, who would you think is our biggest competitor? It’s not another SEO agency, and it’s not an AdWords agency. It’s the firm based near where you work, who can walk, drive or commute to where your business is run. This is ludicrous.
Historically it made a great deal of sense. Our parents and grandparents did business in a world where phone communication might be too limiting and travel was expensive. My Dad, for example, was a self-employed Optician who needed to meet quite regularly with his accountant. He couldn’t have considered someone who was based an hour away, let alone someone in a different country. More importantly, there were an abundance of people to choose from within his local community, so choosing from a set of local options made perfect sense.
Today we live in a world with a more diverse set of skills, many of which didn’t exist in our own childhood – if you’re as old as me anyway. And the internet has provided us with possibilities that were only considered in science fiction even one generation ago.
Which is why I am baffled when a company reaches out to us, likes what we say and admires our reputation, yet chooses instead to work with a local company. (Note: I’m only baffled when the main reason for doing so is their proximity.)
Don’t get me wrong – there’s no bitterness. Our company is generating enough profit to feed ourselves quite nicely, thank you. And I certainly don’t expect every sales quote I send out to be accepted.
Yet I find it difficult to understand when we lose to a local company. If you’re based in Silicon Valley, then there’s a reasonable chance that by choosing a local option you’re not limiting yourself too dramatically. Everyone else, however, are limiting their options to the services based within a small radius of where they happen to be located. If you insist on your SEO agency being located within an hour of your offices, how many options do you have to choose from? Five? Ten? Fifty? No matter where you’re based,I guarantee it’s less than the whole world.
Limiting the companies you work with means limiting your chances of growth and success. And all of this so that you can indulge in the formality of a handshake? Perhaps you also insist that they wear a suit and tie while optimising your content, or maybe even a three piece suit?
Our company has worked with 643 companies from 50 different countries. We communicate regularly with our clients using email, Basecamp, Google Hangouts, Skype, GoToMeeting, the phone and yes, occasionally we even get on a plane to see them.
The price you pay for confining your options around the conventions of yesteryear might be enormous.
