Should a client provide a budget? No! Never!!

I recently read the title of an article and it was “What do you do if a Client doesn’t provide a budget?”.. Of course I didn’t read it because there is no viable reason anyone should ever provide their budget when asking for a product or service to meet their requirements.

This article will focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as an example to focus on for this topic because it is one of the most prevalent needs, yet unknown service in one of the hottest industries – Technology.

Are you shocked that we claim “there is no viable reason anyone should ever provide their budget when asking for a product or service?” Why? When you walk up to a customer service rep in a department store, do you ask them where you can find a shirt and you have $100 to spend or do you ask them where you can find long sleeve high quality business dress shirts and you wait to read the price tag as you find what you’re interested in? Anyone that asks for – and this goes for Consumer or Supplier education – a budget to put an offer together is a fraud, no question! The only thing required to put a price/offer together are the requirements or expectations. Anything other than requirements or expectations is evidence of a scam.

Let’s look at another situation and let’s say that you know that you need brakes for your car. Do you bring your car to the Gas Station and provide your budget and let them respond with the brake shoe types that fit your budget? No!!! You go to 1 or 2 (maybe 3) Gas Stations and ask for a price to replace your brakes and then you probably pick the one with the price that makes sense according to what they tell you.

Think of this in reverse, if an SEO Client wants to be #1 or show up in the first 3 pages of Google search results, then what the hell does their budget have to do with anything? The cost of getting someone a certain ranking can never be guaranteed but a good SEO company would do their research to see how much work/improvement a client needs to implement in comparison with their competitors to rank accordingly. Their budget is always irrelavent unless someone wants to be “The Best in Every Category” which we all know is impossible.

Bottom line, if you’re SEO expert isn’t making you feel comfortable with the risks and pricing (along with a proven background) then there’s a decent chance that you’re getting ripped off or you’re dealing with someone that isn’t an expert in the field.