I was recently reminded of a bad experience a client had with a sales rep when I was working at one of the top legal marketing firms (one of those fortune 500′s). The client was not tech savvy any could or would not understand the product he was sold. He only understood that the sales rep guaranteed him leads.

When there is a disconnect between the sales force and the service providers, one hand of the company makes promises that the other hand can’t keep. Unfortunately, this happened more often than I would’ve liked, which puts an additional burden on the service providers (in this case, the internet marketing dept).

“Under promise, over deliver” is a phrase any company should adhere to. It’s significantly harder to show value and keep a client returning when a company over promises and under delivers.

However, the client should also bear some responsibility for understanding the product they are purchasing. The client, in this case, an attorney, is purchasing a product from what they feel is a “trusted brand name”, which gives them a false sense of security. Yet they sign over their checks to a sales agent, often without reading the fine print.

Attorneys should have a good understanding of Google, MSN & Yahoo before purchasing SEO or PPC services. They should know and understand the following;

• what organic and paid listings are, and where they can be found.
• What costs are associated with the service, what is included in the cost, and what they are expecting from the service.
• what recourse, if any, they have if they are unsatisfied.
• ROI (return on investment) of previous clients in the same industry, not *just* traffic or rankings.