Jason Berkowitz's SEO agency uses 30-day rolling contracts instead of long-term agreements, declining clients who expect unrealistic timelines. The model protects against the industry's reputation for black-hat tactics by letting either side walk away if results don't materialize, though it means losing prospects locked into existing contracts.
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The other thing you, I think you guys are super unique on is your contracting. Um, tell us, tell us why you're so unique on that and how'd you decide that?
So we don't have contracts. We have 30 days out from everybody. And there's been a few times where like second month in something happens and that's not good. So we've spent a little bit more time on that qualification process early on, like in the sales process, we will ask, so say it's 6 months from now, What would you look back on to determine that this partnership was an absolute success? And they'll say XYZ. Okay, great. What is your timeline or your expectation of timeline to achieve that result? If they say 2 months, then we should not take on this client. That would be a bad idea. So we have to earn our clients' business. Each and every month, and that's a value proposition. It's a market differentiator. It stems back from—I think thankfully it's not as bad as it used to be—but in the mid to late 2000s, 2010s, there was a stigma behind SEO agencies. They're black haters. They're spammers. They're scammers. They'll take your money and not deliver anything. And that was my way to stand out initially and say, "Hey." If you're not seeing the results after a couple of months that were promised to you, then I shouldn't have to take your money for another 4 months. I mean, we've also lost business because we closed, got an MSA signed, and somebody says, okay, great. We can start with you in 3 months. We just have to finish out our contract just so we can reallocate the funds with this current agency. So when we're done with that contract, we're going to move on to you. And a lot can happen in 3 months. Yeah. You know, and there's always that clause like, yeah, we didn't really start anything, or maybe you'll pay the first month and that's it, just to get off the hook. I'm not gonna follow through legally with an MSA like that. But we've lost business and that sucks. It sucks for the person who's managing the relationship on the client side. It sucks for the hustler in me who's trying to grow, and this is an awesome brand we wanna work with, but they're bound by someone else, like a third party who's not even involved in this conversation. Yeah. And that just sucks. And we've had clients that, you know, after a couple months we realized, you know, just workflows didn't align. We didn't have good clarity on expectations. And if we can end the relationship on good terms, then I'd also rather do that.
