You hired an SEO. You’re not happy. Before you fire them, here’s a question Andre Savoie asks business owners in his coaching program, and it stings a little: are you a bad client?
Andre ran a digital marketing agency for 20 years before he sold it. When he came on the Unscripted SEO podcast, he described the owner he saw over and over: hires a new agency, says the last one screwed them, then shows up ten minutes late and unprepared asking “what do you got for me?”
“No, no, this isn’t a magic show. Like you have to participate and pull your weight for this to work.”
Andre Savoie
I’ve been on both sides of that table, in-house, agency and freelance, and I’ll tell you he’s right.
Five signs you’re the bad client
Andre isn’t trying to make anybody feel bad. His point is that after 20 years he can tell you what the happiest clients do, and the unhappy ones do the opposite. From the episode, and from my own client list:
- You show up unprepared. You didn’t read the report, you didn’t bring the photos, and you want the strategy in ten minutes.
- You’re unavailable when it matters. I’ve had clients say “I trust you, go do what you need to do,” and then be in Ibiza for three weeks when I needed the interview. No interview, no unique content.
- You copy someone else’s case study. Andre teaches owners to take inventory first: your pages, your service area, your photo and video assets, your brand. The factors behind a case study may not be your factors.
- You compete on price alone. I worked with a cannabis client in Michigan that slashed prices because a competitor did. If you’re only the cheapest, someone else can be cheaper tomorrow.
- You expect magic from AI. “Just use AI to fix it” is the new version of “just get me ranked.” Andre’s answer: AI can only work with what’s already known.
Charge for doing it right the first time
Andre’s clients are upscale local businesses: lighting showrooms, diamond jewelers, high-end home renovators selling $50,000 kitchens. He got that from his parents, who built a construction company.
“I’m the most expensive in town and, he never hid from it. And he always said, well, I’m expensive because I want it done right the first time.”
Andre Savoie, on his dad
That’s the same pitch you hear from contractors who build things to outlast the mortgage, whether it’s a kitchen or precast concrete walls: pay once, and stop paying to fix it. It works for marketing too. The owners who want it done right attract customers who want it done right, and they stop racing to the bottom on discounts.
Take ownership of the process you’re paying for
When I asked Andre for the one thing a listener should do today, he didn’t name a tactic. He said slow down, breathe, and take ownership of the process. Not wrestling the work away from your SEO. Understanding it.
You don’t hand your accountant or your lawyer a big decision you don’t understand. Why do it with your marketing? Andre’s practical version is cheap: take an extra half hour and use ChatGPT to walk you through the report your agency sent. Then come to the next meeting with questions.
It also helps to know what you’re buying before you sign. I wrote up how to choose a small business SEO and what goes in the contract for exactly this reason.
Why a coach makes you a better client
Here’s the part I didn’t expect. Andre noticed that clients who had a business coach were great clients, because somebody was holding them accountable. So he built his program to be non-competitive: an agency can send a struggling client to it without worrying about being poached.
“It’s like going to the gym,” he told me. Work out while you’re working with your agency, and you’ll come back with your feet under you. I’ve had clients over the years I wish had done exactly that.
So before you fire your SEO, ask the uncomfortable question. Did you show up?
Andre was interviewed in January 2025; quotes are verbatim from the transcript. He now works as a fractional CMO; find him at andresavoie.com or on LinkedIn. The AI side of the conversation is on SEO Arcade: why AI only works with the known.