If you have a laptop do something like this.

1. Bring up google.
2. Tell them to search for a product or service.
3. Ask them which they would choose (likely will be above the fold.)
4. Ask them to scroll down.
5. Point to one of the listings on the bottom.
6. "Why didn't you pick this one?" (answer will likely be they didn't see it.)
7. Ask them to click on one of the numbers at the bottom.
8. Point to one of the listings on the page.
9. "Why didn't you pick this one?"
10. You close....

"John do you have any idea why I had you do this?"
"Not really"
"People believe what they see. I just showed you that you naturally pick from the first results on google. That is what most people do. (pull out sheet with info on where google clicks happen). As you can see here 9?% of clicks happen on the first page of google and ??% of clicks happen on the first 3(or 5) listings. So John what do you think will happen if your brand new webpage isn't at the top of page one when people search."
"They will never see it"
"Exactly. Now I love the designs my web team creates. And I know you will love them too. But you don't buy a Lamborghini to not be noticed. You want to be noticed don't you John?"
"Of course."
"Well that is what are SEO (please come up with a better name for what you do vs this) packages are for. My SEO Teams understands how google ranks sites. And what they do is create positive signals that google will pick up on. The more positive signals and the longer and more regularly they do it the more "juice" your site has with google. Does that make sense?"
"Yeah I think I understand."
"Don't worry if you don't understand completely. I don't understand all the details either. That is the reasons our company hires experts. It's no different than me trying to ________ (whatever his business is or something they do). I wouldn't know where to start. But you have a team of experts to handle it for me. That's why we trust experts, isn't it?"
"yes (likely to tell you a story here)"
"So John here is the contract for the web design. And here is the contract for the SEO. I will need your signatures here and here." (then don't say anything till they talk or sign)

If they still have objections address each (note to change your presentations in future) and offer the contract again on addressed. "If that was all of your questions here are the contracts again."

EDIT: Thought this was a webpage to SEO upsell. So wording is a bit off."

I'm a car guy. It shows at times lol

You're right, it is a hard sale if you try to sell SEO -- Google as the medium.

Business owners get pitched all of the time with it and don't want to wrap their head around it (jargon, and all of the elements of it).

Simplify it for them; sell the results. Most business owners don't care if they are on page 1 or page 10000001 if it means they will get the same results from their website. They want leads and new business, so get that for them.

If you're SEO'ing their website (which is enough of a hassle as it is - very surprised that you're willing to deal with all the headaches, liabilities, etc. for only $197 month) show them how many people are searching for their product or service in their city. That's the main stats that they care about. If you tell them 500 people a month are looking for their carpet cleaning business ... that captures their attention more than the "theory" that there could be people searching for them. The only reason you're "ranking their website" is so that you can gain visibility in front of those 500 people versus a direct-mail type of campaign.

I don't sell "SEO" "SMO", but I sell new customers and business.

Personally, I think you should just continue with lead generation. It's the easiest sale that you can make. Almost every savvy business owner that I have met could care less about which medium is used to bring in leads and customers ---> direct-mail, tv, craigslist, videos, radio, SEO, PPC, etc.... they're too busy running their own business handling all the business that I'm bringing them.

You should focus on selling that. You're having success with lead gen because it's a gold-mine of a business model .... do all the SEO for yourself since YOU understand the value of it (and now you own that powerful asset as well). Then, you can charge a premium because you already have what those business owners are looking for. It's worth a lot more than just $200 month, that's for sure.

...Now lets look for your site... put in the keywords... hit search, and...

Where's your listing?

Ummm, let's try the next page?

Ouch.

Do you think those results near the top of page one had better SEO?

How do you think better SEO would help you, John?

And if you were on page 1, near the top... you'd probably get more customers, wouldn't you?

You said your average profit per sale is $XXX. So even if I got you 10% more customers by ranking your site higher, you'd net $XXXXX a year?

The good news is my ranking service is only $XXX. Even if you get more than a 10% increase. Sounds like a win to me, how about you?

(Or something like that)

The concept that you need to convey is that all the buyers are using Google. Doesn't it make sense to place your business in front of those buyers, just like the Yellow Pages used to do, "before" the internet. Or, when you use television commercials, you put yourself in front of the buyers.

Here we have the classic focus on How you do it rather than Results the prospect wants.

Find out what your prospect wants--what their vision is for things going great. Your methods of achieving that are secondary. They don't really care how you do it...and as you've seen, they are even scared witless of some words and phrases of the How.

Get a picture of what your prospect wants. Then if you can get them there, charge for the results you're going to get. Do not get descriptive and detailed with the How; in fact, you might even want to call your methods by something else (ie. not SEO).

Include the SEO as the "gas" for the "engine" of their website being a prospect-converting machine.

Say Search Engine Results instead of Search Engine Optimization. As Jason is saying, this gets to what they want, not the process. (A lay person will be wondering what SEO is and perhaps embarrassed that they don't really know what this term you are throwing around so casually really means. Or they may think it means something else that is entirely wrong. Avoid our industry jargon and speak their language.)

And, by saying Search Engine Results you can cover that you will get him more relevant traffic as well as better appearance/placement on the search engine page.

Also, if you do sit down and show him examples of being above the fold, ask how much more business he thinks the top company has versus the lower ranked ones. Or, how many more calls they get, or how many more customers they get.

If you actually show him his business before SEO, make sure your work will help him. My hotel has two competitors in this small town, so we already appear above the fold without any work. If your work will help in the serps and appearance on the search engine page, and his competition shines above him, then ask him how that is helping his competition in terms of revenues, more business, more customers, and more inquiries. He will likely have an idea of how much business his competition is doing, begin to understand why and that he needs to get on the ball.

Also input there keywords in Google Keyword Tool and show them how much visitors they could get monthly and FREE after the job has been done..

I think another problem you might want to look at is finding a good SEO expert, a lot of the so called expert might be cat-fishing....

crumbs i nearly signed up for a $500 S.E.O. package.

Grab what Aaron told you and record a video - the slower the best. Then use that video often and explain anything else AFTER showing the video.

Then people will ask the dreadful question:

"Well, why don't I invest 200$ per month on Adwords?"

And thats when you play the second video... Why choose long term SEO instead of rapid PPC...