Are you worth $100? How about $50? If you answered no, then WHY ARE YOU CHARGING THIS TO CLIENTS?
"But Funky! You don't understand brah! My prospects can't afford your typical $2000+ plan."
Really? Well that's your fault. First for not scoping the proper leads (you know, those people paying $$$-$$$$ monthly on adsense cause their SEO is shit) and second for believing them after doing so. There's always the possibility that your approach needs tweaking. You can't FATHOM the power of a simple ahrefs screenshot...wow my SEO needs work.
"Fuck this I quit IM, all you rich guys act like it's so gosh-darn easy."
I'm not filthy rich (financially) but I'm not hurting. Are you on hard times and need cash? There's your problem: You're selfish and acting like a poor man. The first secret is not selling anything...don't even mention your business name. You're getting paid to help people. I guarantee this mindframe will improve your conversions.
Funky's 3-Step Method to Landing Clients (and generally being more awesome)
Set your Google Search Tools to your State/City and start digging for Construction, Lawyers, Cafes, Car Dealerships and so on. ie; "San Antonio Carpenter"
Select ONLY the businesses with Ads displayed (yellow square near their name) and save their URL in a list
Once you have a decent list, add their URLs into Spyfu to see what they're paying for Adsense. Use Ahrefs to see their backlink profile & save screenshots.
There you go. IT'S THAT SIMPLE. You now have a list of businesses spending hundreds or thousands on Google, and can devise a plan and price before even approaching them.
You can even show them screenshots to deliver the message. This shows you actually took time for them, you're now some marketing genie to these people.
I must thank netmoney1 for his advice. I'm not as deep into IM anymore since my studio is gaining speed (art commissions are just awesome anyway, my prices here aren't shit compared to Offline & Corporate gigs) but this approach has helped me a ton.
You aren't grabbing just anyone as a client, you're reaching out to those who truly need you. This teaches you to learn more about the client and to stop making the conversation about you.