“I’m going to teach you the tricks you need to know to win the race,” the track coach told the runner. “You’ll pay me, and you’ll win. You’ll cross the finish line in first place,” he said.

It was quite a sales pitch, so the competitor hired the coach.

Two weeks later, the runner overheard the coach delivering the same sales pitch to a different runner. The runner didn’t worry about the coach offering two runners the opportunity to win the race. He assumed the other runner was in a different race.

When the first runner set up in the starting block and looked to his right, he saw two things. First, he saw his coach off along the edge of the track. Then he focused on the competitors nearby and realized the guy in the block next to him was the other runner the coach had been pitching. Then he heard the coach yelling and cheering for both runners. Something wasn’t right. The coach had promised them both that they would win the race.

Find Out Whether Your Internet Marketer Is Playing the Field

That’s what it’s like when your Internet guru works for two similar practices in the same market. When he tells one family law firm that he’ll build a site and be sure it ranks at the top of Google and then tells another firm the same thing, he’s just like that coach. He has a conflict of interest.

That’s what many of the Internet firms do to us. They tell us all the same stuff and get each of us to pay them. I’m sure they’ve got a sophisticated rationale for their behavior. The coach probably does as well.

If I’m hiring one of these firms to help me market my practice, whether it’s online or off, I want to know that it’s working exclusively for me. Sure, it can represent a firm in a different city or a different practice area and I won’t object. Of course, it can market perfume or whatever else it wants to sell. But, when it comes to my practice area and my market, I want the firm all to myself.