How do you handle this situation?

How do you handle when you get a call from a potential client in the same business as a client you already have? It seems that if you handle both companies that offer the same service in the same market that you will competing against yourself. It also seems that you run the risk of one of the business's getting upset when they are doing better than their competition whom you also handle?
I hope I explained that well enough.
Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

I would explain to the potential client that it would be a conflict of interest for me to serve him/her, and give the reason you outlined as the reason why. It's a drag to lose business, and certainly some people have no qualms about taking on the client, but unless the keywords they are after are different than my original client, I wouldn't do it.

 

What I would do is first ask my present client if he or she would have any deep problem with the situation, explaining that you would handle each client as if the other were not there (if, in fact, you honestly believe you could work that way). If you get a resounding "No", stop there: don't lose the bird in the hand. Otherwise, ask the same question of the potential new client, and proceed according to his or her answer.

But first, be sure in your own mind that you really could handle the situation with ethical justice to both.

 

While everyone hates to lose business, this sounds fair. Thank you both for your advice.

Based on using keywords, I gather that if I have a nationwide client selling widgets and then have a potential local client selling widgets, as long as I don't pick the same keywords things would be okay. Just let them know that this is what's going on.

For our clients, we pick the keywords. This way we do the research to find the most sought after phrases and don't SEO for phrases no one is going to use.