We sat down with Gabriel Duquette, aspiring comedian and Linkeo Canada’s top sales rep for 2021. Here’s what Gab had to say about web marketing.
“If you’re starting a business today, you have to consider that most of your competition has been at it for years. If you want results, you need to go all out with your marketing. All my clients who went all out made numbers move with their company. The people who just dipped their toes in did not get the results they wanted.
Web marketing is a shark tank. You go all in or you don’t go at all.”
–Gabriel Duquette, Linkeo sales rep
Meet Gab
Gabriel Duquette has been all in with Linkeo since June 2020. And in spite of the pandemic, in 2021 he charted record sales in the history of Linkeo Canada, leading all 27 of our worldwide agencies.
A huge music buff, Gabriel went to school for film and sound design. After he graduated, he worked for one of Linkeo’s main competitors for almost ten years. There, he learned just about everything there is to know about web marketing. Eventually, he founded his own events company, where he took care of his own SEO and Google Ads.
“Then, without knowing that COVID was coming, I decided to switch out of events,” says Gab. Many of his former employer’s clients had left the company for Linkeo. He checked out the web agency online and decided to apply. “I wanted to work at a place where I could be myself. I liked Linkeo’s products and the websites, and I found good online reviews.”
Compared to other companies, Linkeo’s offers are much more affordable. “SEO can be quite pricey. But because we have 23,000 clients across the world, we can sell it for cheaper,” says Gabriel. On top of that, Linkeo websites come with free updates and a mega discounted redo every three years.
“Your website and SEO are like your car or your mortgage. It’s something you are going to invest in for the rest of your life. Google has a monopoly on Internet searches. When it comes to SEO, there are at least 120 criteria. So you want to make sure you’re working with a company who knows the criteria inside and out. At Linkeo, we’ve been doing this for over 20 years. If you want to race with Porsches, you can’t show up with rollerblades.”
Sales, Dinosaurs, and Comedy
An entrepreneur at heart, Gabriel can empathize with all his clients, whether they run a law firm, restaurant or day care. “My intention with my pitch is to help people. If our products don’t match their needs, no problem. But even clients who say no often end up sending me referrals.”
His ability to connect with just about anyone also serves him on the stage, where he moonlights as a stand-up comic. He likes to talk about “the raw stuff of life.” Couple issues, everyday mishaps, stuff that people can relate to. As it turns out, relatability is a key element of his day job.
“In a nutshell, marketing is just picturing yourself in the shoes of someone successful, and thinking, what do I need to get there? And you have to keep adapting. Because things are always changing.”
Circling back to his love for dinosaurs, Gabriel draws parallels between online marketing and the ever-changing world of paleontology: “Did you know we’ve found less than 1% of species so far? Just five to six years ago, we learned that dinosaurs have feathers. It’s like keeping on top of astronomy and web marketing. What we once knew keeps going out of date. We’re discovering new things all the time and I love it.”
