Wait... what are you talking about there are that many competitors? Last I checked there are way more people on Earth than that number, unless you mean your niche specifically. If that's the case then yes it's possible if you put in mid - high $xxx,xxx on professional SEO service.
Never went for less - never had a penalization - all my customers are happy Every feared Google update pushed my sites (customer sites) up the SERPs without doing anything! Hope the next udate will be performed soon.
Been #1 for 11 years on Google now. Just checked and still am #1 out of 16,400,000 hits (over 16 million). And THREE of the top ten on that page are mine. (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=transmission+supply&btnG=Search)