Marketing vs promises

In general, in the case of service providers that need to attract customers, it appears a situation in which some promise to deliver certain things or solve certain problems in such a way that potential customers are as attracted and tempted as possible to choose those who know how to sell themselves best. “And what’s wrong with this?” you might ask. Well, nothing until here. Of course, this does not mean that all potential customers choose blindly without asking or learning about the expertise or experience of those who will provide the services.

So, what’s the problem?

There has been a trend in recent years, such as those who provide marketing and sales services, to make promises about the results the client will get in a certain period or not, of time. And this is not a problem at all when the promises are based on previous experiences with that type of marketing or sales action to be implemented or when it is based on prior research and analysis. But when all these promises are only meant to sell the services of an agency, most of the time, the clients start to realize that they will not reach the promises made to them.

And this creates frustration and a lack of trust in marketing agencies, in general. And that’s why there are still people who say they don't believe in marketing or in those who promise to get certain results. Or, even worse, some say that marketing is just a joke. And after several experiences that did not go as promised, those customers lose confidence and become skeptical in the next discussions with the sales and marketing agencies. This, in turn, has only negative and detrimental effects on these agencies. And because the labor market is a combination of experiences, due to distrust, customers become skeptical too and try to handle any small detail, to micromanage everything, while agencies are becoming less and less of a pleasant reputation - and then, in order to survive, they no longer rely so much on the quality of the service they provide, but on persuasion. And this is how a vicious circle is formed, which affects both sides.

Mistakes in today’s marketing agencies

Let’s also look at the reasons why promises and results don't meet sometimes. Because, indeed, we have to be honest and say that the truth might be somewhere in the middle.

Marketing and sales agencies (especially the ones that are at the beginning of the road) do not really understand their customers' business and/or do not strive to understand it. And when you don't understand what the customer is doing, you don't know what he wants to achieve and you don't see why he has a specific set of goals.

Some agencies do not place much emphasis on measuring results. Either they don't know how to do it, or they don't pay much attention to it. And they don't notice where they make mistakes from one action to the next, so they don't make any improvements.

They do not set and negotiate certain expectations or they are not completely honest with customers about their expertise or experience level. Also, when marketing agencies make bigger promises than they think they can deliver, they put pressure on themselves and the other party's expectations are high because that's what they were promised.

Agencies do not give feedback to customers along the way and vice versa, which prevents them from making proactive decisions, and the collaboration ends before one of the parties tells the other to stop collaborating.

They do not set goals or a long-term work plan. And instead of making their work easier, they confuse each other. They need a work plan that takes into account their objectives, as a collaboration, the objectives of the agency, as a way of carrying out their activity and the objectives of the client’s business. Thus, all the collaboration has continuity and certain aspects to be pursued by both parties.

Another problem arises when marketing agencies do not have enough people with expertise to help them work with clients. And that puts them in a lot of trouble to deliver on time and clearly what they promised.

And in the end, some agencies do have good intentions, but they don't know how to do it because they haven't invested enough in developing their knowledge. And this becomes a key element in long-term collaborations because it can really bring a lot of applicable know-how. When there’s a lack of communication between the client and the agency, it becomes a real issue, over the collaboration. If activities and results are not reported, the client may become skeptical that the agency has done its job properly or that it has done its job, at least. The saddest part is when they don't communicate along the way and no changes are made during the campaign and that leads to unfulfilled expectations.

Let's start with the premise that everyone has something to offer and something to receive. After all, this is the world we live in. We live in a world so crowded with options that the mere presentation of the services you offer seems to be extremely inefficient. So, one way or another, you have to get out of the crowd. And marketing and sales agencies are like any other brand that has something to offer to a certain segment of the public and that has competition. So, if we put ourselves in their place, we can understand why it seems natural that they end up promising dreams. But obviously, this does not bring long-term benefits to any party, that’s why we’ve opened this discussion, in the first place.

Secondly, from year to year, the marketing and sales industry is undergoing more and more transformations. We have more and more tools to help us, but at the same time, because there are so many, chaos is created. Patience, feedback and continuous learning are the steps we ask for and offer at Kaaymedia in every collaboration we have!

FYI - some people use a term called dreamketing - from “dream” + “marketing”

What experiences have you had with marketing and sales agencies so far? Tell us in the comments section!