Marketing Outsourcing Danger #3
The cleverly worded guarantee?
I can guarantee you the moon will
rise in the west instead of the east tomorrow, and sure as can be,
if I state it with the absolute certainty, someone will buy into
it because I "guaranteed" it.
The question you first have to
ask yourself is, "Is the promise realistic?" The
answer is often an obvious no. A marketing company that
promises you clients is just giving you sales fluff because there
is no way that they can guarantee that anyone is going to want
what you have to offer on your terms and at your price. They
might be able to offer you leads, but they cannot guarantee you
any clients. That's your job.
The second question is,
"What are they guaranteeing?" Cleverly written
guarantees can promise you nothing, or they can mislead you to
believe they are saying what you want to hear. An old Clorox
commercial said, "Nothing beats Clorox Bleach".
Note that they did not say "Clorox Bleach beats all
others". That's because Clorox and most other brands or
even store brands of bleach are the same concentration of active
chemical. They are essentially the same.
Read your guarantee carefully,
and ask questions. And most of all, if they quickly try to
get off the subject of their guarantee, it's probably doubtful.
Be sure that any guarantee
actually minimizes your risk. What happens if they don't
perform? Then what? If nothing is stated, then it just
sales talk. Do you get something free? Do you get your
money back? Are you allowed out of your contract? Will you
be reimbursed for income that is lost?
Don't count on the last
one. As much as you'd like to see such a guarantee, these
are pretty unrealistic. A guarantee is just that, and rarely
does it qualify as an insurance policy against loss of
business. If you want such insurance, you will most
definitely pay the premium price for it.
