Contradictory marketing — Kelford Labs Daily

There’s a funny contradiction in the advertising industry that often gets joked about:

• Advertising agencies will explain to their clients that the secret to success is awareness and engagement driven by paid advertising
• But many of those same agencies will get most of their work, not by advertising, but by responding to RFPs

That’s... odd, no?

I mean, if you went to an ad agency and asked them how to get more customers, and they said, “Just respond to hundreds of RFPs every year and cross your fingers,” you’d be a little let down.

Because isn’t their secret to success awareness and engagement from advertising?

Or think about an SEO company that has a massive outbound sales team. Like, isn’t their whole thing being found on Google?

There’s a weird sense of contradiction when we don’t demonstrate what we do in the process of selling what we do.

And there’s a strange incongruity when a service provider violates their own process in an attempt to get the work:

• A bookkeeper that gives a massive discount
• A designer with a proposal written with default fonts in a plain Google Doc
• A web developer with an out-of-date copyright notice in their site footer

I know, I know, the ‘the cobbler’s children have no shoes’ and all those clichés.

But prospects don’t give us that grace: They expect to see us show our work, not just talk about it.

So that’s today’s task: Think about what you do and think about how you sell what you do.

Notice any contradictions.

And start resolving them by demonstrating what you do in the process of selling what you do.

Reply to this email to tell me what you think, or ask any questions!

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