Yes, You CAN Guarantee Your Work As A Branding Agency
Anytime you’re selling services, especially to small businesses you need to connect the work that you do to the outcomes and the benefits that the client is going to get.
When we’re selling branding, marketing, or design services, we usually want to connect our work to some sort of return on investment.
What can they expect to get in return?
Usually they’re investing in branding and marketing because they want to make more money. They want to sell more services or products at higher prices.
Sounds simple, right?
But do you feel uncomfortable about promising results you don’t feel like you can guarantee?
Read on, and I’ll show you how to:
Reframe what you can actually guarantee your clients so you can feel confident about your promises
Connect what you do with how it will earn the client more money, if they do their part
Ask the one question that will build your confidence in promising an ROI
What ROI in branding and marketing services really means
When clients are investing in branding, marketing, design services, it’s usually because they want to make more money. They want to sell more services, or more widgets at higher prices.
But can you really promise that the logo you're going to make or designing a nicer website is going to result in them making more money?
When I first started marketing, like actually, intentionally creating marketing copy for my business, I had a real existential crisis about it.
I felt like everything I was learning about writing marketing copy had to do with connecting what I was offering to the ultimate outcome that the client wanted.
In my case, I was selling branding services, so I had to connect the fact that I was going to rebrand their business to what they ultimately wanted - growing their business, increasing sales, increasing prices, profitability, clients, whatever it was.
And I used to get really worried and paranoid about making that connection. I mean, I’m going to design this website for you or make a nicer logo, but can I really promise or guarantee?
Or should I even say that I think that this will make your business do better?
And I've heard a lot of students over the years expressed that same fear - nobody wants to promise an outcome that they don't feel like they can actually deliver.
And when it comes to offering services like ours, it's almost impossible to guarantee results.
Because the results of your work aren't just contingent on your work.
They are reliant on the client doing so many other things.
So I want to put your mind at ease and give you a little context for what it means to connect the work that you do with the promise of ROI, or outcome, or the benefits are going to get in the end.
If someone hires me to rebrand their business, redo their website, what can I guarantee for them?
Well, I can guarantee that I'm going to listen to them, I'm going to understand their challenges, I'm going to understand their market, I'm going to understand their goals, I'm going to make them something that is awesome.
I'm going to make them a new brand, I'm going to design a new logo, a new website, I'm going to create better messaging - messaging that is more on target for what they're trying to say that is more specific for the audience that they're speaking to.
I'm going to deliver a brand design that is more aligned with the kind of business that they are and want to be. I can guarantee that that is what I'm going to do.
And my hope is that by doing that, I will put their business in a position to make more money.
Because if you are speaking in a more targeted way, to a clear audience with more compelling messaging, a website that is more aligned with your brand is more memorable.
Yes, the likelihood is that you're going to do better in your business.
More people will notice it, more of the right people will be attracted to it.
More of those people will be engaged with it enough to want to talk to you.
And if that is true, if all of those things are true. If more people are engaged and more people are paying attention, then you will make more sales.
That's a pretty logical conclusion to draw. Right?
But it might not happen if I build an amazing brand for you, and I do everything right.
If I do my best work for this client, I could do that and they could never get another sale.
Because maybe right after I do it, they close their business.
Or maybe, right after I do it, they stop all marketing, or they don't even show up for the sales calls that they book. Right?
I'm being extreme on purpose.
These are things that we cannot control that the client may do.
Because ultimately, the design of the brand, the marketing message, the website - all the things that we offer - they're all there to help this business succeed.
They can't make it succeed.
If a business owner is not very good at business, if they don't know how to have processes and systems, if their customer service is crap, if their product sucks, if their service sucks, if any of those things are true, I could create the best brand in the world for them.
But if nobody sees it, and nobody shows up to deliver on the brand's promise, it's not going to be successful.
How to connect the branding work to the outcomes
No matter what kind of promise you want to make, or are scared to make when it comes to delivering your services, and connecting them to an outcome, there is an underlying assumption that I believe you are absolutely well within your right to make:
“If you, the client, do your job well - if you show up, if you run your business with at least some level of expertise, are able to deliver the high value that you're telling me you deliver, if you have great customer service, and if I build this brand for you, and you start to put yourself out there, be seen by ideal clients, have calls with people who are interested in buying your services, are really good at closing those people and if you have all of that in line, then I 100% guarantee that with a new brand that is more aligned with who you are it will help you increase your business’s success.”
If your client won’t do anything to get this brand seen, and it’s a brand sitting on a shelf in a closet it isn’t going to help them.
I feel very comfortable telling clients “Absolutely, this is going to increase the value of your business.”
Because the assumption is that they, the business owner, is going to at least be doing what they’ve been doing up until now.
And ideally, doing more and more, right?
If they’ve been marketing up until now, they’re only going to continue to market - they’re not going to stop marketing.
Branding and marketing has its limitations
There’s a reason I don't work with startups in my agency, and I won't do a rebrand or build a brand from scratch for somebody who's not in business.
And there’s a reason I love to work with people who are on their way up.
And at this point, my prices kind of necessitate that the people I'm working with already have had a level of success in their business, because they can afford to hire us.
I work with one to three person service businesses, because most of the people that are my clients are people who are really badass at what they do.
They are high level experts, and they have had a great deal of success.
And the problem is usually that they're having a hard time closing more of those clients and at the higher premium prices that they want.
That's a perfect example of a situation where I feel really confident saying that if they’re able to achieve what they have up until now with this ‘not-so-great’ website, this crappy brand, lack of positioning or lack of compelling copy then hell yeah, let me rebrand your business!
Let me take this mediocre copy and make it something that stands out and attracts attention and closes the deal.
Let me take this ‘1990s’ website and turn it into something that is cutting edge and cool and looks premium.
Of course it's going to give you more success in your business. If all things stay the same or get better on your end, it means that I know that this work is going to help you succeed more.
And that's really where I come from.
When I promise that my work will be able to deliver, I am assuming that the business owner that I'm working with is going to continue to do their best work on their end.
They're going to continue to get better at business or they're at least going to stay as good as they are right now.
So if you ever feel uncomfortable about telling somebody that your work is going to produce an ROI, I want you to ask yourself
if they stay the same as they are right now with or without your help, will they be better off with your help?
Do you feel confident that they'll be able to make more sales or sell at higher prices with your help or not?
If you don't feel like they will, for whatever reason, then you shouldn't promise that. No amount of branding or marketing will help them - something else has to be fixed.
But most of the time, when you are helping somebody rebrand, it's because their brand really needs it.
Few people take a brand that is working and resonating and say they need to rebrand it.
Most people who need your help need it because their website sucks, because their stuff is outdated, because they are talking to people who don't see the value of what they have to offer, because they want to increase their prices, but their brand looks like it's from the bargain basement.
And if that's the case, and you step in, and you bring their brand into the 21st century, and you make something that is really appealing to their ideal clients, there's almost no way that they wouldn't be better off.
The only way that the client will be less well off with your help is if you're not very good at what you do.
If you miss the mark, if you don't ask them about their goals, if you aren't clear on who their market is, if you don't show up as a leader and an expert and help them figure out exactly where their brand needs to be to get them where they need to go, that could hurt.
If you are lacking that confidence, then maybe you need to spend some more time building that confidence and building your own abilities and expertise before you start working for clients.
Or you can do a bunch of case studies for very low prices to learn and build the skills. And I highly recommend getting into some sort of program or getting a coach to teach you these skills, because you should feel confident in your own abilities to help any client that you are pitching to increase the value of their business.
If you can feel confident that even if everything on their end stays the same, the work that you will do can be tied to real tangible outcomes.
And you can promise that when you do your work with them, it will deliver results.
Because if all things stay the same, but this thing improves, the business should improve as well.
Here’s what you need to get…
You can ABSOLUTELY guarantee results for your clients, through delivering branding projects.
You just need to ask them (and yourself) one important question, and make one very important assumption.
A great brand will make an already great business get to the next level of success, and that is exactly what you will be doing for your clients.
P.S. You can always jump on a call with my team if you want to learn my tools and strategies to scale up your agency - just go here to get started!