How I Make an Agency’s Expected Result Clear to a Buyer

When somebody considers paying an agency, I want them to understand what working with it could actually achieve. Naming an ad platform or listing activities leaves the buyer to supply that meaning. My argument is that the offer, the evidence and the sales conversation should make the intended result clear enough to evaluate.

Do not let the mechanism stand in for the result

Google ads, outreach and other services are ways of pursuing an outcome. I distinguish the provider, the mechanism and the result the client wants from using it.

A referral may arrive with more context because another client has already described what happened. A stranger reading a cold message does not necessarily have that background, so I need the proposition to explain it.

Client Ascension related reading: the value proposition guide examines the difference between the work delivered and the buyer's reason to purchase it.

Explain the economics behind a revenue claim

My advertising example makes a distinction between revenue generated and profit. A large sales number can still leave the client without a worthwhile return after ad spend and the other costs involved.

When I looked for advice about Twitter ads, I found videos emphasizing inexpensive clicks without revealing the financial result. I describe searching the comments for the return information because the cheap click alone did not answer the question I needed answered.

Use case evidence to show what the result means

I want relevant results available when the buyer asks what is possible. A case study can explain an actual engagement more clearly than an unsupported promise on a landing page.

The claim still needs evidence behind it. The sales process should not depend on avoiding the question when the prospect asks about the likely return or the result the provider can support.

Be direct when there is little proof

For a beginner without case studies, I recommend a performance-based arrangement and an honest explanation of the starting point. The proposition is that compensation depends on producing the agreed result, rather than pretending to have a record that does not exist.

My advice is to use that early work to build actual evidence. Once the provider has delivered, there is something more concrete to discuss with the next prospect.

Client Ascension related reading: the retainer-versus-revenue-share guide examines the obligations and financial variability behind those payment choices.

Move the evidence closer to the business outcome

I describe a sequence of measures: replies, interested replies, booked calls and signed clients. They do not all answer the same question about what the business gained.

For an ad campaign, clicks and engagement sit farther from the client's economic objective than leads, calls or profit. I want the evidence to reach as close to the buyer's actual goal as the available data supports, rather than present a distant activity metric as the final result.

Ask what the prospect would consider a win

If the desired outcome is unclear, I suggest asking the buyer what would make the engagement a good investment. That gives both sides a specific expectation to examine.

I then ask whether the service can reasonably achieve it. If it cannot, I would say so and explain the limiting conditions rather than promise the result merely to keep the conversation moving.

Adapted by Client Ascension with AI assistance from Daniel Fazio's lesson. The first-person narrative follows the source speaker’s account. Watch the original video