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Writer's pictureJohn Brandt

Overpromising and underdelivering

I have a bone to pick today.


Yesterday, I had two sales calls with prospective clients. And they both shared similar horror stories of getting played by agencies they hired.


In my first call of the two, the dude told me he hired a few agencies in the past and got burned.


How?


* The agencies they hired didn’t offer targets for their goals. Major red flag numero uno.


* They didn’t deliver on promises. In fact, one Facebook Ads agency charged them a $5k setup fee, $2k for ongoing maintenance, and resulted in absolutely zero leads or sales. It took them 2 months to even run an ad too. Talk about a slap in the face. And major red flag numero dos.


* And another agency ghosted this business for months. Major red flag numero tres.


Ooof, that stings just writing about it.


The second company I talked to didn’t get scammed, well, at least, yet. (And I’ma do my darnest to try to help them prevent getting scammed by one of these sociopaths LARPing around as an agency.)


Here’s the story:


This brand just lost their in-house email copywriter. And they’ve been searching for a suitable replacement ever since.


I’m a possible suitable replacement. As are a handful of scummy agencies.


How do I know they’re scummy agencies?


Well, they asked me if I “lock” my clients into long contracts.


Turns out, almost every agency they've chatted with over the past couple of weeks wanted to lock them into a year-long contract.


And back before they found an in-house copywriter, they traveled down the agency road.


Their results?


Abysmal.


Every agency they worked with spread themselves too thin and delivered lackluster results.


I mean, if you’re a sociopath and don’t care about scamming business owners for the year’s worth of blood, sweat, and tears it takes to start and grow a company… I guess this is a good biz model?


But if’n you’re a regular person who cares about your clients, the results you deliver, and want to help them grow their business?


You gotta be prepared for this.


Because everyone ain’t as ethical as you may be.


It goes without saying, but both of these leads felt a little skeptical about how I could help them.


And for good reason:


They’ve collectively shelled out anywhere from $10-$20k on agencies who promised them the world and delivered nada.


Didn’t worry me though.


Why?


Because I can back up what I say. And I even “downplay” some of my results when chatting to them. I’ve written single emails that almost cleared $50k in revenue — but I’d never promise that every email I send will generate $50k in revenue.


Why?


It’s better to underpromise and overdeliver than to overpromise and underdeliver. That’s how I’ve worked with about 50% of my clients for going on 3 years.


But these stories bring up an important point:


Do your due diligence before hiring me, an agency, or even linking up with a new business partner.


The world of bidness is riddled with similar horror stories of sociopaths scamming honest, hard-working folk.


And if you’re a freelancer or an agency, you can’t skimp on your due diligence either.


One of my first clients ghosted me because I made them too much money. Crazy, right? Well, recently, they’ve decided to “take a break” from business… karma has its way of coming back.


Anywho:


Anyone can say they can make you more moolah with email marketing.


But only a select few (like yours truly)...


* Write and send an email every single day


* Published a book on email marketing


* Retains clients for going on 3 years


* Underpromises and overdelivers


* And, most importantly, cares about you and your success


So if you need an email copywriter you can trust…



But a warning:


My client roster is filling up fast.


So stop dilly-dallying, and let’s see if there’s an opportunity for us to partner before I put on my cape and save more honest and good business owners from agencies straight outta Gotham City.


John


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