Same Words, Different Results: How to Tell a Good Marketer from a Bad One Before It Costs You

Same Words, Different Results: How to Tell a Good Marketer from a Bad One Before It Costs You

Let me ask you something. Have you ever hired a marketer or talked to one and felt pretty good about it? They said all the right things. They sounded smart, confident. And then 6, 12, 18 months later, you've got nothing to show for it. That happens a lot more than people care to admit. You are not on an island by yourself. Here's the thing that most B2B owners don't realize. The words aren't the problem. Every marketer out there uses similar vocabulary. Know your audience. We're going to help you generate leads. Strategy, not tactics. It all sounds credible, but credible sounding and actually knowing what they're doing are two very different things. So today, I'm going to give you a filter. These seven phrases every marketer says, and the one question you should ask behind each one to find out if they actually mean it. If they can actually deliver.

Hi, I am Tim Fitzpatrick with Rialto Marketing, where we believe marketing shouldn't be difficult and it definitely shouldn't be guesswork. Thank you so much for taking the time to tune in.

This whole topic actually came out of a speaking engagement that I did several weeks ago. And I just thought it was a fantastic question. Somebody asked me, How do you tell the difference between a good market or a bad market? They all said the same thing. So that's where this came from. And I hope you find it super helpful.

Why The Usual Vetting Process Fails

The first thing I am going to cover here is why the usual vetting process fails. It's not that when you go to hire a marketer, you're not properly qualifying them. Most of you are doing the work. You're trying to find the best person for you. But the process still fails. So why does it fail? Because most people are evaluating marketers on the wrong things. Most owners hire based on presentation quality, right? Confidence, and whether the pitch sounded good, Did it sound smart? Like they knew what they were doing. But none of that predicts results. Bad marketers are not easy to spot early. They've learned the vocabulary. They say all the right things. The gaps only show up in execution solution, usually after you've signed an agreement. But the real cost isn't just the retainer. It's the 12 to 18 months you don't spend building a real pipeline. That is a compounding loss. So the filter that actually works, it's not whether a marketer says the right things, it's whether they can show you the thinking behind those things so that you can understand why they're doing certain things and how they go about it.

The Seven Phrase Filter

So let's get into the seven phrases. And for each one of these, I'm going to give you a question to help you reveal what's behind it and whether what they're saying is good or bad. So this is the seven phrase filter that I'm going to share with you. So you can use these to separate the real from the rehearsed.

So phrase one, we need to know your target audience. I say this all the time. Got to hone in on who your ideal clients are. Now, a bad marketer defines the audience as small business owners or IT decision makers. It's very broad. It's convenient. It makes it easier for them to do their work. It doesn't mean that their work is going to actually work. Good does the actual work. They take the time to hone in on who your ideal clients are. This might be through real buyer interviews, pattern recognition from best clients, right? They look at your existing client base and ask you deeper questions so that they really understand specific pain points. The question you can ask here is walk me through how you develop our audience profile and what sources you'd use. Some of them are going to say, expect you to give it to them. That's a red flag right there. So phrase one, we need to know your target audience. The question you ask, walk me through how you develop our audience profile and what sources you'd use.

Phrase two, we'll help you generate more leads? A bad marketer jumps straight into tactics. We're going to generate more leads, and we're going to run paid ads, or we're going to do SEO or generative engine optimization, or we're going to create content. There's no diagnosis first. It's just jumping right into prescription. A good marketer asks why the pipeline is thin before recommending anything. They take the time to really understand what's going on and diagnose the problem so that they prescribe the right thing. Is it awareness? Is it your messaging? Is it conversion? The question you can ask here is before you recommend tactics, what do you need to diagnose where our pipeline is actually breaking down? Give them an opportunity to tell you what they're going to do to properly diagnose this. Most marketers Our suppliers don't properly diagnose. They just jump right into the tactics. We'll help you generate more leads. The question you're going to ask is before you recommend tactics, what do you need to diagnose where our pipeline is actually breaking down?

Phrase number three, we'll help you stand out. We'll help you stand out, right? We're going to differentiate your business. A bad marketer responds with a tagline refresh or a new color pallete. We need to do some branding. A good marketer knows the differentiation lives in positioning and proof, not just slogans. There is a big difference between Positioning, what you own in the market, and messaging, which is how you say it. Good marketers know that difference. Bad ones don't. The question you want to ask here is, how do you approach differentiation? And what's the difference between positioning and messaging in your work? Remember, positioning is what you own in the market. Messaging is how you say it.

Phrase number 4, let's test it. Marketing is about testing. A bad marketer runs random tactics with no hypothesis. They call any result a learning. Every outcome justifies more budget. But a good marketer has a clear question, a clear controlled variable. What are we going to test here? And knows the difference between signal, something's working or not, and noise. The question you want to ask here is, what does success look like before you start? And what would tell you that the test failed? You want to make sure that they have a clear understanding of what they're testing and how they're going to do it. So phrase four, let's test it. The question you can ask, what does success look like before you start and what would tell you the test failed?

Phrase number five, ROI is important. Return on investment is important. Now, bad marketer says it to sound credible, but hides behind vanity metrics when results are thin. Vanity metrics are Their metrics don't mean anything. They're not transferring to revenue. Impressions. How many followers you have on Facebook? Those are vanity metrics. A good marketer has an actual attribution model, meaning that they can tie results back to specific things. And they're honest about what's hard to track and long B2B sales cycles. Because the reality is there are some things that are very difficult to track. And if they are, a good marketer should tell you that they are. The question you can ask here is, how do you measure marketing return on investment for a B2B client? And what are you honest with clients about in terms of what's hard to attribute or track? Okay, two more.

Phrase six, Marketing is an investment that takes time. A bad marketer uses this as a stall. They ask for more runway with no checkpoints. A good marketer sets specific progress markers up front so you always know what's working, what isn't, and what's next. Hey, this is going to take time. This is going to take six months, nine months. But these are the checkpoints that we're going to have at 30 days, 45 days, 60 days, 90, 180, so that you have a clear idea of what you're going to be looking at to evaluate whether you're on the right path. And if you're not on the right path, that you have the information you need to start shifting course. So the question that you're going to want to ask here is, we're signing a 12-month agreement. If you are, right? Walk me through the checkpoints you'd set and the specific metrics you'd use at each one. Or Hey, you're telling me that this is going to take time. Walk me through the checkpoints you'd set and the specific metrics you'd use at each one.

Phrase number seven, last but certainly not least, we need a strategy, not just tactics. A bad marketer says this constantly, then delivers a tactical plan with a strategy label on it. The strategy is usually just a content calendar. Or the strategy is this is what we're going to do for email marketing. That's not a strategy, that's a plan. But they're jumping right into tactics. A good marketer can clearly explain why specific tactics were chosen, how they connect to each other, and what the system is designed to produce at each stage of the buyer or customer journey. The question you can ask here is, can you show me an example of a strategy you built and walk me through why you chose the components you did? Can you show me an example of a strategy you built and walk me through why you chose the components you did?

That's it. Those are your seven filters. Those are your seven filter questions. Now, here's the thing. Good marketers already expect these questions. And that's the point. A marketer who can answer them clearly is showing you how they actually think. A marketer who gets defensive or vague is also showing you something. Pay attention to both.

A Simple Way To Use The Seven Question Filter in Practice

Now, how do you use this filter in practice? Let me give you a simple way that you can use this seven question filter in practice. And that is to turn this into a simple scoring tool, not just a checklist. So if you want, and you want to go to this detail, you can score each answer on a simple a three-point scale. Claire gets two points, vague gets one, and defensive or deflecting gets zero. So the max score is 14. Claire is a two, not bad, but somewhat vague gets a one and defensive or deflective gets a zero. And then use it comparatively across multiple conversations with the marketers that you're talking to, right? It's not just as a pass fail for one person. So let me give you a practical difference here, and this is probably getting a little more on the technical side than I should, but a strong answer to the ROI question might sound something like this. We use pipeline, all the leads come in pipeline influence and closed one attribution. And we're up front that early funnel Funnel, early in the process, content is harder to tie directly to revenue. Here's how we handle that. And then they go into an explanation. That's a two. There's more detail here. A weaker answer might be, well, we track everything. Impressions, engagement, conversions. We'll build you a full funnel dashboard. It doesn't really answer the question. That's a zero. They named outputs not a model or a process around how they're going to do this. Look, this is not about being skeptical of every marketer you talk to. It's about knowing what to listen for. The words are there. What you're looking for is the thinking behind those words because they're going to say some of the same things. Those seven phrases, seven questions, use them every time you're evaluating someone you're thinking about hiring. You might use them on a current vendor that you're not sure about, or even an internal marketing hire. The goal is simple. Stop paying for 12 months of activity with nothing to show for it. And start finding someone who can actually build the engine with you.

Conclusion

So I hope you found this helpful. When this question came up a couple of weeks ago, I was like, I got to create a podcast episode around that. So hopefully this helps. If you've got questions, you can always reach out to us at rialtomarketing.com. That's .rialtomarketing.com Thank you so much for tuning in. If you feel like you're doing all the recommended marketing stuff, but you're still not seeing the results you need, you're stuck in the marketing maze. If you want to get your roadmap out, you can head on over to marketingenginescorecard.com to find out exactly what's keeping your engine from delivering consistent growth. It takes less than two minutes, so go take advantage of it now. Until next time. Take care.