B2B Companies: 11 Key Things to Avoid Working with the Wrong Marketing Agency or Consultant

Too many B2B companies fall into the same trap—hiring a digital marketing agency or consultant that overpromises, underdelivers, and leaves them with little to show for it.

I’ve seen it happen way too many times.

• Agencies that focus on vanity metrics instead of revenue-generating results.
• Consultants who create ‘strategies’ but never implement anything meaningful.
• Companies left frustrated and out thousands of dollars—with no clear way forward.

In the latest episode of A Founder’s Lab, I’m pulling back the curtain on:

✅ How B2B companies keep getting ripped off (and how to spot the warning signs)
✅ What you need to demand from an agency or consultant before signing anything
✅ How I help my clients transition from consultant-led marketing to an in-house team ready to execute a successful demand generation program

 If you’ve ever felt like you wasted money on digital marketing help that didn’t deliver, this episode is for you.

Transcript of the show

 One of the biggest challenges most of you listening have faced is finding a trustworthy marketing consultant or an agency to help you, your business, achieve specific goals without getting ripped off. That's what we're talking about in today's episode of A Founders Lab.

Hey there, I'm Janet Bartoli and this is the Founders Lab, where I am showing you the smartest and most effective way to grow your business through mindset and skills and one on one conversations. I'll also invite guests like you and experts across the internet to provide some insights to learn from.

Unfortunately, way too many businesses have been burned. I'm sure that you're sitting there listening and you are agreeing with me because you maybe you were one that was that has been burned before. Whether it is from somebody who is promising you SEO or some other digital marketing activity may be paid search. I have been on both ends, the receiving end and on the end where I was in a situation where I am working with a client and across the table is the marketer who is ripping off the client, and it feels so uncomfortable.

And you just have to wonder what is going through these people's heads. Not the business owner, the actual consultant, or the digital marketing agency. Do you not have any sense of right and wrong if you're trying to? Uh, pull one over on a client. I just I don't understand the purpose of it. It is your business reputation that is going to be sullied because for whatever reason, I don't know. I don't know why you would do that, I certainly don't I have never done that in my entire 21 year career. Uh, in digital marketing. I don't understand why anybody would do that. In fact, I will go so far as to say, look, if I don't feel like I can help you right at the very beginning in that initial discovery call, I will absolutely say that, hey, no one, I don't think this is the right fit. I don't think I can help you, but I can give you some resources or referrals to those that I think might be a better fit for you.

That is a far better thing to do than to promise something that I can't. And unfortunately, there's just too many businesses out there. 

I've heard lots of horror stories, and I'm sure that you maybe have you've lived through one yourself. So today I'm going to share 11 key things you can do to avoid working with the wrong marketing consultant or agency so you don't waste time, money, and effort on the wrong people, and also so that you have a much more positive marketing experience because good, really good strategic marketing can do so much for a business of any size. I have really been able to see big, big wins for a $1.5 million company, just as I have for some of the world's largest well-known brands.

And honestly, everything in between because it's just good strategy, just it works. It takes a little bit of effort, but when you can do the right thing for the business, it just makes so much sense. Okay, now I'm going to go through a few of the common pitfalls.  , and then I'm going to jump right into 11 things that I want you to look out for.

So there there is a reason why so many businesses are struggling to find the right marketing partner. And most of these reasons stem from the fact that you don't know what you don't know. Or put another way, they are taking advantage of the fact that you may not be so clued in or you're in the dark.  , mostly on how digital marketing in general, or paid search or SEO even works.

Things have changed, especially when it comes to digital marketing. But you can't possibly keep up with all the changes, so you reach out to some freelancer, hoping they'll be the key to unlocking lots of marketing brain trusts, only to find out they know less than you do, but they led you to believe they could turn your brand around and bring in loads of leads. Unfortunately, then they don't. So. There. There are loads and loads of examples that I could share with you.  , I do recall. I mean, I'll give you a few. I remember this one because I just it really it was one that really kind of stood out as such a bizarre thing.

One business owner is telling me that he trusted some search marketer that told him he used to work for Google, and that anytime Google made a change, this guy was notified. And that was the reason why this unsuspecting businessman was supposed to hire him, because he used to work at Google. And anytime Google made any change, this guy was going to get the phone call. Like, seriously, are you kidding me? Or, you know, they'll promise you tactics that are purely meaningless. Like, we're going to guarantee you 50 links in a month. It's rubbish, it's useless. And really, what links, why and how does that actually lead to an increase in revenue? That's what you should be asking. How is that going to increase my revenue? Because at the end of the day, that's what you should be paying for. You're paying for qualified, targeted leads.

Also, the difference between a strategic consultant versus a yes man agency. The strategic consultant, like myself would tell you like it is not what you want to hear and you may not want to hear.  , maybe the truth. It may be there is a a strategy that just is not going to be a right fit, despite the fact that you might want to do it. The yes man or the agency guru might just tell you yes, everything, whatever you want to do. Sure, regardless of whether it makes sense for your brand or your audience, that's that's just wrong.

All right, now let's get into the 11th. Things that you should look out for. Take these down because I'm going to go through one by one. And and there's likely very actually there are very many more. I'm going to only give you 11 today.  , but this is this is going to really be very helpful, I think, for you,  , as you consider even looking at another, uh, consultant or a digital marketing agency.  , there are a lot of questions that you should ask. One of them might be, can you show me some case studies or results and specifics?

Now they can you can ask the question, but they can really anybody can create a use case. Anybody can make things up. But when they don't have that type of experience or they can't really back it up, that is a problem.

So you might also ask, how do you keep up with what's going on in the digital marketing industry? What what types of, uh, news or industry events or things do you look to to keep you educated on what's actually happening? And if anybody ever asked me that, I got a whole list of things that for years, decades that I've been I look at, I read, I keep myself educated on a regular and consistent basis. That is something that you should definitely ask. And if they tell you, well, they just Google things or they ask ChatGPT, that should be a flag, because of course anybody can do that, but you're not paying for somebody to just Google things, you're paying for them. You're for that person to come to the table,  , having some knowledge or, or some ability to continuously educate themselves. Another red flag as well. You know, we'll get you to to page one of Google in a month. And and that one has been a red flag for at least the last 15 to 20 years. So you want clear answers, not vague promises.

Number two, do they talk strategy or just tactics? This one is my favorite and I probably should have made it n ber one. This one is a big one. Tactics without strategy equals wasted money. Always. You should always, always insist on strategy over tactics every single day. Uh, you just need to run in the other direction. If you hear we're just going to build your backlink profile or we're going to build out tons of content,  , we're just going to run some ads.  , we're going to get you some success quickly. All of that stuff is not talking strategy. They're just throwing tactics at you as if they if it sounds impressive, you want to make sure they come to you and talk to you about a strategy.

Every single initial kickoff meeting I have with my clients, that is the first thing we do, is we talk about what are the goals and objectives of the business, what does success look like in terms of what is it that you really need to see from this campaign?

We need to understand what that is so that we can build out an actual strategy. And a strategy is not a list of tactics. A strategy is a specific goal. What is it that you're trying to accomplish. And then the tactics will support that strategy.

Number three. Do they understand your industry? Now I have I know there are many of you out there that think that. Well, if they don't understand my particular industry, they they must not have any idea how to help me. I think the better question is, is do they understand your audience? Because having a good understanding in terms of who your audience is is far more important. And then that will determine or should determine the strategy and the approach that they should take with you. In terms of offering you up a strategy based on your audience and the needs of what it is that your audience is looking for is a smarter way. Rather than asking them, what do you know about,  the financial industry? If I'm a, an accounting firm, let's say,  , it's a service based business. So if you work with law firms and you work with, let's say, uh, business consultants, and you work with an accounting firm.

They're all service based businesses. At the end of the day. So they do have different audience types. They have different, uh, people or groups of people looking to each of those different service based businesses for different things so that, you know, requires a whole other conversation that you should be having with that consultant as well. So making sure they understand your industry to me, isn't as important as understanding your audience. A red flag is any kind of we're going to hand you some generic cookie cutter approach,  , that will also fail once again, because it really goes back to just as I was saying about your audience, if they don't understand your audience or your brand or your goals and objectives, they can't possibly fulfill by giving you some generic cookie cutter program.

We do everything custom because every business is unique, every business is different. Your audience is different, your brand is different. And so consequently will customize something specific to your brand. And that's what you should be getting.

Number four are they data driven or just trust us marketers? Uh, so the role of analytics and key performance indicators is extremely important. If you do not have a report that shows every single month the performance. And I don't mean looking at your impression share, but I mean how many, how many requests for quotes or contact a sales rep or whatever it is that that will convert into an actual sale.

That's what you should be measuring. And forget rank reports and forget things that made more sense ten years ago. But we're in a completely different age and of of search. And so that all is can be looked at by the digital marketer, but they shouldn't really necessarily be sharing it with you because again, your time is limited.

You shouldn't be sitting in an hour long marketing meeting talking about rankings. They should be clearly speaking to you about your business goals and objectives and the approach, the strategy, what's working, what's not working.

And if it's not working, they should have backed up, uh, data to help you figure out what or help them figure out what the next steps are and what they should be. That's why a data driven approach makes a far more sense. If they say we don't focus on numbers, just brand awareness. Brand awareness is a byproduct of what the campaign should be doing, not the end result. Okay.

Number 5, transparency and pricing and deliverables. Now how do you spot hidden fees or unclear contracts? First off, anything that sounds too good to be true. Yes, it probably is. And that also includes paying a strategist. Charging you less than $1,000 a month is something is very wrong with that. Unless if that digital marketing strategist is meeting with you and discussing strategy that can be directly applied to your marketing campaign, then fine.

But if they're going to throw tactics alone at you for that price, that should be a red flag.  , you're not saving money by spending $1000 or $500 a month on digital marketing. In fact, you're wasting money. You're wasting a lot more than that. You could probably multiply it by ten.  , in terms of what you are wasting By by going that route. Uh, you know, it should really be the more experience and the more strategy involved, typically the more expensive that that consultant is going to be.

So somebody with 20 years experience working with,  , on multi-million dollar projects that has, has gotten and has increased the the performance of the website by 20 or 30 or 50 fold is going to be a lot more expensive than somebody who literally just learned what digital marketing stands for about a year ago, and just decided they were going to learn pay per click and are running performance Max ads on everybody, uh, and charging you $500 a month to manage that. That's a flag. This is somebody who is trying to learn off of you. And so. That's,  , not something you want to pay for. Especially if you if if they're not providing any strategy at all. So you've got to be clear,  , a lack of knowledge, lack of skills, and no strategy is a big red flag.  , most likely if,  , you see, like, service work, like it's content and, and links and all the stuff piled on top for a low dollar monthly amount, it should tell you that the work is probably being performed,  , from some less educated freelancer in another continent, and lack of knowledge, lack of skills and no strategy is a big red flag and really a waste of your money. So I really want to underscore that one.  , because and the types of deliverables you're getting should be getting a significant amount of,  , real good strategic deliverables for to, to you. And so that should be something you get every month.

Number 6: are they willing to say no to you? Now. Why a good consultant?  . Should push back when? When needed. So they should. In fact, I have been known to do this lots of times. I consulted with a higher ed client who wanted to cut budget to their SEO program right before a major website redesign. I pushed back very hard, and I was pretty loud about it.  , but it was for good reason. I just, on principle, felt like that was the stupidest thing that they could possibly do. And I didn't just say that it was the most asinine thing that they could do, but I actually backed it up with why?  , I have seen it firsthand, the collapse and the negative impact that it could have.

And that's why I was loud about it. And, I am very passionate about what I do for a living, and that comes through in the work that I produce. And so, yes, you're, you know, you might want to hear from a consultant who will push back from time to time, and that is important.

A red flag is will do whatever you ask, no questions, because that just screams I'm Junior and don't know any better. They haven't lived through the consequences of saying yes to everything, and so that should be a red flag. 

Number Seven: Do they have long term clients now? There could be some reasons why they don't, but you should check their client retention history. A better question might be to ask why do your clients typically leave if they do? If you should understand how many clients do you have? How many clients are you supporting? What is the average duration that you retain a client for? If it's less than 3 or 6 months and they never return? You might want to ask why that is. And you could also, you know, ask for references and, and call some older clients and just get a sense as to what the work was like with them. And I know that sounds like a lot of work to do, but that is important to follow through and ask for references.

You want to know who these people really worked with?  , and so they might have some logos on their website, but that doesn't really mean anything. So it's good to ask.

Number Eight: Do they educate you or keep you in the dark? This one I remember far back as 2007. A lot of the SEO professionals I would work with. Not a lot. Not a lot. Just a small handful, let's say, would feel that it would make more sense not to tell the client what they were actually doing, or how they were going about getting the work done, because they felt like if they were sharing their, their specific, you know, secrets about how they were going about getting things accomplished, whether it was links or whatever they were doing that they didn't want to, you know, let out the secret of of their success, which is ridiculous.

A good consultant should empower, not control. And as long as I've been in this career, I've always, always educated my clients, my internal digital marketing teams, developers, anybody that I have had to work with on whatever it was I was doing, I wanted them to understand why,  , not just this is what we're doing, but here's why. I always provided a justification and it was always based on this is what's happening in the industry. This is why we're doing this thing. Forget, you know, anybody that says, oh, just trust us. We just handle everything that is not really helpful. And they might. And it's just very condescending as well.  , if you ask why or if you want to be educated, you should be afforded that opportunity. So I would just push back on any consultant or agency that ignores your requests for wanting the education.

Number Nine:  Are they focused on vanity metrics? You know,  , those that are,  , chasing impressions, likes, you know, or even different traffic numbers again. It's if if they say we got you a million impressions, but zero leads. It's 100% that. Okay, that's a problem. It's not like sir shares or even impressions. It's a qualified lead that you need what you need in order to grow your revenue, whether it is a request for a quote or whether it is contact, a sales rep, or if it is a download a white paper that leads to a sales call, something it really should be something that simple, that tangible. That is what you should be focused on. Not vanity metrics, not impression share none of that.

Number ten: Do they have a plan for when things don't work? Great. Great question. Now what does don't work mean okay, so if they are, they really should be testing and adapting and questioning themselves on what it is that they're doing and not be sold in on if something's not working, if they just keep going. And I've seen this perfect example, was a vendor I was working with who was running a paid search campaign, and for three months, which they should have had plenty of ample testing time in that period to learn. This is not performing, but they went into the same the next month. No changes. So month four, no changes, a fail number, then they're in month five. Finally months six. I had to tell the client, look, you got to pull the plug on this vendor because what they're doing is just taking money.

There's no strategy, there's no follow through. There's no coming to you to say this is not working. We need to try something drastically different. There's none of that. So to me that again is doing a huge disservice. Now, it just so happened that these were US based vendor and they also had at least ten years experience. So just because they're in the US and just because they have ten plus years experience doesn't always mean they're doing right by you. It really takes more effort on your part as the business owner to make sure what are they doing and is it working? Because if it's not working, it's got to be changed.

And so that was  , it was difficult for me as the,  , the other partner,  , that I had to watch this and I couldn't understand why that vendor was not making any changes and why they felt the need to just keep going. So that was just a shame. And it really,  , was a problem. So just guaranteeing success and no follow through. That should be your red flag right there.

Number 11: Have a gut check. And do you know, really ask yourself when you're meeting with them. Do they feel like a true partner? I have been in many, many sales conversations with prospective clients where we could just the rapport was was there and we just hit it off.  , and they understood what I was saying.

Things were just clicking. The importance of alignment in the the communication that you have with that agency or that consultant is really, really important. It's it's just about, you know, not just about good rapport, but it's really why you should have a second and third meeting with them so that you can get a sense of as to giving more time and space in between those meetings to reflect back and think about other questions that you want to ask them about the approach and the strategy.  , you know, a red flag is if you're feeling pressured, rushed, especially if you're feeling ignored, if they're trying to close you on the first call, when you still have many, many other questions that you want to ask,  , or that you'd like a subsequent other meeting, if you're getting pushback at that early stage, that should be definitely a red flag.

So now I'm going to come to the portion of this episode where I'm going to help answer, what do you do if you've been burned?

Okay. How do you recover from a bad experience now? One of the things that we do is we offer a simplified month, a month. That way you don't feel like you're locked into an annual contract. I will say you it's recommended the program go between 3 and 6 months or whatever so that you can see results.

But if you're not feeling you're getting any value, you should be out as soon as you you you want to be out. Now, of course, what I would also recommend is if you're not getting value, you should have immediately set up a meeting with that agency or that consultant and say, hey, I don't feel like this is really valuable. I don't feel like you're hearing me when I'm talking about strategy or what. You know, what our goals and objectives are,  , seem to be being ignored and we're now month two. You might want to get them back on the right track before you end it. Just, you know, make sure that you have that conversation with them about what is the strategy.

Let's talk through the strategy. Let's make sure that we're on the same page, because you don't want to continue going months and months down the road, only to find out that you probably should have talked to them early on. And and then had they been a really bad vendor, you could have cut the cord a lot sooner.

So really just,  , try to get into a simplified, like a month to month kind of a contract or a campaign instead of being locked into an annual. You also want to try and conduct a better vetting process. I know there are many that I've spoken to where they're talking to 2 or 3 other vendors.  , and I've helped lots of businesses from Marriott to Fiat and Bank of Montreal.  I've created a question and answer vetting process. I was part of the vetting process for those brands, but it really eliminated a lot of the most junior or the ineffective candidates. So let me know if you need help with this. I also do offer to assist my clients in transitioning from agency or consultant to in-house marketing team, and I've even built internal governance models to help establish a more formal marketing team and approach.  , that does help.

Which leads to the next question, which is, well, when do you consider a different approach? When do you build an in-house team or use an agency?

And so my answer to that is it really does depend on many factors. I always recommend starting out with a consultant and a consultant, not a big agency.

And the reason I say that is because you get the benefit of someone who acts as if they are in-house, but they're there aren't full time, they're not a full time employee, but they'll stand up to the program and they'll meet with you regularly so they don't pass you off to some C team to handle things.  , once you get to see and have consistent performance and a growing marketing program in place, and you need to maybe add more budget, more resources, that might be the best time to start building your in-house team.

Then that consultant like as a as I do, that consultant can then take that campaign that they built that is performing and hand it over to that new full time digital marketing person or team that you bring in-house. That is a smarter approach, and that is what I would recommend to most of the businesses that I work with. So just to recap. Marketing should be an investment, not a gamble. It should never be a gamble.

Marketing is essential. It is not brand awareness. Marketing helps your sales team. Marketing gets your brand top of mind to your prospective clients. So if you've ever been burned before and you need help figuring out a strategy that actually works, I do offer a market positioning report and I will put a link into the show notes, and it's going to give you an actionable roadmap whether you work with me or not.

You now have something that you can put in place.  and if you've had a bad experience with an agency or consultant, send me a message or a comment. I would love to hear your story. I think the more we can, uh, get away from or reduce the need for some of these,  , some of these really bad consultants or agencies, get rid of them and just start working with smarter, more strategic,  , people, the better. And so I think,  I just I just feel for you if you've gone through this ugly experience. And so I would encourage you to reach out, reach out here to me or, if you have any questions at all, I'm happy to answer those.

Thank you again. Thank you for listening. I'm Janet Bartoli, and if you want to learn how to amplify your brand, get my free three part video training at bartoliconsulting.com/Amplify. Any links mentioned are listed in my show notes. I want to answer any digital marketing questions you have, so here's what you do. Just drop those into the comments, into the review section and keep showing up.