Two engines, one hard line: how to contract client expectations

Two engines, separately measured

"In B2B you have to do trust and brand building, and lead generation — the two go together. Clients want the whole budget to deliver sales. We say: the lead gen you can measure in sales; this other work has different metrics. They look at the whole amount and say it's not working. It is working — you haven't given it time."

The mistake is judging two engines by one number. Name them separately, give each its own metrics and timeline, and put it in the contract.

Draw the responsibility line

Dylan's boundary on attribution is the clearest I've heard an agency state, and every proposal should contain a version of it: "We do full tracking up to the point where we can't track anymore. You can hold us up to lead. Don't hold us for sales — that's you." The handover has teeth: appointments set and never followed up aren't a marketing failure. "Have you called them again? We can't do the nurturing for you."

His second discipline: never accept "we tried that once and it didn't work" at face value. His billboard story — a US launch dismissed because one billboard once failed — comes with the interrogation kit: which artwork, which location, which time of year, why? "There's always an unpack when someone says it didn't work."

James adds the honesty owed in the other direction: be blunt early that digital is substantially pay-to-play. "Particularly in e-commerce, paid is part of the parcel" — and measure it against business metrics, not ad-platform metrics.

Cut services, never prices

Dylan can scope a full annual plan from three questions: who are you trying to reach, what are your goals, what's your budget? Then the discipline that protects the whole industry's margins: when the budget is small, shrink the deliverables, not the rate. "If you want brand awareness and you've only got R30,000 — okay, one social post a week and drip mailers." An agency is only its people; cheap agencies can't hire good people; and clients who pay for a golf cart shouldn't expect the leather seats. His international comparison seals it: work invoiced at $10,000 abroad is matched or bettered locally at R30,000. SA agencies aren't behind — they're underpriced.

Try this week: add the responsibility line to your next proposal in plain language. Ask Dylan's three questions on your next new-business call before showing anything. And find the client currently judging two engines by one metric — re-contract those expectations this month.

Sourced from recorded, on-the-record interviews on the South African Digital Marketing Podcast. Every practitioner quoted above is named in the text.