Before You Sign a Marketing Contract at a Trade Show…

Trade shows and expos are ener­giz­ing, aren’t they? 

New ideas, new speak­ers, new con­nec­tions… And, of course, new ven­dors. As a techie guy, I love to do the rounds and see the lat­est and great­est, plus watch for slick tools to rec­om­mend to my clients (and use for my own paint­ing busi­ness as well). 

I’ve noticed some­thing else too, though. The mar­ket­ing space is get­ting nois­i­er and nois­i­er. And not just at the trade shows. My feed on social media is fill­ing up with flashy videos, offer­ing sil­ver bul­let solu­tions, end­less qual­i­fied leads, and life-chang­ing events and con­fer­ences that help you ​“lev­el up and crush it” [insert your favorite buzz word here]… An eas­i­er life for you as the owner/​operator, all just a form-fill away.

Don’t get me wrong: I love see­ing more buzz around con­trac­tor mar­ket­ing and the poten­tial for folks work­ing hard in the trades. This has lit­er­al­ly been my life, ever since start­ing at my dad’s paint­ing com­pa­ny as a kid. 

But just because a firm has a great booth, pol­ished web­site, and smooth sales pitch doesn’t mean they’re the right long-term part­ner. And I’ve already start­ed to hear the cau­tion­ary tales pop­ping up in my circles.

The Booth Pitch vs. the Back-End Reality

The peo­ple at those booths are often the best sales­peo­ple in their com­pa­ny. That’s exact­ly how it should be: they’re there to work the crowd, stoke excite­ment, and book demos (and clients). 

The issue I’ve been hear­ing about more and more is what hap­pens after the deal is done:

Per­haps most frus­trat­ing of all? These firms are often extreme­ly expen­sive. Hard­work­ing con­tract­ing busi­ness­es stretch their mar­ket­ing bud­get thin, con­sid­er­ing it an invest­ment in guar­an­teed suc­cess, only to find it fiz­zles. Every­thing else suffers.

I per­son­al­ly have had clients sign up with­out loop­ing me in. I try to col­lab­o­rate with the new team, but in many cas­es these part­ner­ships burn out quick­ly, cost a small for­tune, and leave the client where they start­ed (or worse). As a mar­ket­ing con­sul­tant, I’ve seen accounts built and held tight­ly by these ven­dors, often cre­at­ing huge headaches and lost momen­tum when clients can’t regain access.

The Real Cost of Sign­ing with a ​“Secret Sauce” Mar­ket­ing Firm

Red flag num­ber one? Run from any­one who claims to have cracked a code or found secret sauce. Or even hints at that. 

Can I let you in on a secret? There is no code or sauce. Sor­ry… Hills and val­leys are caused by so many fac­tors, from the ever-fluc­tu­at­ing econ­o­my to the ebbs and flows of inter­est in cer­tain ser­vices. I’ve been in this game long enough to see tac­tics and approach­es boom, then fall flat. It may not be a flashy or excit­ing answer, but this is where good old fash­ioned con­sis­ten­cy pays off. Scale up dur­ing the boom sea­sons, adjust course dur­ing the slow sea­son, and be con­stant­ly aware of what lev­el of cal­cu­lat­ed risk you’re will­ing to tol­er­ate as you grow your business. 

Often­times the big results they share are only pos­si­ble because of equal­ly big spend. I’ve seen firms charge $2500 – 3000 a month just for mediocre Meta ads man­age­ment, and then require thou­sands of dol­lars of ad spend beyond that at a minimum. 

Total month­ly fees for these ​“do it all” firms can quick­ly jump to $10 – 12,000 per month, and that’s before fac­tor­ing in ad spend or cre­ative costs. And as a side note, of course you’ll see a big jump in leads when you spend that much, but it’s often not a sus­tain­able spike. Meta leads start to wane, Paid Search doesn’t get the rig­or­ous atten­tion it needs to stay viable, and the con­tent qual­i­ty on your web­site starts to suf­fer as junior account man­agers take over. 

My Mod­el: Frac­tion­al CMO for the Paint­ing Industry

Can I be hon­est? Some­times those big-tick­et mod­els look pret­ty good to me. Hey, I’d love to sell flashy pack­ages and set­tle into a beach chair… Who wouldn’t, right?

But I’m remind­ed time and again of why I’ve built DC Mar­ket­ing Group differently. 

We’re a small, hands-on team that focus­es almost exclu­sive­ly on the res­i­den­tial and com­mer­cial paint­ing indus­try (95% of my clients are painters). 

I act as your mar­ket­ing advi­sor, strate­gist, and gen­er­al con­trac­tor. I don’t promise to do every­thing in-house, but I do make sure the right things are done by the right peo­ple. I stay deeply involved, watch per­for­mance close­ly, and make adjust­ments based on real data. 

For full trans­paren­cy, my advi­so­ry fees range from $600-$3,000 per month, depend­ing on: 

• My lev­el of involve­ment (quar­ter­ly vs. month­ly vs. bi-weekly)

• Whether I’m just advis­ing or active­ly lead­ing the team

• The size of your com­pa­ny and mar­ket­ing goals

• The com­plex­i­ty of plat­forms and ven­dor relationships

I also work with­in your total mar­ket­ing bud­get to find the smartest allo­ca­tion, whether it’s dig­i­tal ads, SEO, brand aware­ness, or busi­ness development.

I’m Not for Every­one, and That’s Okay

Maybe you need a large, full-stack agency. Maybe you need an in-house team. Or, maybe that slick firm you bought into at the last trade show real­ly did work out for you. 

But if you’re in the paint­ing space and want an expe­ri­enced advi­sor who:

• Knows your industry

• Does­n’t oversell

• Will keep your bud­get and goals top of mind

• And isn’t afraid to say ​“pause this, shift that” when it’s the right move…

Then I might be a good fit.

What’s Your Takeaway?

If you’re shop­ping for a new mar­ket­ing part­ner, and espe­cial­ly if you just met one at a trade show or event, please take the time to:

• Look under the hood (not just at the shiny demo)

• Ask about real results in your industry

• Review con­tract terms, not just promises

• Talk to cur­rent and past clients (good and bad)

• Under­stand who will be doing the actu­al work — not just who’s doing the selling

Be care­ful out there! And if you’d like a sec­ond opin­ion or just need some­one to walk through a pro­pos­al with you before sign­ing, I’m hap­py to help. Even if you don’t hire me, I’ll do my best to point you in the right direction.