What will happen if you go to a car dealer and say: “I want a car. Black. How much will it cost?”

Any car dealer would not take you seriously after such a question.

It's the same with creative services such as creative marketing campaigns, content marketing, video production, design, etc.

That's because those services involve a lot of complexities and variables to be considered.

Disclosing your planned budget or at least a rough estimate is a crucial step towards achieving successful campaigns and significant results.

Here's how this will help YOU as a company owner or a marketing leader looking for the best vendor for your creative campaigns.

1. It will remove the biggest and most complicated variable - PRICE.

When comparing various proposals, it's hard to navigate through all the factors and come up with the best decision. That's because of the number of variables to consider. I simply break them down to 4 main pillars that determine which creative company one decides to work with:

1) Communication - Is the agency's representative responsive? Are they well spoken? Do they articulate their knowledge and experience successfully?

2) Expertise - Is their portfolio rich enough? Is it relevant to your needs? Is their level of knowledge and understanding deep enough?

3) Price - Who offers the best price?

4) Presentation - How well do they translate their knowledge and skills to the particular project? How original and well-structured is their proposal? Is their concept detailed and rich enough?

Those 4 main variables make the decision hard and your life even harder...

But guess what - the human brain tends to simplify stuff subconsciously.

So, most of the time - PRICE is what matters the most. And that can easily lead to a wrong decision and eventually to a failing campaign (by picking the wrong agency only because they've offered the lowest price).

In other words, by stating your budget you eliminate the most crucial variable, and thus you allow yourself to focus on choosing the best possible vendor.

2. You have to be able to PLAN.

And you probably already have.

I know from experience that most companies DO HAVE a fixed budget for a specific campaign. If they don't disclose it, it's because they want to play clever and save some money... And that's WRONG! It's stupid to risk a campaign over a few bucks. Especially when that could lead to settling on a completely different budget which is a planning nightmare. You need to make sure a campaign costs you exactly as much as you've planned. No more. No less.

3. You build trust with your agency.

If you don't disclose your budget, creative agencies will have to "shoot in the dark" trying to guess your ambition and scope. It's a waste of time on both ends.

If you DO disclose your budget you are open and trustworthy. You show respect towards the other side's time which eventually always pays off.

So next time you're looking for a creative agency (or a car) make sure to disclose your budget (or at least give a relative range).

Good things will follow.