Your Marketing Partnership Isn’t Working Because You’re Too Afraid to Ask Questions
Let’s get something straight right off the bat: you’re not being “difficult” when you ask your marketing team questions. You’re not micromanaging when you want to understand what they’re doing. And you’re definitely not overstepping when you share insights about your local market.
Yet here you are, walking on eggshells around the people you hired to grow your business.
Sound familiar?
The Silent Treatment Is Killing Your Marketing Results
I see this all the time with home service business owners. You hire a marketing agency or bring someone in-house, then you go radio silent. You sit back, hoping they’ll figure it out, while secretly getting frustrated that they don’t “get” your business.
Here’s the brutal truth: your marketing team isn’t mind readers. They don’t know that the wealthy neighborhood on the east side never calls for service on weekends. They don’t know that your competitor down the street just went out of business. They don’t know that the local home improvement store sends you referrals every month.
But you do.
And if you’re not sharing that information, you’re setting everyone up for failure.
The Real Problem in Action
Just last week, I saw this exact issue play out in a trades community. A business owner discovered that bidding on competitor names in Google Ads might be a smart strategy. Instead of directly asking his marketing company if they were doing this, he said he was going to “craft a question through AI so that I’m not telling my Marketing company how to do their job.”
Think about that for a second. He’s paying them to run his ads, he has a legitimate business question, but he’s afraid to ask it directly because he doesn’t want to seem like he’s telling them what to do.
This is the problem in a nutshell.
Stop walking on eggshells! Your marketing team needs honest communication, not careful tiptoeing around issues.
Why Home Service Owners Stay Quiet
Before we dive into solutions, let’s talk about why this happens. There are three main reasons business owners clam up around their marketing teams:
1. “I Don’t Want to Tell Them How to Do Their Job”
This is the big one. You hired experts, so you assume they should know everything. But here’s the thing – they’re experts in marketing, not in your specific business, your specific market, or your specific customers.
Think about it this way: you’re an expert plumber, but you still ask homeowners questions about their water pressure, when the problem started, and what they’ve tried so far. You need that context to do your job well.
Your marketing team needs the same kind of context from you.
2. “I Don’t Know Enough About Marketing to Ask Good Questions”
Bullshit. You don’t need to understand pixel tracking and conversion optimization to ask, “Why are we targeting that neighborhood when most of our calls come from this area?”
You know your business better than anyone. That knowledge is valuable, regardless of your marketing expertise.
3. “I Don’t Want to Look Stupid”
Here’s a newsflash: asking questions doesn’t make you look stupid. It makes you look engaged. It shows you care about getting results.
The only stupid thing is staying quiet while your marketing dollars get wasted.
The Real Cost of Staying Silent
When you don’t speak up, everyone loses:
Your marketing team creates campaigns based on assumptions instead of facts. They waste time and budget targeting the wrong people with the wrong message.
Your business gets mediocre results because the marketing doesn’t reflect the reality of your market.
Your customers get generic messaging that doesn’t speak to their specific needs and concerns.
You get frustrated and start thinking about firing your marketing team, when the real problem is lack of communication.
What Collaboration Actually Looks Like
Good marketing partnerships aren’t about you staying in your lane. They’re about working together to create something better than either of you could manage alone.
Here’s what real collaboration looks like:
They Bring the Strategy, You Bring the Context
Your marketing team should handle the tactical stuff – the ad platforms, the targeting options, the creative execution. But you need to provide the context that makes all of that work.
- Which neighborhoods respond best to your services?
- What times of year are busiest for different types of calls?
- What objections do customers typically have?
- What makes your service different from competitors?
- Which referral sources are most valuable?
This isn’t micromanaging. This is providing the raw material your marketing team needs to succeed.
Regular Check-ins, Not Status Reports
Instead of waiting for monthly reports, schedule regular conversations. Not formal presentations – just honest discussions about what’s working and what isn’t.
Ask questions like:
- “What are you seeing in the data that surprises you?”
- “Are we getting the right types of calls?”
- “What would help you create better ads?”
- “Where do you think we should focus next month?”
Test Your Assumptions Together
Maybe you think your customers care most about price, but your marketing team’s data shows they actually care more about availability. Maybe you assume older customers prefer phone calls, but the data shows they’re clicking on web forms.
When you work together, you can test these assumptions instead of just guessing.
The Questions You Should Be Asking
Stop overthinking this. Here are the basic questions every home service business owner should be asking their marketing team:
About Strategy:
- “Are we bidding on competitor names in our ads?”
- “Should we be targeting people searching for [competitor name]?”
- “How do we handle calls that come in from competitor searches?”
- “What’s our strategy when competitors bid on our name?”
About Targeting:
- “Who exactly are we trying to reach with these ads?”
- “Why did you choose these neighborhoods/demographics?”
- “Are we seeing the right types of customers responding?”
About Messaging:
- “What are we saying to attract customers?”
- “How are we different from our competitors in the ads?”
- “What problems are we solving for people?”
About Results:
- “What does success look like for this campaign?”
- “How do we know if it’s working?”
- “What would you change if you could start over?”
About Local Market:
- “How are we accounting for [local event/season/trend]?”
- “Do you know about [competitor/referral source/local factor]?”
- “Are we missing opportunities in [specific area/demographic]?”
How to Share Information Without Overstepping
The key is framing your input as helpful context, not instructions. Here’s how:
Instead of: “Are you bidding on competitor names?” (asked through AI)
Say: “I heard other plumbers are bidding on competitor names in their ads. Is that something we should consider, or are we already doing it?”
Instead of: “You should target this neighborhood.”
Say: “We get a lot of calls from this area. I’m curious if that shows up in the data too.”
Instead of: “That ad won’t work.”
Say: “In my experience, customers usually ask about X first. Are we addressing that?”
Instead of: “You’re doing this wrong.”
Say: “I noticed something that might be helpful context…”
The goal isn’t to tell them what to do. It’s to give them information they can use to make better decisions.
✅ Ready to Book Your Audit?
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When to Speak Up (Spoiler: It’s More Often Than You Think)
You should be in regular contact with your marketing team. Not daily check-ins, but consistent communication. Here are the key times to speak up:
Before Campaigns Launch
Share relevant context about timing, market conditions, or customer behavior that might affect the campaign.
When You Notice Patterns
If you’re getting weird calls, or the wrong types of customers, or calls from unexpected areas – say something.
When Your Business Changes
New services, new territory, new competition, seasonal changes – all of this affects your marketing.
When You Have Questions
If you don’t understand something, ask. If you’re concerned about something, speak up.
The Partnership Mindset
Here’s the mindset shift you need to make: you’re not hiring someone to work in isolation. You’re hiring someone to work with you.
Great marketing agencies want your input. They want to understand your market better. They want to create campaigns that actually work for your business.
The ones who get defensive when you ask questions? They’re probably not the right fit anyway.
Red Flags That Your Marketing Team Isn’t Collaborative
Watch out for these warning signs:
- They get defensive when you ask questions
- They use jargon to avoid explaining what they’re doing
- They discourage you from sharing market insights
- They don’t want to hear about your customer interactions
- They treat your input as interference rather than valuable information
If you’re seeing these red flags, the problem isn’t that you’re asking too many questions. The problem is that you’re working with the wrong team.
How to Start the Conversation
If you’ve been staying quiet, it’s time to change that. Here’s how to start:
Schedule a conversation (not an email) with your marketing team. Tell them you want to be more involved in providing context and feedback.
Share this insight: “I realize I haven’t been sharing enough information about our local market and customers. I want to fix that.”
Ask this question: “What would be most helpful for you to know about our business and customers?”
Set expectations: “I’d like to have regular check-ins where we can discuss what’s working and what isn’t.”
Most good marketing teams will be thrilled to have this conversation.
The best marketing happens when business owners and marketing teams work together, not in isolation.
The Bottom Line
You’re not paying your marketing team to work in a vacuum. You’re paying them to grow your business. That requires partnership, not silence.
Your local market knowledge, customer insights, and business experience are valuable assets. When you keep that information to yourself, you’re handicapping your own marketing efforts.
Stop walking on eggshells. Start asking questions. Share what you know. Work together to create marketing that actually reflects your business and speaks to your customers.
Your marketing team needs you to speak up. Your business needs you to speak up. Your customers need you to speak up.
So stop being polite and start being helpful. The difference in your results will be immediate and dramatic.
Because here’s the truth: the best marketing happens when business owners and marketing teams work together, not when they work in isolation.
Time to start that conversation.
✅ Ready to Get More Calls for Your Trades Business?
If you’re tired of marketing that doesn’t understand your business, let’s talk. We help trades professionals create marketing that actually works in their local market. Because we know the difference between good marketing and marketing that gets results.
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