Advice for entrepreneurs seeking external support for internationalization projects: beware of those who center their pitch on “guarantees”; they may leave you disappointed.

As a buyer, I’ve always been cautious of service providers putting forward guarantees as the core of their offering. My approach has been to challenge them with real-world scenarios that would make their promises difficult to keep and ask how they plan to honor them. Often, they respond, “Well, in those cases, we cannot.” If that’s the case, let’s drop the guarantees and focus on what truly matters: expertise, commitment, process, and methodology. The providers who make me feel I’m in capable hands, earn my trust. Usually without guarantees.

Recently, during a GTM project discussion, a prospective client questioned why I didn’t offer the same guarantee of business meetings that others had promised. I explained that, sure, I could arrange meetings through courtesy connections, tick off the guarantee and send the invoice. It would definitely work well for me, but what real value would they get from that?

Instead, I suggested we focus on understanding the product-market fit, benchmarking the offering against competitors, identifying strengths and gaps, and ultimately approaching companies that align with these insights. How many such companies will we find? That depends on our discoveries along the way.

Beware of sales tactics that shift attention from what truly matters. Focus on the process rather than just the outcome. If the delivery approach isn’t clear, you might be investing in disappointment.