The element of surprise can be a little overrated sometimes. Whether it’s surprising your prospects with innovative marketing styles or surprising competitors with an unlikely method for generating sales leads, neither will work if you’re going to rely on the surprise alone to bring you success.

Consider the following analogy. Say you’re trying to catch a rhino and one plan is to spring a trap without it knowing. At first, it looks like the plan’s a success. Suddenly, you hear a crack and then an angry snort. Before you know, the rhino’s escaped. Why?

It’s because your hidden cage was made of plain, old wood.

Using the element of surprise in your marketing and appointment setting strategy is only going to work if you consider other success factors besides ensuring the surprise happens.

Is it worth all the secrecy? – Are your tactics really worth the trouble of marketing your value proposition? For example, why market a simple janitorial service using a complicated sales process when it’s still better to keep it all simple ? Don’t try to cloak up your business in a veil of surprising gimmicks if your prospects can’t see why your value proposition is worth it.

What are your back-up plans? – Much like the wooden rhino trap, what do you plan to do in case a prospect is still likely to consider other options despite all the hard work of a ‘unique’ marketing experience? Your options are obvious: You need actual value to fall back upon (at least by the time then novelty of your methods wear off).

What’s your long-term strategy? – Okay so your revolutionary marketing techniques somehow managed to win your business a sizeable market share. What next? Again, it goes back to the question of what else your business can fall back upon. Do you play the same old trick but with something new? For all you know, that could actually be a good idea (as is the reverse). However, this requires long-term planning to maintain your company’s hold.

Marketing technology was said to have opened new doors to surprising marketing techniques. However, for all their novelty, marketing thought leaders still encourage caution and remind everyone to not forget what it’s all for.