Is Lack of Trust Why Contact Networks Are Becoming Increasingly Important?
30/08/2017
I have been getting increasingly concerned of late about some of the trends I see in the way people behave towards each other. I have grown to expect people not to attend meetings you arrange weeks in advance or to make the calls they promise to make or not to respond to the calls you make to follow up a question or enquiry they have raised.
Lack of what we oldies would think of fairly as basic etiquette is the new normal, and that (although it makes life rather more joyless than it need be, so I won't follow the trend) is something I just accept. I am a bit saddened though, since our main pleasure in our firm is to help nice people do well and we think etiquette has a place there.
What I really don't find easy is the casual approach to – for want of a better word – lying, which has come to be commonplace.
One of the big areas is the massive over-hyping of CVs. Someone does a degree at Bognor Regis College and years later does a week-long summer course at Harvard. Which one do they show as their alma mater?
There is also a lot of smoke and mirrors in our industry, with Adwords expert Kieran Cassidy telling me that over-charging by Adwords managers is to the extent that up to 70% of the Adwords spend is actually not spent on Adwords and cautioning on relying on any non-independent data presented (too easily falsified, apparently).
The reason why the erosion in standards of probity has occurred (if, indeed, it has) is in some ways less important than some of the side effects.
For a start, it means that you can't rely on apparent excellence to mean excellence, you have to make your judgment and set up a set of tools to do that. For example, some of the leading accountants use timed online IQ tests, which has logic, because they need really bright people. It is probably safe to infer that someone with a terrible CV isn't going to set the world on fire, but it is many moons since I saw one of those.
Secondly (you knew I'd get here eventually!) in the absence of any good independent indicators, what do we do? We rely more and more on those around us that we trust to help us make decisions.
What this means for professional firms is that despite all the puff about different forms of web marketing, it is BD designed to build, continue and nurture relationships that will offer increasingly better rates of return than techniques designed to drive new 'strangers' your way…simply because it is a less risky strategy.
One of the examples I like to give is when a company board decides to place new work. They don't mention, or need, Google. Why? Because by the time you are on the board you have built up a network of people you know you can rely on…and if they can't do it, they probably know someone who can. (Sounds a lot like LinkedIn doesn't it?). An example of this came just this week when an IP lawyer I know asked me if I could recommend someone to do a complex asset valuation.
We have marketed through networking almost exclusively for many years and our costs are minuscule (so is the time involvement) compared with firms that use other methods.
There's a great future for firms buried in your Outlook sent folder and practice management systems if you only dig it out.
PS If you follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter, I guarantee you'll see no selfies, pictures of funny cats or the dinner I am about to eat.