Sometimes, The Experts Aren't...

I remember the excitement in the spring of 2006 when home building projections for the next two years were off the charts according to local experts! We were all riding the big housing wave and with many clients in the residential construction industry, we thought we had it made. One of our local home builder clients was projecting 500 new home starts per month for the next 3 years and had purchased land to carry them through 2013. Oh how fast everything changed.

By summer July of ’06, this same client’s new projections were down to 300 new starts per month… ouch! But that wasn’t the end of the big slide down hill. In October, the projection dropped to 275 homes, by December it was down to 150. After the first of the year, things were looking up a bit and they sold a record number of homes in February of ’07, the experts predicted a big comeback along with some big numbers. The next month sales turned off like a light switch. Not just for this builder, but for everyone. By May, I was reading a letter projecting new home starts at 35-50 per month, they were closing nearly half of their communities along with massive lay-offs. How could it get any worse? It did… they announced in July that they would not be starting ANY new homes for an indefinite period and we lost our contract with them. Needless to say… they are no longer in business. How could the experts have been so wrong? Why were local builders blindly making huge business decisions based on these largely unfounded projections. Who were these experts anyway?

Sometimes, the so-called experts scare me. If you went to the doctor and said “I don’t feel well… something just isn’t right with me… I need your help.”… and he responded immediately with, “I happen to be a very good doctor with many years of experience, and I’ve seen a lot of sick people. I can tell by looking at you and hearing your voice that you have diabetes and need an appendectomy. We need to schedule you for surgery immediately and start you on insulin injections as soon as you are done.” This is ridiculous… right?

So why do so many so-called branding and business development experts seem to have all the answers before they have really had a chance to diagnose the current situation of their clients? Nobody knows your business like you do. When choosing a graphic design firm or ad agency, to assist you in your branding and marketing efforts, beware if they seem to have all the answers in the first meeting. Any firm worth it’s salt, will take the time to become intimate with your products, sales process and overall culture of your company before they start giving you “expert” opinions.

If you are in business in today’s competitive environment… you are doing something right. You just need to do it better. How can the experts solve your problems before they know what they are? How can they capitalize on the positives and reinforce your companies brand before they really seek to understand what’s working and what’s not?

Remember… a true expert just is… they won’t need to tell you.