“I’d like you to meet the ‘Expert’…”

It’s that time of year again.  No, I don’t mean tax time, or Valentine’s.  It’s the time of year when you (if you’re a local business owner or manager) are going to get a call from your local TV, radio, or print rep, telling you they’d like to bring in the "expert.”  They may use ”consultant,” or “guru,” but you’ll know.  It’s the expert.

The first quarter of the year is a planning quarter for many categories of businesses.  A time to unleash the new initiatives, branding, or spend-more-to-grow-more campaigns.  In an attempt to secure the highest percentage of dollars you’re fishing to spend, the outlets fly in their expert, and push all their sales reps [hard] to schedule appointments with you, and their expert.  And guess what?  It’s FREE to you!    

There’s nothing wrong with the expert.  In fact, good ones can deliver helpful bits of information that are not at all bias to the outlet they are hired to sell for.  That’s the hook. 

Over the years, outlets I worked inside brought in a variety of experts from hard sellers, to jingle writers.  A few were fairly insightful, but many were an embarrassment to take out at all, causing me to later call and apologize to valued clients!  But that didn’t stop us from setting up our minimum number of required appointments (set by sales management).  The expert costs the outlets big money to bring in, and more is at stake if they can sell you a big package.

Perhaps you’ve had the meeting with the expert before.  If not, my advice for dealing with the expert: don’t rush to decide, fact check, and shop around.  They are not an unbiased 3^rd party, as the setup suggests.  They may have a long resume of accomplishments and big positions held in the past, but their job is still to sell you on that outlet.  In fact, in many cases, the expert stands to gain a hefty commission from your commitment to the large campaign they are sure to push on you within 2-4 weeks of the initial consultation meeting (aka, needs analysis, time-out call, yada, yada).

The outlets may also change the expert model altogether, and just invite you in for a “FREE seminar,” where they will pose as the expert, and simply pitch you their advertising pieces.  The invite to these usually goes something like: “how to grow in your category,” or “come receive education on SEO” (or some other buzz-worthy word or topic of the time).  This is not sinister by any means.  However, your time is valuable, and the “free” seminar is merely a long-form, often multi-media pitch, where they skim over the topic you thought you were coming for, and sometimes employ pressure tactics to close a deal with you.  I would recommend simply requesting (or have your agency request) the material or packages to go over at your leisure, without all the hype or gimmicks.  The expert is likely a far less wasteful way to spend your time than these seminars.

So, if you desire, meet the expert.  You may get lucky and be presented with some valuable insight or marketing morsels.  However, you might be wise to get an unbiased party to help you with decisions for moving forward with their recommendations, or any advertisement / marketing options.

To your success,

-David Bauer