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Drink Deep

I was with my family today and speaking to a relative who is not in the IT industry. He asked the question "What makes your company different?"

I answer his question with simple and accessible answers. Not only is what I say to him easy to understand as a concept, it is also factual and not just opinion. Where I can truly benchmark my company, I do. I give him fact based, empirical differentiators.

And here's the amazing thing, he simply trusts what I am saying. He views me, correctly, as knowing more about the topic than he does. It could be debated as to whether I should be classified as an "expert", but I can without debate be classified as "knowledgeable." He has no base of knowledge and thus sees me as a expert, at least in relation to his own knowledge level of the topic.

So....why is it that many IT decision makers (for future reference "decision maker" will be shortened to DM) require years for me to gain their trust enough for them to admit that there are ANY differentiators between ANY of us?

My guess......they know just enough to understand the general concept, not enough to know how to truly differentiate it, BUT just enough to provide them with a lack of ability to trust that I am more knowledgeable than they are.

Many salesfolk in my industry are uneducated, price-selling clowns and I can see half of the problem discussed above lies with the cacophony that the average IT DM has to listen to. But I would think it a universal response to herald the finding of a proficient rep, such as myself amidst all the chaff. I am damn good at what I do.

I guess it boils down to this...the value I can bring to your organization is relative to the amount of trust you put in me. I have to earn trust, but some people, even after I perform at a level that should earn their trust, simply can't trust.
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