IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO ALL THE BARKING…don’t buy a dog! Leaders in our companies spend thousands and thousands of dollars and untold hours interviewing various “experts” to help them with web development, SEO, marketing, IT and a host of other services. We engage in this “search and select” mission because at some point we realize we don’t have the particular expertise we needed in-house.
And so we (I use the generic we here) make the big decision—we buy a dog!
Our new expert spends time and money getting to know us: our challenges, our opportunities and all the other things they need to be able to deliver on our expectations. They go away to "expert-land," work like crazy, review, revise and prepare solutions they feel are tailor-made to deliver on what they were hired to do. They wrap all of their strategies, tactics, ideas and recommendations up in a tight little presentation and present them to us with enthusiasm and conviction.
Then the fun begins…the “Well, I don’t know,” and the “We’ve never done it that way,” and the “In my experience” comments begin to fly, and the expert starts to backpedal, modify, alter and morph to make the "solution" ever so much more comfortable and familiar to us. In other words—we’ve forgotten why we bought the dog in the first place. We start barking away, while the poor mutt runs around opening and closing its mouth on cue.
Bottom line…if we are going to do all of the barking, don't buy a dog. If we really want help, buy a better dog in the beginning!
To get the help we need, we have to hire a dog that really knows how to bark and is willing to growl at us if we won’t let them do their job. Then we need to let them loose! It may be uncomfortable at first as we relinquish a little control, but in the end we’ll benefit from their expertise, experience and know-how. And we’ll save our vocal cords to boot!
