Today I was thinking about the growing number of businesses that promote the latest and greatest ‘XYZ’ system/ product/ service that will “deliver amazing results”.
My words of caution are, before you commit to purchasing what they have to sell, do your homework to determine:
a) What the basis of their system/ platform/ product/ service is – is it simply a theoretical algorithm dreamed-up without any “real world” evidence/ substantiation ?
b) Who within the business has been responsible for designing/ creating the system/ platform/ product/ service – and what is their background. Are they students in the given field of understanding or are they accomplished/ experienced practitioners ?
c) Is what the marketing communication states in support of the given system/ platform/ product/ service seemingly realistic ? Are the glowing accolades in support of what the system/ platform/ product/ service will achieve for the client believable ?
One lesson that I learned long ago is when engaging the services of a party that promotes itself/ themselves as being “experts” in their field, look for “evidence” of their expertise ! Do your research/ due diligence to validate their claims, and particularly where consultancy services are concerned dig deeply to understand the background of the consultant(s) concerned to make sure that:
i. The right breadth and depth of experience sits behind them – as aligned to your needs.
ii. They have in fact “walked the talk”.
iii. The organisations that they have assisted to date have in fact benefited in the manner – and to the extent – that they mention in any testimonials that they may have published.
A person who has indeed “walked the talk” and practiced what they’re preaching in order to realise commendable gains will typically deliver far greater value in the guidance that they provide versus someone who has purely “read all the books” in order to establish certain practices/ platforms/ systems/ products as being more favourable to use versus others.