Why Hire Experts If You Won’t Listen to Them?

Damn, why don’t business owners actually listen to the experts they hire?

I don’t like calling myself an expert. Feels a bit wanky, if I’m honest. But I am hired for my expertise, experience, and knowledge in online marketing, websites, content, and keeping companies at the sharp end of what’s happening. That’s the job. That’s what I’m paid to do.

Yet so often, when I go to the managing director and say things like:

• We need to do social media.
• We need to do videos.
• We need to be creating more content on our website every week.

I get knocked down. “No, I disagree.”

That exact phrase. Every bloody time.

I’ve been working for this guy now for about seven or eight years. Started with the company around 1999 or 2000, can’t remember exactly which year because I was doing some work for them before he took over. But for about seven years now, it’s been him. And for about seven years now, I’ve been hearing “I disagree” more than I’d like.

Here’s what happens: I make a recommendation based on where the market’s going, what competitors are doing, what customers are responding to. And it gets shut down. Not because of budget concerns or timing issues or any practical reason. No, it gets shut down because some bloke who knows bugger all about marketing, really, without a big budget, told him at a hunting meetup that it’s not necessary.

Picture it. Out there pheasant shooting with their expensive Labradors and their Range Rovers, comparing notes about business over a hip flask. “Oh no, you don’t need to do social media, mate. Waste of time.”

And that’s it. Decision made. Expert advice binned.

Look, I’m not saying social media is the answer to everything. I’m not some LinkedIn guru flogging courses about how social media will 10x your business. But for the past few years, loads of businesses have been shifting towards building a following. And I’m not saying that following is worth money in direct sales, not immediately anyway. But in terms of brand awareness? In terms of staying visible when customers are deciding where to spend their money? It matters.

He actually sat there, straight-faced, and said:

“No, we’ve always had loads of customers year after year after year. We’ve got our loyal customer base in this town, in this region that will keep coming back to us, regardless of whether we use social media or not.”

Seriously? You actually believe that?

You actually believe your customers won’t be swayed by a competitor when they see that competitor’s name all over social media, week after week, looking active, looking current, looking like they give a shit?

Trust me, people are not as loyal as you think. Especially not when the alternative is right there in their feed, reminding them it exists.

I’m not asking for the moon here. I’m asking for consistent content. I’m asking to meet customers where they already are, which is online, scrolling, looking at what’s around them. I’m asking to stay relevant.

But no. Because some bloke at a shoot said otherwise.

Why hire people with experience and knowledge if you’re not going to listen to them? Why retain someone for years if you’re going to take business advice from whoever you happened to bump into at the weekend? What’s the point?

I just needed to scribble this down before I forgot. I’m pissed off. I’m fuming. And I know I’ll be back in that office next week, making the same recommendations, hearing the same “I disagree,” and wondering what the hell I’m doing there.

About this blog post: This is one of many thoughts that started life as scraps of paper, margins of notebooks, half-formed rants written over the past 40-odd years. Many come from a time before algorithms, before everyone had an opinion on LinkedIn, before “content strategy” was even a phrase. Rough around the edges, occasionally uncomfortable, and very much real. That’s the point. This is me talking. And if any of this landed for you, if you’ve been there too, feeling unheard or undervalued, just know I’m still here. And so are you. That’s enough for today.

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