A few months ago, I had to take my wife’s car to a shop. Car was running super loud — the exhaust flex pipe has broke.
I took it to the dealer-recommended garage, where they took care of everything in less than 30 minutes, charging me $100, mostly labor (“part” was a piece of metal). My first thought was “since it took so little, can you charge me less,” but I kept quiet. These guys were real pros and had lots of experience fixing similar problems.
If an amateur mechanic was fixing a car and it took him 2 hours, I would think that a hundred dollar charge is a steal. Perception is not the reality!
So, who are these experts?
Experts, by definition, are GREAT at what they do. They truly deliver VALUE. They are worth the money and won’t waste your time (costing you more) on unnecessary things.
There are also fake experts, who are the opposite. They will take your money and will do everything possible to make you think that it was worth it. (Just like an amateur mechanic spending 2 hours on a repair, instead of 30 minutes, would make you perceive he worked “harder,” even though he wasted 1.5 more hours of your time.)
Fake experts will spend their time on writing a 30-page report on what you can improve regarding your website, instead of focusing on getting 2-3 things done which can really move the needle.
Real expert will admit that you’re doing a lot of things right to prevent any further time waste.
Fake experts will never admit that you’re doing things right, and will waste even more of your time.
Experts help you get something improved
Experts get hired to help you with something. If you want to convert more people on your site, a document which tells you exactly how to do it is worthless without an action. Experts will work with you on getting things done, because when implemented, your site will convert more people and you will be so much happier with your investment.
Tom Critchlow of Distilled (SEO consulting) presented about “Getting Things Done” on a seminar in Boston with the primary message: “When dealing with clients, key deliverable is change.” What did Distilled do to address that? They reduced length of documents (not many clients were reading them) and focused on things which drive change: pre-delivering everything, improving processes, training, writing specs, and improving communication.
Their advice is valuable, but when it is acted on, it becomes priceless — making sure you’ll come back for more. Great consultants know that and reinforce the value they deliver.
One thing to remember: what’s the opportunity cost?
In economics, an opportunity cost is the cost of not pursuing the next best alternative with your limited resources (in our case, your time or money). Take value of your time in account when assessing your investments!
Coming back to the car repair example.
If my time is worth $100 per hour:
- Scenario 1: expert who repairs a car in 1/2 hour for $100. In reality, I spent $150
- Scenario 2: amateur repairs a car in 2 hours for $100. In reality, I spent $300. Even if this mechanic charged me only $50, I’d still be better off going to the expert.
How do your investments look like when you account for the hidden costs?
Slavik blogs about online marketing, user experience, search engine optimization, and mobile. Co-founder of Volinsky Consulting — web design & user experience company in Albany, NY. He's on Google+ and on twitter:
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