Strengthen Trust in Your Marketing Team

Do you trust your marketing staff and vendors?

I mean, really trust them.

Think about it. When you ask about their marketing tactics, do you believe what they tell you right off the bat, or do you get a second opinion elsewhere? Maybe you even Google your question to check their answer.

That’s a bad sign.

I started out as a traditional marketing agency and would get calls constantly from founders and execs asking if their vendors or staff were doing something right. The execs trusted my opinion (a stranger) more than their own team. This phenomenon is proven by scientific studies, but it’s dangerous and costly in the workplace. We’re not talking about movie recommendations here – we’re talking about potentially costly shifts in marketing strategy.

If you’re second-guessing your team, you have some cracks in your marketing foundations.

Unclear marketing objectives lead to a lack of trust

The primary cause of seconding-guessing your staff is likely because you’re not providing them a clear scope and expectations. I know it’s a hard pill to swallow, but think about it…

It’s easy to tell whether the person is performing when you are crystal clear on task objectives. If you’re unclear, then you have no basis by which to judge their performance. How can you tell if they are trustworthy or not? How can you determine if they have a reasonable opinion or if they are full of shit? If a staff member or vendor is consistently on top of their job, you’re likely going to trust them and not waste time Googling or getting second opinions.

So, how do you provide clear objectives? Start by looking at your KPIs. KPIs act as guidelines to keep everyone focused.

If staff members or vendors aren’t dialed into those KPIs, they might go off the rails and try to meet some other random metric goal. Watch out for that. Make sure everyone is aligned on the goals and keep those vanity metrics out of your KPIs (total website traffic, follower counts, etc.).

Don’t settle for anything less than “A players” on your marketing team

You likely receive as much annoying spam as I do in your inbox. Have you seen the ones from SEO companies saying your SEO is busted and they will give you a free audit? If you already have someone in charge of your SEO but every time you get those spam emails you think, “Huh, maybe I should get the free audit. After all, it is free,” then you have a problem, my friend.

You shouldn’t even give those spammy emails a second look. The fact that it draws your attention means you’re not thrilled with your existing resource. Something is amiss. I’m picking on SEO, but this is true for any specialty. Asking around for second opinions is a huge red flag. You deserve a team you are proud to work with and a team you trust.

Sometimes it’s not even a staffing change that needs to happen; sometimes it’s as simple as aligning objectives and fine-tuning job scope. Not to worry. It’s often a much simpler fix than you might think.

A lack of trust is your biggest expense within your marketing team and beyond

Let’s be real. Not trusting your team (internal and external) is terrible. It feels like you’re alone. When you don’t trust your team, you spend a lot of time triple checking tasks and Googling way too much. You can be surrounded by a huge team and still feel completely alone. You might think they are just clock punchers and don’t care as much as you do.

This doesn’t feel good.

Not only is this costing you a ton of physical time, but it’s also costing you a lot of valuable mental energy. You need to stay in your area of unique brilliance, not getting sidetracked by Googling the latest SEO trend.

Get my point?

Keep your eye on the prize, and if you’re not thrilled with your team, make a change. But adjust the staff or vendor scope first. Then, if you really need to, swap out the team.

The cost of second-guessing your staff and vendors is high. We are always happy to talk through the details of how to build clear objectives and develop an A team. We can do that during your free strategy session.