The Invisible Trap of Technical Buying
Buying technical services can be a real challenge. If you have ever bought something you didn’t fully understand, had it delivered on time, and found it was roughly what you expected, there was technically nothing ‘wrong’ with it. Yet, you just couldn’t shake the feeling that it didn’t really do what you thought it was going to do. You probably couldn’t explain why, so you accepted it.
The ‘Haircut’ Principle
There are low-stakes versions of this scenario, like every time I go for a haircut. I trust my hairdresser and we sit there chatting pleasantly. When he finishes, he pulls out a mirror and shows me the back of my head.
I don’t really know what to expect, I don’t see the back of my head very often, so I trust his judgement that it looks as it should. He could pretty much hold up a mirror with a swear word shaved into my hair and I’d still nod and say, ‘Yeah, that’s brilliant, thank you.’
The Cost of ‘Trained Mediocrity’
But we aren’t talking about low-stakes grooming here. We are talking about the high-cost services every business owner pays for: an audit, a professional service, or a piece of equipment.
As a society, big businesses – especially those who profit from repeat customers – have a quiet incentive to ensure none of us really figure out what truly excellent service looks like. It isn’t malicious; it is by design. If the customer doesn’t have the skills to identify what is actually ‘good’, how do they know if they are getting a raw deal?
The Trust Engine vs. The Friction
Although this isn’t an article about the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) industry, that sector has certainly been complicit. In defence of technical sales, it can be very hard to express why your offering is the right one for the client.
I think this comes back down to our old friend: trust. If you build a decent ‘trust engine‘ for your business, there is less friction when you sell technical products because your customers have more faith.
As part of my research, I’ve come to see this inability of consumers to judge excellence as a sort of ‘trained mediocrity’. If there is confusion in the way a service is delivered, this mediocrity thrives. After all, if you don’t have the language to describe what is wrong, you can’t ask for what is right.
A Lesson in Lead Gen
Believe me, I’ve been there. After years of being approached by lead generation experts on LinkedIn, I decided to give one a go. We had a wonderful set of meetings and agreed on terms. Then, nothing happened.
Eventually, someone connected me to their CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. I could see they were approaching an incredible number of people, but that was all. I didn’t understand their strategy, and when I asked, they gave me the same generic lines I’ve heard from every other company.
Nine months passed before my coach prompted me to ask some difficult questions. I wanted to do it face-to-face to show them I still wanted to trust them, but they ghosted me for several months.
The Ultimate Creative Excuse
I finally got a reply from a senior manager who told me he couldn’t do a Zoom meeting because he had recently ‘broken his jaw’.
I have to admit, I was amused by how creative the excuse was. I’m not sure how a broken jaw stops you from sending an email or showing progress. At that point, I decided our journey was over.
Relational vs. Calculative Trust
In a previous article, I talked about the difference between relational trust and calculative trust.
- Calculative Trust: ‘Are they mechanically capable of the job?’
- Relational Trust: ‘Are we building a genuine relationship?’
If a company operates only on calculative trust, it makes it very hard for a client to know if they should have expected more. Relational trust is vital. We want our customers to trust that we’ll be honest even if a delivery isn’t quite as good as it could be.
Breaking the Cycle
The less transactional and more relational business becomes, the healthier we will all be. Professional services are almost never one-sided; they are collaborations.
You might be reading this thinking, ‘Well, you’ve never been in that situation because you’re far too smart.’ But be honest with yourself. Have you ever stopped asking questions because the answers stopped making sense?
You may have changed providers several times only to receive the exact same experience. That leads people to believe that certain industries are just ‘like that’. It is never true.
Standing Out in the Age of AI
Every business has an opportunity to be an outlier – a trust engine builder who does things differently. With the race to the middle ground brought on by generative AI, anyone prepared to stand out will do very well indeed.
It isn’t just about hiring better people; it’s about learning when a supplier has trained you to stop expecting more. The clients who push back and expect more are the ones who make me a better consultant.
Can you think of a moment when you realised you’d been trained to accept something that wasn’t good enough? What made you see it, and how did it make you feel?
Last Updated on April 7, 2026
