The 90/10 Differential And Why You Would Be Smart To Embrace The Reality Of It

With better communication it’s getting smaller. Nothing is really foreign to anyone anymore.

With the growth in telecommuting the amount of time wasted, or at least not maximized, is decreasing, giving people more time to think and do stuff, and more free time too.

The growth in online purchasing has shrunk the amount of time that people spend getting to and from and hoofing it around stores of various kinds.

Yeah… it’s a beautiful world alright. But one thing that’s bucking the trend to shrinkage is bullshit.

There is more bullshit than ever these days. In fact what used to be an 80/20 differential between what’s bullshit and what’s not has increased to the point where it’s now officially 90/10.

There is very little that you can count on these days including important stuff like customer service, product quality and reliability, advertising response, and people actually telling you the truth about, well, you name it.

The Step Backward

I’m not sure exactly when this shift started. That’s the trouble with things that happen slowly. But I do know that it’s becoming a chronic malaise in our world.

Now I’m not gonna go all ballistic and start citing a bunch of specifics because while today’s most obvious examples are way too much with us, they are really not the disease, merely just more blatant symptoms.

The people at the other end of these messages just kind of shook their heads and wrote a lot of it off as pranksterism.

But slowly, over time, the spread of this bullshit started to create genuine confusion in the minds of the recipients, and the minute that starts happening, you know things are circling the drain for sure.

There is an enormous amount of confusion over what to believe these days and it’s pretty much a situation that can touch anyone at any time.

There are stats that report, for example, that Donald Trump has told more than 4500 outright lies since he has become president. These stats are created by people who do this for a living. But because everyone is so confused, we really have no way of knowing if all this fact checking is true or not.

Because as much as we would like to believe that there is some sort of objective truth out there, the reality is that it’s getting harder and harder to find.

One of the key factors about this is that anyone who is using advertising or any sort of digital contact to develop leads and solicit business, will, with relatively few exceptions, find that the effectiveness of their efforts are steadily diminishing.

Because the other side of the bullshit coin is skepticism.

There’s an old entertainment adage…”If there ain’t no audience there just ain’t no show.”

This phrase was coined In a simpler time but it is probably even more true today than ever.

Can Bullshit Be Beat?

Nope. I honestly believe it can’t. Because I think people have become so skeptical that even if they need something they would be fearful of putting that request out there in a very general way.

The new result is that people with a need, need to either find someone who can connect them to the right people. Or use own suppliers’ connections to unearth other suppliers. It’s become extremely incestuous in that regard.

The irony is that this is the way things were before the molehill of bullshit became a mountain. It’s a classic example of what goes around comes around.

Yeah. Yeah.

Now, I'm sure there are a few people out there who are reading this and thinking that guy is full of shit. And if you are, I’m glad for you because you have either figured how to make the secret sauce that helps you get business in the digital age. Or you are in an area of business that has a receptive digital audience.

Either way, I would submit you are part of the 10% and not the godforsaken 90.

The only way I know of to beat the bullshit is, ironically, the way I have always done it.

1. Call the person you want to do business with.

2. See if that possibility exists.

3A: If it does, then set up a meeting.

3B: If it doesn’t, ask them if they know any one who would be worth talking to. Then agree to talk again in a couple of months to see if anything has changed.

4. Move on to the next contact.

I know this sounds deceptively simple, but after 45 years in business, one of the few things I know is that simple works because you always know where you stand.

And when you know where you stand, it just that much easier to plan your next move.

So many people delude themselves into believing that if they just craft the right message in the right tone and shoot it out into the ether at the right time, (all according to digital marketing wisdom), that they will have unimaginable success.

Well good luck with that.

jim out.

Jim lives in St Catharines Ontario (AKA The Quiet Side Of The Lake) and is currently a partner at Bullet Proof Consulting. www.bulletproofconsulting.ca

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