The Dangers of being an ‘Expert’

I am very fond of nice coffee, and prepared to go out of my way to get a really good cup.  I have a reasonable machine at home but it isn’t ‘just right’ and I was prepared to spend quite a lot to get the perfect machine.  So I searched the net and found a place about 30 miles away that had the machine I wanted to try in stock and available for demonstrating.  I was impressed by the site and the emails I exchanged with them.  The clincher was the guy described himself as a “barista”, which is what you call the guys who make espresso.

So I arrived, eager to buy.  My opening comment was I have X machine now, but the coffee isn’t hot enough.  His opening line was “Well you won’t get a better coffee than X…”  Over the next 10 minutes he steadily, yet somehow politely, talked himself out of a sale, and even my wife, a raving cooking fan, left without so much as looking around at his shop full of ‘goodies’ so cross was she at his attitude.  It was a little bit like an eager young man turning up at a cat house and being told by the madame that he would have more fun on his own with a copy of playboy…

His mistake was that he made no effort to find out what we wanted or why we wanted it.  He didn’t establish who he was talking to or our level of expertise/knowledge.  He may or may not have known more about the subject than me but he never tried to establish that.

It is so easy for an expert to fail to recognise & respect his client’s expertise or alter his language and delivery appropriately.  A real expert does not need to show off his knowledge or make others feel stupid.  So if you are a consultant or expert, take care!

“Expert: Someone who brings confusion to simplicity”  Gregory Nunn

“If stock market experts were so expert, they would be buying stock, not selling advice.”  Norman R Augustine

Tags: Communication, expertise, listening

This entry was posted on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 18:03 and is filed under Communication, General, Hints, Tips & Techniques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.