Why Failure To Trust Is Bad For Business

Many business owners share lots of amazing traits: they are driven, successful, self-motivated, action-oriented and curious. However, all of these good traits are sometimes accompanied with a not-so-positive trait: resistance to relinquishing control over business decisions (no matter how big or small!).And I should know: this is coming from a small business owner and recovering control freak! 🙋🏼‍♀️🙈If you are struggling to trust the experts you hired to help your business grow and succeed even more, then this blog is for you. 

Business owners who refuse to trust the experts they hired to help them in realms outside of their expertise may end up sabotaging their own success by refusing to accept the fact that they don’t know what they don’t know. Strong-arming campaign decisions and not trusting experts to do their job (whether it be ad managers, CRO/SEO experts, designers or some other field), only creates friction and poorly impacts the bottom line.With that said, you must do your due diligence and make sure that whoever you hire is actually good and trustworthy: be that by referrals, reviews or having a really good filter. If you have done your homework and hired the right people, you can rest assured that their expertise is worth trusting.Otherwise, I'm afraid you are very likely shooting yourself in the foot. 

We see a lot of excuses for this type of misguided behavior, but frankly, overlooking and excusing it only leads to frustrating outcomes and poor results for both sides.See, business owners tend to wear many hats in the business, which ultimately makes them generalists, not experts. They’re essentially the captain, steering the ship, which is a very important job. But as you grow, you simply cannot handle ALL aspects of your business; you need to hire help. Thus business owners end up seeking out actual experts for various needs as they grow, hoping these experts can help them find the BEST outcome for their business. This in and of itself is a brilliant and essential business move! But here’s where it can go wrong if you struggle with control: not heeding expert advice or disrespecting years of experience only inhibits fellow collaborators from doing what you hired them to do, which isto help you.

This can be especially true in the Facebook ad space:clients should not try to add or remove variables to a delicate ad campaign that is carefully and strategically crafted, and expect ad performance to hold. Don’t get me wrong: some changes are needed or time sensitive and we just have to roll with it. Examples of this may be a sale ending, unexpected inventory issues, and so on. But clients who believe they can often haphazardly make unnecessary changes to a campaign on a whim,must be aware of the consequences of their actions (this may sound harsh, but it is just reality). To be clear: the gravest of consequences is often a rapid decline in ROAS. Many highly skilled ad managers are affected by working with a business owner who has a case of “chronic certainty,” meaning, they are dogmatic on their views and feelings ofalways knowing best or being right when it comes to business decisions. However, when a business owner is able to take a step back and realize that an advertising pro has years of expertise and advice to bring to the table, then productive and healthy conversations can occur. If not, many ad managers find themselves being burnt out and wondering, “if you’re going to repeatedly ignore my advice, then why did you trust me with this role?”

The tendency to strong-arm or control a campaign is more common at times when a campaign is temporarily struggling and performance is dipping. Ironically, this is the worst time for a business owner to overpower the campaign with less-than-helpful requests. An example is a client who wants to remove an introductory promotion from any ads at the same time that overall ROAS is dropping, particularly when the 15% off ads are bringing in the best ROAS. In this scenario, an ad manager cannot be held responsible for any further dropping of the ROAS since the client is requesting to remove one of the top performing aspects in a campaign. In this type of scenario (when a campaign is struggling), that is exactly when you should pull out all the stops with things thathelp campaigns (like a promo)....not remove them. Facebook ad campaigns will always experience highs and lows, and when a campaign is in a lull, it’s an even better time to step back and let the experts really shine with their suggestions for improvement. Business owners (even if the intention is well-meaning) who throw out required change after required change only end up hurting their campaign by not listening to the experts they hired to help them navigate the ups and downs of thevery complicated and sensitive Facebook ad realm. 

To be clear, there are indeed times where we just need to roll withnecessary changes that a business owner needs. But it’s important to recognize what is necessary and what is problematic. Here are some examples:

Necessary: unexpected inventory or manufacturing issues (think Covid supply chain issues), a limited-time sale, a major website issue that requires pausing ads for a few days or more, an ad error, etc.

Problematic: poor inventory planning (not Covid related), removing an introductory promotion that is producing a high ROAS (and not digging into profit), not having a backup credit card connected to the ad account so that ads are paused when an issue arises with your primary credit card, wanting to often reduce spend or increase spend dramatically with disregard for Facebook ad best practices, or wanting to remove an ad image, video or copy that outperforms other aspects for non-urgent reasons, etc. 

The next time you find yourself on different sides of an issue with an expert you hired to aid your success, try to make sure the other person or team knows that their views and expertise are being considered and are heard, even if you don’t fully agree with them. You will likely be surprised by the positive outcomes that will come from relinquishing the need to have full control of every decision. Sometimes compromise may absolutely be needed and, other times, you may simply need to give the expert the freedom to fully exercise their skills so that they can produce the best possible result for you without your interference.