Are These Two Factors Over-Influencing Your Decision Makers?

I was driving recently on a Saturday morning, and happened to catch a show on NPR about how someone earns the status of “expert.” It wasn’t with a business guru, but an anthropology researcher and author. And that short 15-minute segment changed my thought process on how we assess experts.
What does this have to do with our success in sales and business development? Turns out, quite a bit.
We live in a world that’s hyper-focused on likes, follows, shares, and online reviews to assess how well anything is received. Be it a product, a service, a story about your recent family vacation, or the vacation rental home you stayed in. Social proof in the form of likes, follows, and shares guides many a decision-making process.
Those examples tap into two attributes that can influence our decision makers as well, as they assess us as an expert and trusted advisor. Popularity and recency.