We’ve all had that person in our lives who we knew deep down was much more interested in our failures than our successes. We’d catch a glimmer in their eye when we hit our low points and a scowl when we reach a milestone without them. Frenemies, fake friends, bad boyfriends and the like. It’s not that they want us to fail necessarily… it’s just that they don’t want us to win if they can’t benefit or take credit.

It’s easy to spot a fake friend in your personal life, but what about at work? How often do you as yourself if the partners you work with, from banks, to vendors, to agencies, really care as much about your business as you do?

Your Friend May Be a Furtive Foe If…

• They Don’t Play Well with Others:

  If you’ve brought in a third party that you need to work with your partner and they are resistant or downright combative, you may want to rethink your relationship. While raising legitimate concerns about the third party’s capabilities in a respectful manner is helpful, continually making weak excuses because they are threatened is not.

• They Keep Secrets:

  We have been working with a PPC client for a few months who had an extremely tough time getting the correct Google Analytics data from his website. His web company had added a new Analytics property to his site rather than his already established property. When he requested to be added as a user to their property they declined and said they could only provide screenshots of the data. After several weeks of pestering, they finally added his original property to the site along with their own. Limiting access to proprietary software is one thing, but Google Analytics is a free tool and as a business owner it provides valuable data you need to make decisions about marketing and more.

• They Don’t Adapt:

  Google announced in 2017 that beginning in 2018 sites without https:// would not be prioritized in search results. We immediately notified our clients and urged them to make the switch ASAP. However, we work with a client who uses another web company who did not reach out to them about making this change as a standard practice. It was not until the client reached out to them in December of 2018 that the change was implemented. Similarly, we have had several instances where we’ve used UTM tracking codes on email blasts or PPC campaigns and noticed that the content on the pages does not load properly on the client’s third-party website when the codes are attached. These codes are essential for measuring the success of various marketing campaigns and should not impact the content on the page at all. Both are examples of technological advancements that have become standard and if your web company hasn’t caught up to them then they’re making sure your competition is leaving you behind.

• They Don’t Deliver:

  Any partner you work with should be able to tell you, in detail, what they are doing for you and give you data on how it’s working. If you aren’t receiving regular reporting, ask for it. A good partner will help you understand the data and develop solutions if things are down rather than hiding it from you.

While you may have another F word for fake friends in your personal life, here’s one for those you work with: fire them!