Authority Briefing:
Before Comparison Begins
How trust, credibility, and perceived capability are formed before buyers consciously evaluate options.
Most organizations assume buying decisions begin with comparison.
They don’t.
In modern markets, credibility is inferred earlier, often unconsciously, and largely outside company-owned environments.
This briefing explains how authority is now formed before evaluation begins, why many capable firms are eliminated without knowing it, and how visibility inside trusted contexts determines who is even considered.
WHAT THIS BRIEFING COVERS
- How pre-comparison filtering works
- Why excellence alone no longer guarantees evaluation
- The role of context in credibility formation
- How familiarity is mistaken for legitimacy
- Why many firms are invisible without realizing it
WHO THIS BRIEFING IS FOR
- Senior leaders in trust-sensitive markets
- Founders and executives responsible for credibility
- Strategy, brand, and positioning teams
- Organizations experiencing stalled evaluation despite strong capability
Download the Authority Briefing
Foundational orientation document.
PDF download. Reviewed by Alison Prentice, CEO.
About This Briefing
This document serves as a foundational orientation for the Authority Briefings that follow. Other briefings examine specific market conditions and applied frameworks in greater depth.
JCH Digital designs authority environments for companies operating in trust-sensitive markets.
Our work focuses on how expertise is interpreted before comparison begins.
