I had a weird experience a while back.

I was a bit dissatisfied with my business bank account. I'd been with the Co-operative bank for a while. They're the UKs “ethical bank” which I like – but unfortunately their online banking is just awful and I'd had about enough.

So I made up my mind to switch to a different bank. I planned to set aside an hour over the weekend to look up the different options and choose which one I was going to go with.

Then completely by coincidence, I got a call from Barclays asking if I'd be interested in briefly talking about their business account and the benefits of switching.

It was like they were psychic. Absolutely perfect timing. Just as I was considering a switch.

Now you're probably expecting me to go on and talk about the value of timing. Knowing how to identify when your clients get urgent needs. And how Barclays walked away with my business as a result.

But it didn't work out like that.

When the nice lady on the phone asked if I'd be interested in discussing their business account, I immediately said “no thanks, I'll call you if I need something”.

I couldn't help it, it was a knee-jerk reaction. Pure emotion speaking.

Afterwards I realised just what a strange thing I'd done. I needed a new bank account, someone offered to give me detailed information about it, and I turned down the chance.

Madness really.

Here's what I think was going on inside my head.

The minute someone called me offering to talk to me about something, my defenses went up.

It wasn't her fault. She wasn't pushy. Wasn't salesy. It's a conditioned response these days.

If you call me wanting to discuss one of your products or even how you can “help me” I assume you're trying to sell me something. I assume you're biased. I assume you'll give me a picture that favours your products.

And I know I can find out all the information I need from the web anyway.

You see, the importance of the web isn't just that it allows me to search and find what I want. It's changed my mindset.

Searching myself. Finding information myself.

Where in the old days I used to rely on others to provide me with information on things I might want to buy, now I don't want to hear from them.

I want to be self sufficient. I want to control the process.

There's an old saying in sales: you have to control the process. Control the sales meeting. Control the agenda.

But try that on me these days and you'll be out of the door.

I, the buyer, want to be in control. If you want to sell me anything you're going to have to live with that.

And I'm not the only one.

We're all shifting. We're all growing increasingly suspicious of information we haven't sourced ourselves.

We're all used to being in control and that's how we want our buying experience to be.

You know this. This is nothing new.

But have you adjusted your marketing to respond?

Are you focused on becoming one of the trusted sources of information your clients use?

Or are you still pushing your message at them?