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Michael Lynch

Michael is the founder and principal of Highly Persuasive, a brand strategy and positioning practice built on how buyers actually perceive, evaluate, shortlist, and decide. We help companies close the distance between how good they are and how easy they are to choose. Brand, strategy, positioning, messaging, identity & marketing systems for professional services firms, industrial companies, hospitality businesses, and any company growing faster than their brand has kept up with.

May 20 2026
What Makes a Professional Services Firm Get Mentioned in a Board Conversation Where No Representative Is Present

What Makes a Professional Services Firm Get Mentioned in a Board Conversation Where No Representative Is Present

By Business Strategy & Positioning, Marketing Strategy & Growth, Messaging & Communications
What Makes a Professional Services Firm Get Mentioned in a Board Conversation Where No Representative Is Present When was the last time a client named your firm in a board conversation before anyone had invited you into the process? Not a referral. Not a warm introduction that led to a…
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May 19 2026
What Google's E-E-A-T Framework Reveals About How Commercial Trust Is Built at Scale

What Google’s E-E-A-T Framework Reveals About How Commercial Trust Is Built at Scale

By Brand Management, Business Strategy & Positioning
What Google's E-E-A-T Framework Reveals About How Commercial Trust Is Built at Scale In 2022, Google added a fourth letter to its content quality framework. The original EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) became E-E-A-T when Experience was added as a distinct evaluation criterion. The distinction Google was drawing matters: someone can…
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May 18 2026
3 levels of commerical trust and how businesses only capture level 1

The 3 Levels of Commercial Trust & Why Most Brand Investment Only Builds the First One

By Conversion Optimization & Sales Psychology, Marketing Strategy & Growth, Messaging & Communications, Thought Leadership & Authority Building
The 3 Levels of Commercial Trust & Why Most Brand Investment Only Addresses the First One Your case studies are answering the wrong question. Buyers stopped asking "can they do this?" weeks before the shortlist was formed. The firms that made the list have all answered it adequately. The evaluation…
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May 13 2026
The Companies That Win the Most Don't Just Have Fewer Competitors — They Have Better Ones

Companies That Win the Most Don’t Just Have Fewer Competitors — They Have Better Ones

By Brand Management, Branding & Identity, Business Strategy & Positioning
The Companies That Win the Most Don't Just Have Fewer Competitors — They Have Better Ones The advice to "escape your category" has produced some impressive presentation decks and some remarkably thin pipelines. Clearly positioned rivals are among the most commercially valuable assets a specialist firm can have.What their absence…
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May 04 2026
Recent Buying Signals for Staffing and Recruiting Firms: Where Your Best Clients Are Right Now 2026-2027

Recent Buying Signals for Staffing and Recruiting Firms: Where Your Best Clients Are Right Now

By Business Strategy & Positioning, Case Studies & Real-World Examples, Conversion Optimization & Sales Psychology
Recent Buying Signals for Staffing and Recruiting Firms: Where Your Best Clients Are Right Now 2026-2027 The companies most likely to call a staffing or recruiting firm in the next 90 days are not the ones posting the most jobs. They are the ones navigating a specific commercial event that…
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Apr 27 2026
What AI Search is Saying About Your Company Right Now

What AI Search is Saying About Your Company Right Now

By Branding & Identity, Business Strategy & Positioning, Influence & Consumer Psychology, Marketing Strategy & Growth, SEO & Organic Growth
What AI Search Says About Your Company Right now— and Why You Should Check Before Your Next Buyer Does Buyers in your market are now evaluating vendors without contacting them. They're using AI search to identify and compare options to create a shortlist before the first email is sent. The…
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