Blog · Reputation
Reflections on reputation: Visibility, Credibility and Profitability
Every professional relationship passes through three phases, always in the same order, and none of them can be skipped. The model is called VCP, and its usefulness lies in telling you where you stand with each person you know.
Published 6 June 2022 · revised 16 August 2026
The model
Visibility, credibility, profitability
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Visibility
People know who you are and what you do. You still know very little about each other, and it's the gateway to everything else: it has to be actively built and maintained, because without it you don't move to the next phase.
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Credibility
They know you do it well. Appointments are kept, promises are honoured, the work is delivered. It isn't bought, it's earned — and every single action shifts it, one way or the other.
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Profitability
The relationship is mature enough to produce work for both sides. It isn't reached by rushing the earlier phases: it arrives when it arrives, and it lasts if the benefit is mutual.
The practical use of the model is this: take the people in your network one by one and work out where you stand with each of them. Then stop treating them all the same way.
The variable nobody controls
Time and trust
The time it takes to reach profitability isn't the same for everyone, and it depends on how much whoever recommends you is risking. A florist gets referrals quickly: if the bouquet is ugly, the damage is an ugly bouquet.
Whoever manages someone's savings needs far more time, because whoever introduces them is putting a relationship on the line — and sometimes a family. It isn't a question of skill: it's the stakes that are different.
One word at a time
VCP describes a curve. Today that curve is measured.
It's the difference between a model that helps you think and one that gives you a number.
What VCP says
That trust is built over time and that the phases go in order. It's true, and it's the part of the model that holds up completely.
What it doesn't say is where you stand, how long it's taken you, and whether you're rising or falling.
What the discipline adds
Reliability isn't a state, it's a trajectory: the same person at three months and at three years tells two different stories, and only the curve tells you whether a trust is consolidated. It's the Fifth law, the Law of Measurement.
In practice: a Connector's reliability is a score that moves over time, and the system uses it to decide who gets handed an introduction. The 2022 VCP said "watch where you stand"; this measures it.
VCP tells you there's a curve. The Fifth law shows it to you.
The first step
Where your company stands, with a number
AIRA-SCAN© measures the Relational Capital your company already has: ten questions, three minutes, no sign-up. Your browser calculates the score and it appears immediately, with the areas where you're losing the most points.
The extended report then arrives by email and within one working day a person calls you: you look at the result together and assess whether the Stoic Analysis AIRA-DX© makes sense for your company. It's free and limited to twelve a week, so it isn't owed to whoever takes the check-up: it's decided together.
Prefer just to talk? The number is 0549 888808.