American economist Fischer Black defined noise in the market as the opposite of information: hype and incomplete or inaccurate data. He lived and worked more than 30 years ago, and in the meantime it’s only grown louder. Think about the last time you went looking for a new company to partner with, or tried to reach new customers with the message that you’re the best fit for their move. You can’t miss the noise out there; you don’t just hear it, you feel it prowling, growling, hungry for the unwary buyer.

To be aware of the noise is to ask oneself, how do I rise above it, cut through it, find the good and the real and find them right now? A pilot landing a plane low on fuel at night in a thunderstorm doesn’t leave his fate in the hands of the autopilot; he takes over the yoke and the rudder, talks to the tower, and brings all of his instrument training to bear on making contact with the ground at exactly the right time, speed and angle. Anything else could leave him with some extremely unhappy customers. Does that feel familiar?

In our industry, trust takes time to establish, but decisions about who to start to trust have to be made today; not next week after making a round of inquiries. How do you sort through all of the noise to find the right partner? What sets your ideal partner apart from the others, how do you make the initial determination to approach a company, and what convinces you up front that they have what it takes?

Before you answer those questions, keep reading and take a few minutes to absorb what your fellow members have to say on the subject. We asked the same questions and more to our contributors for this issue, and I think you’ll find their answers insightful, creative and helpful the next time you find yourself filtering the noise for the next company you need to trust.