Successfully leveraging your experience, training, and/or knowledgebase is the only “real” commodity that can differentiate you in a market ripe with competition. The question is how do you position yourself as the authority or expert to best maximize the return on your knowledge?
We’ll share four simple ways that can open up the door to higher consultation fees, increased salaried employment opportunities, and other unique business channels that can accelerate the growth of your business and fuel your overall success.
These four ways below will help you do just that.
1. Become a vocal advocate and educator for your customers.
Building trust with customers usually comes by identifying the needs of your customers, and developing pro-active solutions to satisfy those customers. Customers want to communicate with someone who they can rely on and trust.
Case study: Let’s take a look at Dr. Joseph Mercola, a physician well-known for his expertise as an alternative medicine proponent, osteopathic physician, and now, web entrepreneur. He leveraged his expertise to serve as a trusted advocate for those looking for quality information pertaining to complementary alternative medicine and integrative medicine.
2. Develop a specialty that you’re passionate about and will clearly differentiate you from others.
‘Jack of all trades, master of none’ is not what we’re shooting for at all here. Specialty is the name of the game. The more specialized you become, the easier it is for you to distinguish yourself, understand your niche market and become a highly sought after expert.
Case Study: Jason deCaires Taylor is an internationally acclaimed sculptor who creates underwater living installations. Taylor has spent the better part of 20 years cultivating himself into an award winning underwater photographer, turning his passion into a rewarding, niche specialty.
3. Write articles, essays and/or a books to establish credibility.
Writing can be an arduous endeavor even for professional writers, let alone, a novice writer. But nothing speaks to your credibility more than writing a book about yourself, your experiences and expertise. Making a concerted effort to write articles, essays, and books pertaining to your area of expertise will establish you as an immediate authority and cement you as an expert amongst your peers.
Case study: Guy Kawasaki, chief evangelist of Canva, an online, graphics-design service, began his consultant career by writing columns that were featured in Forbes and MacUser in the 1990’s. Today, Guy is considered one of the most dynamic and entertaining speakers within the tech space with credits of 13 best-selling books.
4. Roll up your sleeves and start speaking to your audience.
Giving speeches, participating in seminars and/or panels is a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field. Speaking opportunities provide a platform in which you can engage your audience and successfully align yourself with other speakers who may or may not be in your field. No matter the size of the audience, this will give you the ability to hone your speaking capabilities in order to deliver interesting, informative, and engaging speeches, interviews, etc. to generate countless opportunities.
Case study: This one’s about you! How you start, where you start, and with whom you start, isn’t nearly as vital as just starting.