In Business / June 2008
Secrets of Becoming an Instant Expert
Tired of just being another business, another CEO, another sales representative? Want to be known as an expert and have businesses calling you to buy your products? Want to be the “go to” CEO in your industry? Want to be the top income producing sales person in-route to the company paid vacation of your dreams?
Who do people gravitate to for business or advice? The answer -- an expert. Ok, so you are thinking experts have years of experience, are well known for their experience and highly visible. Well, you’re partially right. And, you’re thinking, you don’t want to wait another five, ten, or fifteen years to gain expert status.
So, what if you were to become an instant expert. Have instant visibility. And, be an instant success.
Over the last several years, I have researched, read, asked questions, observed and basically made it my mission to find out how people become instant experts. Here’s the four keys of those who are experts:
1. They Know Their S****!. Stats, that is. And, you probably do also. But experts know their business in a different way. They know statistics and interesting facts that relate to what’s happening in the overall business climate TODAY. They are able to tell interesting stories intermingled with hard factual statistics. They marry the “emotion” of the story with the “logic” of the facts. All purchasing decision (100%) are either made with emotion or with logic or a combination of both. So, within a few short sentences of a story, experts are able to connect at 100%. Experts can create a “purchase need” where none existed.
2. They Use Media. Stedman Graham (think Oprah) was asked if he had to bundle Oprah’s entire success into just one word, what would the word be. He responded by saying he would choose the word “media”. The more people you can reach to learn about your product or service, the more likely you are to make sale. Stedman went on to share that any and every business, large or small, absolutely must tap into the power of the media. For the most part, as business people, we confuse media with advertising. There is a significant difference in the meaning of the terms. Traditional advertising such as newspaper ads, television commercials, radio spots, website banners, trade magazine ads, are all very effective, but are also very expensive. But, media does not equate to advertising. A timely article in the local newspaper cost you nothing. A feature article in your trade magazine costs you nothing. An interview on TV regarding a interesting topic costs you nothing. An interview on your local radio station costs you nothing, but your media exposure beyond measure.
3. They Leverage Their Time. We all are familiar with ROI (return on investment), but how many of us understand the concept of ROT (return on time)? Here’s an example, a financial planner was doing a average job according to her professional peers, but was frustrated at only being able to write so many new clients a day until she started using the power of leveraged time. Instead of contacting one or two potential new clients per day – otherwise known as cold calling or sometimes warm calling (a referral), she decided to leverage her time and attract clients that wanted her services. She worked out a partnership with other similar, but not competitive, business and set up local informational programs of 20-25 people per session who were seeking information and knowledge about investments and retirement planning. The result was 20-25 new clients per hour worked and those clients were interested in financial planning services. Think about it, who would be building their client portfolio faster – the person who does one to two cold calls per day or the person who is getting 20-25 hot leads per hour. This lady is now one of the top six (6) professional financial planners in the United States.
A good question to ask yourself is “what action will put me closest to the money?” Experts value their time and they understand the value of their time. This means that you must take a good, hard look at how you are spending your time right now. Start spending your time on things that are critical to your success and ditch, delegate, or revamp everything else.
4. They are Visible. Visibility is visibility and it can be achieved in many different ways. You can have your own website (or a special page attached to your company’s website with more detailed information about you, with your company’s permission, of course), you can belong to LinkedIn, MySpace or FaceBook or other internet social networks, you can write articles for the local paper or your trade industry, you can write a special report and email it to your existing clients or others who you want to become your clients, you can write an article for internet dispersion that can be picked up by newspaper, TV, radio, or anyone who writes blogs or e-zines with a reference or link back to you, the expert.
You can quickly become a speaker at local events or within your trade industry. All you need to do is pick an interesting and timely topic. Most meeting and conference planners are looking for speakers. Be nominated for awards and announce that you have been nominated for the award. Then announce again if you win. Add to the back of your business card when reprinted (or add a clear label to your current card with key words or a personal tag line you want customers to remember). One of the best ones I have seen is a regional pharmaceutical representative who’s tag line is “I Sell DRUGS!”. I have only met him once in my life and that was several years ago, but still to this day, I can picture his face and his card and I would know him anywhere, anytime, and I would know exactly what he sells.
By using these four keys, you can obtain instant expert status. But even more importantly, is the next step you can achieve as an expert. As an expert, another incredible business opportunity awaits – joint venturing. Joint ventures are business partnerships created with reputable business people that create a win-win situation for both businesses as well as their customers.
Remember, the theory of six degrees of separation. What used to be considered “pie in the sky” or “unthinkable partnerships” for businesses are within the reach of all businesses today. Joint ventures offer new ways of introducing your product or service to other different instantaneous markets. A joint venture may offer you the unique advantage to start a different product line or service that has an instant referral system or to launch an individual product. For example, there was an average type lady who wrote a simple little book of the 100 Reasons I’m Glad You’re my Mom. Through a series of introductions, she did a joint venture with one of the largest gift card companies as part of their Mother’s Day offer. The lady received a check for six figures and the gift card company had a huge “special promotion” gift with purchase for their customers. The gift card company made a huge profit on the venture. Win-win.
Debbie Cunningham is Principal and President of Evergreen Business Strategies, Inc. a WV-based business and medical consulting company. To sign up for her free monthly newsletter with valuable and timely business advice, go to www. evergreenbusinessstrategies.com.
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