You know you are good at what you do, yet when someone asks you to describe what you do, you are stumped.
You call yourself an expert but deep down inside you’re winging it, afraid that you will eventually get caught. It’s not that you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s more that you haven’t really figured out patterns and ways to deliver what you can do. So you’re inconsistent. You have no system or process for consistently delivering value to your clients.
Whether you are confident in your expertise or insecure and winging it you won’t be able to earn any money from your expertise if you:
- cannot explain it in a compelling way
- don’t position that expertise brilliantly
Without these two components, it means that you are easily interchangeable with other service providers. Your potential client can find many viable substitutes for your expertise.
Has this ever happened to you:
You’ve been working with a client for a couple months. For some reason, the project starts to head south. You and the client might have had a disagreement around a particular approach. The client decides it’s a deal breaker and goes off in search of your replacement.
When you hear about who they are replacing you with you scoff. You rant to your colleagues that this person is so inadequate. You think to yourself:
The client will quickly find out that I wasn’t so bad after all and that what I was saying made loads of sense.
Except crickets.
Nothing happens.
The client doesn’t realize ANYTHING!
All you got out of it was energy wasted on a rant and the realization that nobody cares about your opinion. You are hurt by your investment in that client.
Good positioning makes you non-interchangeable.
If you are positioned well, it will be difficult for the client to find substitutes.
If you are like everyone else, looking and sounding the same, it won’t take long for a client to find replacements for you.
You’re not just providing a service. You are in the expertise business and it starts with being able to explain what you do in a compelling way and position your expertise brilliantly.
The first step is understanding yourself, not just what you bring to the table but what you do on a daily basis. This is the deal breaker for many. Your daily practice matters.
I have developed a short quiz which is not just a quiz but a developmental tool that can help you quickly determine those areas that need your focus today, to help you become a you. Click here to take that quiz now.
Your expertise is your business! 