Whether you're selling courses, consulting, coaching (or anything else beginning with the letter C ) it's crucial that your potential clients see you as an expert.
And in the quiet moments of self-doubt that everyone has you might find yourself asking the question "why would someone listen to me?"
Now there are many ways to establish that authority positioning and give people a great reason to listen to you. Your experience, your achievements, your credentials, your testimonials, your client results.
But there's an even better way that doesn't need you to have made a squazillion dollars, climbed a mountain single handed or earned 3 PhDs.
I hadn't really thought about it until Amanda, one of the students on our first Persuasive Email Writing Accelerator cohort, mentioned it.
She said it was a real epiphany she'd got from the course as she'd been worrying about why people would see her as an expert.
As she explained, "If I regularly give people expert tips and advice in my newsletter then...I am an expert".
In other words, the best form of proof is demonstration.
I can tell you I'm an expert as much as I want but you're unlikely to believe me.
I can show you my credentials and achievements and what others say about me and that might be a bit more convincing.
But the ultimate test is for you to see it for yourself. And in the case of expertise, I can demonstrate my expertise by sharing advice.
If that advice is good - if it leads to new insights and better results for the people who read it, then it puts you ahead of every other would-be expert trying to claim that position.
After all, who would you rather work with: the expert who says he'll make your life better, or the one who already has?
- Ian
PS Thanks Amanda :)