Do you need more Credentials or an expanded Network

Have you quietly been thinking that perhaps another qualification, one more certification, one more coaching accreditation or one more piece of formal training might attract and convert more clients?

Some coaches, consultants and experts are drawn to ‘do more’ to show knowledge and expertise.

You may already have invested heavily in your professional development and yet still find yourself watching people with less experience attract more attention, more conversations and more clients.

And that triggers the thought to have more credentials behind your name.

Of course, looking at what others are doing can become frustrating, because somewhere in the back of your mind you start wondering whether there is something missing for you.

But what if the real issue is not that you need to know more?

What if more of the right people simply need to know what you already know?

That is a very different problem, and it needs a very different solution.

When I look back across the businesses I have owned and expanded, one thing becomes very obvious to me now.

Whenever I wanted to expand, I did not automatically go looking for another qualification.

I learned what I needed to learn, certainly, and I have always valued professional development, but my business growth came from applying what I already knew, communicating it clearly and putting myself into relationships where other people could begin to understand what I had on offer.

Some of my strongest lessons actually came from industries I entered with very little product knowledge.

When I purchased a fine jewellery business on Australia’s Gold Coast, I knew very little about jewellery itself.

Sure, I did courses to learn about precious gemstones, diamonds, different carat gold but that was so I could teach my team, not to impress customers with credentials.

Later, I bought an office supplies business, which was another industry I had never worked in before and I acquired knowledge by asking every product representative about the details from one pen or pencil to another.

I was able to teach my team in this business and together we were able to offer excellent customer service – not based on formal qualifications but based on practical experience and the relationship we built with our customers.

The qualification I brought into both businesses was in marketing, positioning, systems, people and business strategy.

That helped me in the jewellery business to increase turnover and customers.

My customer database increased from 600 over 6000 names and eventually that helped sell the business profitably.

In the office supplies business, I increased profit month after month and sold the business within days of receiving an offer.

Those experiences taught me something important very early in my business life.

People have to like and trust you, then it’s easier for them to understand the value of what you know.

And that’s a combination of a business network trusting you and sending their contacts, friends and family to you.

My Jewellery Business Taught Me the Difference Between Visibility and Trust

My jewellery business gave me one of the clearest demonstrations of this.

Like many business owners, I initially assumed that the more people who saw the business, the better our results would be.

So, I spent money on advertising.

A lot of it.

One catalogue promotion alone cost me approximately $14,000. It produced five small sales and left me with around $55,000 worth of necklaces, rings, earrings.

That experience forced me to rethink what I was doing.

When I was invited to a business networking event, speaking with other business owners and being asked about myself and my business, the difference was significant.

Instead of people simply seeing an advertisement for the jewellery store, they got to know me.

People I met through networking came into the shop, bought from me and referred friends, family and other contacts.

Over time, that brought customers who trusted me, happily leaving heritage jewellery for repairs and buying new for special occasions.

I had not gained another qualification.

What changed was that people were referred to me by people who had met the person behind the business.

They had heard how I talked about what we did. They understood me, they liked my direct way of communicating and, over time, they trusted me more and more.

That was one of my earliest practical lessons in what is often referred to as “Know, Like and Trust”.

And it taught me that visibility and trusted visibility are not the same thing.

I learned a similar lesson years later when I moved from retail business ownership into consulting.

At that point, I did want something that would strengthen how people perceived my expertise, but instead of taking time to study for simply additional credentials, I wrote a book.

The purpose of that first book was very deliberate.

I wanted it to help me move from being seen as a retail business owner into being recognised as a consultant to small businesses.
The book gave people a visible reason to recognise the expertise and experience I had already accumulated.

The book brought speaking invitations in Brisbane and later in networking environments internationally, including Kuala Lumpur, Switzerland and Hong Kong.

Again, the important part for me was not that I suddenly became more knowledgeable the day the book was published.

I had positioned what I already knew in a way other people could understand.

And once other people understand your expertise, something changes.

They can remember it.

They can talk about it.

They can introduce you because of it.

They can begin carrying your credibility beyond your own marketing.

Why an Expanded Network Can Matter More Than Another Credential

A credential can tell somebody you have completed a course, passed an assessment or met a professional standard.

That can absolutely be important, and in some professions it is essential.

But credibility is broader than that.

Credibility is also built when people hear how you think, see how you approach a problem, experience the value of your ideas and repeatedly see evidence that you know what you are doing.

That often happens in conversation.

This is why I have come to see networking less as an activity and much more as a business strategy.

The person you meet today does not have to become your client for that relationship to be valuable.

They may introduce you to somebody else.

They may remember your expertise when they hear a particular problem mentioned months later.

They may invite you into a collaboration.

They may recommend you to someone in another industry or another country.

They may become part of an expanded network that carries knowledge of your expertise much further than you can carry it yourself.

And that is something another certificate cannot do for you.

When I later established Stickybeak Marketing, I experienced this on a much larger scale.

I travelled extensively at the time and, rather than treating those trips as time away from business development, I deliberately looked for networking opportunities in the countries and cities I visited.

I met businesspeople, had conversations, developed relationships and allowed people to understand what I did and how I thought about marketing.

Those relationships helped expand both my professional network and the geographic reach of the agency.

Within Stickybeak Marketing’s first 12 months, the business had grown from start-up to approximately $250,000 turnover, with clients across the United States, Europe and Asia.

I did not achieve that by deciding I needed another marketing qualification before I was allowed to work internationally.

I took the expertise I already had and expanded the network around it.

That experience became one of the foundations of how I think about Global Business Expansion today.

Being able to serve clients globally is one thing.

Being known and trusted by people in different markets is another.

The lesson became even clearer when my work moved more heavily online through book writing, publishing and marketing.

By then, I was developing relationships with people across countries and time zones without needing to be physically present in the same room.

At one stage, approximately 87% of my clients in that business came through online networking globally.

For me, that was powerful proof that business moving online did not make relationships less important.

It made the ability to build those relationships across borders even more valuable.

And that is why I now believe that experienced coaches, consultants and experts who want to Expand Their Business Globally need to think beyond simply “getting more visible”.

You need people who know you.

You need people who understand what you do.

You need people who recognise where your expertise fits.

And you need enough consistency in those relationships for trust to develop.

There is a significant difference between telling people repeatedly that you are an expert and having someone else say:

“You should talk to Sigrid about that.”

Or:

“I know someone who would be perfect for this.”

Or:

“You two should meet.”

That kind of third-party credibility is difficult to manufacture.
It usually comes because someone has spent enough time around you to understand what you do and feel confident putting your name forward.

This is why I believe credibility is built through a combination of expertise, visibility, consistency and relationships.

One appearance may make somebody aware of you.

Repeated meaningful interactions help them understand you.

And over time, that familiarity gives credibility and trust somewhere to grow.

There will absolutely be times when the answer is yes.

Another qualification may deepen your capability, give you access to a specific profession, allow you to practise in a regulated field or simply make you significantly better at the work you do.

I would never suggest stopping learning.

But if you are already an experienced coach, consultant or expert and the real frustration is that not enough people seem to understand the value of your expertise, then perhaps the question needs to change.

Instead of asking:

“What further qualification do I need to add?”

Ask:

“Who needs to know what I already know?”

And then perhaps another question:

“Am I building a network of people who understand my expertise well enough to remember me, trust me and introduce me when the opportunity is right?”

Because if your expertise is already strong, another credential may not be the thing