Turn Expertise into Clients

If you’re looking to turn expertise into clients, this article offers insights.

What Turns “You’re Brilliant at What You Do” Into “How Can I Work With You?”

There is a particular kind of compliment that can feel wonderful in the moment and frustrating later.

“You’re brilliant at what you do.”

“You know so much.”

“You always have such good ideas.”

“You really should be working with more people.”

If you are an experienced coach or expert, chances are you have heard some version of that more than once.

And naturally, you want to believe that recognition of your expertise should eventually lead to business.

After all, if people can see that you are good at what you do, surely the next logical step is that some of them will want to work with you.

Except very often, that is not what happens.

They praise you, they like your posts, they tell you how knowledgeable you are, perhaps they even recommend your content to somebody else… but they do not ask the question you are really hoping to hear:

“How can I work with you?”

The temptation is to assume that the answer is simply more visibility.

More content. More videos. More posting. More speaking. More opportunities to demonstrate that you know your subject.

In my experience, there is a more important gap sitting underneath all of that.

People can recognise that you are very good at what you do without yet understanding why what you do matters to them.

And that is a positioning problem.

Being Impressive Is Not the Same as Being Relevant

For example, you may explain your concepts, share advice and demonstrate experience with your content.

And the audience may genuinely be impressed.

But being impressed by someone and seeing them as the answer to a problem you are ready to solve are two very different things.

If I hear you speak and think, “She is incredibly knowledgeable,” that is positive.

But if I cannot clearly connect that knowledge to something I need, there is no reason for me to take the next step and ask to work with you.

That does not mean your expertise is not valuable.

It means the positioning has not yet completed the journey for me.

I may understand that you are good.

I may not yet understand what I should come to you for.

That difference is enormous.

I Learned This in My Jewellery Business

One of my earliest business lessons came from my diamond jewellery store on the Gold Coast.

At the time, I did what many business owners do when they want more customers: I invested heavily in advertising.

One catalogue promotion alone cost me around $14,000.

It produced five small sales and left me with approximately $55,000 worth of unsold rings, earrings, necklaces.

The advertising had certainly made the business visible.

People did see the jewellery on the promotional material.

And yes, we did get loads of people come into the store and ‘look’ around.

They’d tell us things like: “This looks great, so much variety. Oh, you also have yellow Diamonds!”

…but they did not buy, trust was missing.

Then I became involved in business networking, and the experience was completely different.

People met me.

They heard me talk about what we did and why.

They came into the shop and I could introduce them to the Jewellery, the repairs we did on the premises by a qualified Jeweller, and that we had a watchmaker who did not only change batteries in watches but also repaired heritage clocks.

They brought friends.

They bought jewellery and referred other people.

Over time, the customer base grew to around 6,000, with regular weekly sales.

The jewellery had not suddenly become better because I had attended a networking meeting.

What changed was the context around it.

People knew me.

They understood how I talked about the products.

They became familiar with me.

And that familiarity began creating trust.

Looking back, that was one of my earliest experiences of something I now see as absolutely central to positioning.

People do not act simply because they can see that you are good. They act when they understand why your expertise is relevant to them and feel enough confidence in you to do something about it.

And now, where AI has entered into our world, we need to be even more directly connected with humans and at the same time know how to be visible to AI.

So, let me add here the discussion I had with Lynnaire Johnston, LinkedIn and AI Visibility Specialist.

As Lynnaire and I discuss, it is perfectly possible to become increasingly visible without becoming understood.

The 3 Visibility Strategies we’re mentioning in the video, here again for you:

• Consistent positioning: Clearly communicate your expertise, audience and value across LinkedIn, your website, YouTube and other platforms. Add online networking to be able to have direct interaction with the people you have offers for.

• Long-form content: Use LinkedIn articles, newsletters and other substantial content to demonstrate your knowledge and experience.
  Online networking adds another layer to position your expertise in ‘real life’ and my Global Business Networking Boardroom supports this specially with our guided discussions.
• Recognisable terminology: Develop consistent language around your expertise, services and unique frameworks. The introduction templates I share with networking guests are a great starting point to create consistent language for your expertise. Access them via this page, click here.

Conversations Reveal What Content Cannot

This is one of the reasons I have become so interested in what happens when people move beyond simply introducing themselves and actually begin talking at networking.

When someone has 45/60 seconds to tell me what they do, I receive a headline.

When I hear them contribute to a meaningful discussion, I begin to understand how they think.

• I hear the distinctions they make.
• I notice the questions they ask.
• I hear what they believe matters.

And suddenly their expertise becomes much more tangible.

That is exactly why Guided Discussions have become such an important part of the Global Business Networking LIVE Online Boardroom.

The point is not simply to give everyone more airtime.

The point is to help other people experience your expertise.

When someone hears your perspective several times, the vague category they originally put you into begins to sharpen.

You are no longer simply “a leadership coach”.

You become the person who helps senior leaders navigate a particular transition.

You are no longer simply “a marketing consultant”.

You become the person they associate with solving a particular visibility or positioning problem.

That is when people begin knowing what question you are the answer to.

And that is much closer to:

“How can I work with you?”

This Is Where Networking Becomes More Than Networking

For me, this is also where networking stops being about collecting contacts.

A strong network is not simply a large number of people who know your name.

It is a growing group of people who understand enough about what you do to remember you, mention you, introduce you, recommend you and involve you when the right situation appears.

That is the thinking behind Visibility Through Others, one of the three pillars of my Trust-Building Visibility System, at the heart of the online networking.

Your expertise does not have to travel only through your own posts, your own audience or your own promotion. When other people understand what you do and begin mentioning, tagging, introducing or collaborating with you, your visibility starts travelling through their networks too.

And that kind of visibility carries something important with it.

Context.

Someone is not merely seeing your name.

They are seeing your name connected to a reason.

So What Turns Praise Into an Enquiry?

It is rarely one clever sentence.

It is usually a combination of things.

Clear positioning helps someone understand what you are useful for.

Repeated visibility helps them remember you.

Conversation allows them to experience how you think.

Consistency builds familiarity.

And relationships create enough trust for someone to take the next step or confidently put your name forward to somebody else.

That is exactly what we work on inside the 3-Pillar Trust-Building Visibility System.

Not simply becoming more visible.

But becoming more clearly understood, more easily remembered and more confidently referred.

Because “You’re brilliant at what you do” is lovely to hear.

But commercially, it becomes far more useful when the person saying it also knows:

What you are brilliant at, who needs it, and why they should speak to you.

That is the bridge between admiration and action.

And that is what eventually turns:

“You’re brilliant at what you do.”
into:
“How can I work with you?”