Whether you are an attorney, CPA or provider of other business services and make a living selling your smarts, you are in the “Professional Knowledge” business.
Your clients choose you because they think you are the smartest person they can find and/or afford, you have referenceable accounts and because of your service focus. But if you pay attention to your own brand, you can set yourself apart—and above the crowd.
By positioning yourself as a thought leader, your clients and prospects will think of you as a trusted advisor, turning to you more often for your services and advice.
Thought leadership is all about your ability to demonstrate your capabilities, not just talk about them. Anyone can advertise features of their services, but you must demonstrate a command of your subject publicly, and in creative ways. It is hard to convey in an advertisement all of the technical legal aspects of your services. Your prospects, not being attorneys or financial consultants themselves, expect that you already have that expertise. More than accumulating and disseminating information, you must be able to offer innovative solutions.
To begin, become a storyteller. Demonstrate a command of current issues being discussed, not just familiarity with them. Tell stories of what your clients have experienced and how you guided them through a situation with insight, knowledge and innovation. Your audience will identify with the story behind the expertise. And they will remember your role in doing it.
As a thought leader, you will be selling solutions, not services. Think of services as technical, but think of results as benefits. That’s why you have to talk about satisfying your clients’ needs in a memorable way. They will identify with your empathy and see that you are the best person to help them achieve their goals.
To position your firm among thought leaders, utilize any combination of the following tools: writing articles, eNewsletters, public speaking and seminars, short written helpful hints and tips that you can give away on your own Web site.
Working this way will not take much more time than you currently spend hunting for prospects, but it requires a reallocation of some of your time to this effort. The nice thing about this approach is that it allows you to talk about your successes and your passion for helping your clients.
As you market yourself as a thought leader, start with two distinct markets: First, your prospective clients and second, those who already have a relationship with your clients and can act as influencers. For example, other attorneys, business advisors or consultants who complement your expertise. These advisors may benefit from a more technical version of what you are providing to your prospects. In any case, when you help them provide more service and value to their clients, they become an excellent source for referrals.
