I get a lot of questions about “expert” based businesses. But coaches, consultants, authors, and speakers aren’t the only ones who should be reading this post about Authority-Based marketing.   One of the fastest paths to more profit, creating less price-senstive clients, and generating demand for YOUR BUSINESS over any one of your “competitors” is to become the “authority” in your niche.  (As an aside, because I know you’ve got limited time, this post is equally important for the plumber, the attorney, the coach as it is for the physician, the financial planner, and the dog trainer. Stay with me.)

So, what IS authority marketing or authority-based marketing? Simply put, it’s marketing YOUR WORK as an authority figure within your niche… building a reputation for “knowing your stuff,”  more specifically, knowing your stuff “better than the other guys.”   There are 3 specific secrets imperative for  building this authority status, but first here are 3 quick contrasts / examples to quickly demonstrate the definition of authority marketing, in real life:

•  As a coach, you can be “just another life coach” — YAWN — or you can be the “Get A Grip Before Your Kids Enter Kindergarten” coach.
•  As a physician, you can be “just another primary care option” or you can become Dr. Hot Flash, like Dr. Angela DeRosa.
• As an attorney, you can be “just another divorce lawyer” or you can be Johnine Clark with a focus, a book, and a workshop aimed at  “Men & Divorce.”

Alright you get it.  So, now…. how do you “get it” — this level of authority — for yourself?

First, limit Access to You.

There is — in fact —  NO line to talk to the “expert” at the bottom of the mountain.   I’ve been this expert.  I “did my time” offering workshops on how to work from home with a cheap price tag and zero proven authority.  (I’m shocked anyone showed up at all, but FOUR was my max.) Think about those you TRULY believe are experts.  I’ll wait while you make your mental list. (Please make a quick list — at least mentally — because I’m going to ask you to refer to it throughout today’s exercise.)  Here’s mine: Warren Buffet on investing, Pat Flynn on podcasting, and Dr. Mercola on health.   That’s an incomplete list, of course.  But here’s my point:

I’d love to pick Warren’s brain about investing… but what do you think my chances are of running into him at a local BNI meeting? Calling and having him pick up the phone on the first ring? Or him responding to my email request for a coffee date?  Yeah — not good.  He’s an expert at the TOP of the mountain, there’s a long line of people hoping for access to him, and this access is limited.  I’d love to have Pat Flynn walk my team and I through the technical aspects of podcasting. I really would.  And I’d love to go over a few things with Dr. Mercola as well…. just to get his take.  Both of these guys have deliberately limited access to themselves, of course.

Now here’s the rub.  Most of us think that Buffett, Flynn and Mercola limited access to themselves ONLY AFTER “making it big.”  This may or may not be true.  Truthfully, I have no idea… but it doesn’t matter.  Any wildly in demand expert has limited access to them, and — who cares which came first, the chicken or the egg ???? — we should follow their example.

I began limiting access to myself YEARS before it was necessary to do so…  (This, admittedly, fits my “hermit-like” ways, but I also recognized what this did for my business.  It created higher demand, less price sensitivity and more respect.  I IMPLORE you to try it.

Where are you granting TOO MUCH ACCESS to your time, your expertise, your calendar? Where can you start putting up boundaries to make “full access” to  you more coveted?

Secret #2:  Stay Ahead of “Them.”

Listen, you don’t have to know EVERYTHING in order to be an authority in your field.  You just have to know more than “them.”  Quick story:  There’s a quasi-local woman who has wanted to join Women Who WOW for about 18 months now.  I’ve had to turn her down multiple times, out of integrity.  You see, she markets herself boldly as an entrepreneurial trainer, an expert for business owners.  Yet, she’s not yet been able to replace her own salary and quit her full time job.   In this case, she’s not ahead of those she hopes to serve, she’s behind them.

To build a reputation as an authority, you simply have to be a few steps ahead of those you hope to serve.  NOT worlds ahead, and NOT in all areas. Just a few steps.  For instance, I have many clients who know WAY more than me about social media.  No biggie, my authority is in profit-creation…not social media.

As they say, in the world of the blind, the one-eyed man is King… or something like that.  The point is to make sure you stay just a couple steps ahead of those you hope to serve IN THE AREA you hope to serve them.

Finally, Avoid Being Needy.

Please, please, please avoid being needy. Becoming an authority in your field will require generosity on your part.  And, you have NO room in your business for neediness.   Go back to that list of TRUE experts you created earlier.  How many of them  — do you imagine — demonstrate neediness in their interactions?  NONE.  They’re not beating you over the head for a sale.  They’re not chasing us down to get our attention. They’re not asking us to stroke their egos. They don’t need us for anything. And this confidence, this self-reliance is hugely attractive to us.

Neediness repels and chips away at your perceived authority within your industry.  Generosity — of spirit, of information, of connections — does the opposite.