The sad and maybe happy answer is yes. Even if you don’t know the first thing about the innovations in your industry, I have seen that yes-you can STILL sell your services. Let me explain why:
Selling The Old
As I attended a small business conference with several breakout sessions on the topic of my expertise-marketing, I watched in a mix of horror and admiration as speaker after speaker was presenting pretty old and basic stuff. There are so many new innovations and ways to approach these topics that I was frankly surprised by the presentations. Low and behold, I later ran into some folks who had seen the same presentation but were not subject matter experts. They told me that not only were they in love with the sessions but that they were looking to hire the presenting speakers. This brings back my previous blog topic of Can Bad Presenters Get Clients From Speaking. As someone who has paid unbelievable amounts of money and time in working with the absolute masters of each field I’m trying to master, I’m proud to think that my industry knowledge is cutting edge. Do you think I might have more current and innovative information on the same topic as an expert who clearly has been using the same material for decades? Absolutely, but I have seen time and time again that it doesn’t really stop anyone from buying from the outdated expert if they’re are placed right in front of them.
Why Does Outdated Info Still Sell?
If you’re in front of your target audience who is in pain for what you sell, half the battle is won. The added bonus is that your audience is often not an expert in what you do. All they know is that they have that pain and they think you might be able to help. Only experts in the same industry as you know that what you’re peddling is tired and outdated stuff. They are much harder to fool but luckily for you, your target prospects are blissfully ignorant.
The Good In That
The good part of this issue of being able to sell if you’re not exactly at the peak of your game is that most of the time, we have trouble convincing clients that they can be positioned as experts in one specific topic and sell to that. Clearly, even if they’re NOT experts yet or if they say something that’s not as cutting edge as someone who has the famed 10,000 hours in that topic, you can still sell to your prospects. The important factor here is to be visible and in front of your audience, talking constantly about the solution to their pain.
If you’ve been stopping yourself from blogging or speaking about a subject matter because you just don’t know enough– feel good that you obviously don’t have to. What you know is enough for the right customer. Just get out there and broadcast what you do know. While you do that, for God’s sake, pick up the slack and keep current on your expertise.
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