As some of you might have seen I was voted Thames Valley Entrepreneur of the Year. As I sat waiting to hear who had won, I chatted away with my fellow nominee seated next to me. He was telling me about his business and the £52 million contract he had just won…I KID YOU NOT.
He was one of many like that…! So you can imagine my surprise when my name was called out as the winner, and although I am indeed very proud of what I have achieved in the world of business and marketing and I can almost guarantee that I probably do “keep more money” than most of the “big guys” in the room…I DID NOT NECESSARILY DESERVE TO WIN, BUT I DID…! HERE IS WHY…
One of the judges came to me post-award and his opening line is very telling and an interesting lesson for you all. He said, “Wow I had no idea you did all that speaking all over the world and videos online”.
Authority is an interesting concept in marketing. We absolutely do not leverage it enough in our practices. Authority can absolutely be “bought”. We live in an incredibly shallow society. So shallow in fact that often “perception” is so important that it will lead people to make a buying decision, even in the face of an overwhelmingly superior product.
So how do you “create” authority??
Well, in short, celebrity endorsements, demonstrations of you as an authority i.e. speaking, being visible, writing a book, BEING BOLD, newspaper columns etc…and then demonstrating those things IN MULTIPLE MEDIA…
Just imagine that in the welcome pack your new patient receives prior to walking in for their first appointment, amongst the normal information like time and date, they also receive a free copy of your book, a cut out of your last newspaper column in local paper, a testimonial featuring a photo of you and said celebrity or said sporting team and photo’s of you speaking at
an event (perceived expert).
Wouldn’t you want to see that person?
I KNOW I WOULD.
And the funny thing is, if you work hard you could all position yourself in that way within 30 days!! All those things may very well put you in a position to take some criticism but YOU CANNOT EXPECT TO BE DISCOVERED IF YOU’RE NOT EVEN VISIBLE.
Love and light,
Ryan
