Don’t tell anyone, but sometimes, you really wouldn’t mind pushing your clients straight off a cliff. A really high one.
I mean, don’t get me wrong… plenty of your clients are awesome. But lots of them:
- Micromanage
- Don’t respect your process
- Don’t seem to want to pay your completely reasonable prices
- Don’t follow through on their commitments
- Question your advice
- Can’t make up their mind
You’re good at what you do and you know it. You care about your clients and you know how to get results for them because you know what they need far more than they do. You’re an expert in your area.
So why the eff do you keep attracting these clients that make you want to tear your hair out?
Well, I’ll tell you. All of that is happening because these clients are not trusting you as the expert.
Here’s how to change that.
Who knew clients could be so wonderful?
When you take intentional action to shift the way your brand portrays you, and clients begin to trust you as the expert you are, it’s absolutely game-changing for your business (and your sanity!)
- Suddenly, there’s no more micromanaging.
- They listen to you and take your advice, and don’t change their mind 1000+ maddening times.
- They don’t try to bend your process and make you do things their way.
- They’re happy to pay you whatever you charge.
- You save time because they don’t create all this extra work for you by being a pain in the ass.
When clients hire someone who they don’t trust as an expert, it’s because they see themselves as the expert (even though they’re not and don’t actually know what they need).
They have a fuzzy-ass vision of what they think they need to get to whatever their goal is. And they’re simply looking for someone to execute it.
That’s why they micromanage you or question your advice.
That’s why they always change their mind, because they’re getting opinions and advice from other people who they do see as experts.
That’s why they don’t want to pay high prices because to them you’re only executing – anyone could do that so why pay more for it?
An expert on the other hand is someone they hire when they don’t know what to do and they don’t want to expend the time and energy to figure it out and manage someone. They want to tell the expert what their goal is and then be told what to do in order to make that happen.
If you’ve created enough trust with them that you’re an authority in their specific problem, you know how to solve it, and you’ve solved it for people just like them – then they’re going to see you as that expert.
Get the free Expert Energy checklist and never again have clients question your value, complain about your prices, or waste your precious time. Download it right now:
How to get respect like Aretha Franklin
So how do you make the shift to expert status?
Here’s some ways to do it. You’ll want to do as many of these as you can incorporate:
- Niche. The more specific you are about who you help and the more specific you are about describing their problems and desires (which you can’t do if you are too broad and try to help everyone), the more they will see you as the one-of-a-kind expert that they can’t do without when the stakes are high. Example: If you need brain surgery, you’re absolutely going to go to a brain surgeon, right? Not a general practitioner who knows a little bit about everything.
- Show that you’re an authority by displaying trust symbols – these are often logos or badges from places you’ve been featured, accrediting bodies you’re a part of or high-profile clients you’ve worked with.
- Show that you’re an authority using a small body of core content (the copywriting on your website, but also articles, a podcast, videos, social posts, etc) that uses a confident, decisive voice, shows that you deeply understand your clients, and explains your unique method of solving their problems.
- Show that you’ve helped people just like them get the results that they also want to get. You do this with testimonials and case studies.
- Make sure your brand’s visual style (ie logo, photos, website, business card, social profiles, etc) are of high quality and consistency. It doesn’t have to be super fancy, but it just can’t look homemade and needs to be in line with your ideal client and your brand’s personality.
- Listen to your clients and incorporate their ideas when it makes sense, but don’t always agree with them. Clients have some good ideas, but they mostly have terrible ideas. They actually WANT you to disagree with them because it shows you’re confident in your expertise, and then they feel safe enough to turn the reigns over to you.
- Keep their trust throughout your work together. That means hitting deadlines, keeping promises, and taking responsibility for any issues so they trust that you’re really going to deliver the results you promised them.
I help my clients put all these puzzle pieces in place.
First, we do a BrandSauce session™ – I deep dive into your business to find out exactly what you need to do to make this leap.
I then give you a plan to either put in place yourself, or you can hire me to do it all for you – leaving you with a stunning brand and website that positions you as the badass expert you are.
Find out How It Works and then let’s chat!
Want the free mini-version of the BrandSauce interview I give all my clients so you can start figuring out your brand’s biggest opportunities? DL it right now:
