No, what I mean is, what do you REALLY do? What do you know?
And how can you use that knowledge to benefit your clients?
I recently started selling something more like a “consultancy” service, offering one to one training, support and advice on various aspects of online marketing. Consultancy work is not something I’ve ever thought about doing, and to be perfectly honest it came about by accident. I met Carrie Rose at a networking event. She wanted to use blogging and newsletters to promote her business, and I offered to take on the job and do the work for her. However, it turned out that what she really wanted was to learn how to do it herself – with me there as her advisor, trainer and to do a bit of hand-holding.
I’ll admit I wasn’t convinced – I’m a doer, not a trainer – but we’ve worked together for a couple of months now and it’s going really well. Carrie has learnt how to update her WordPress website and she has some blog posts on there now. We’ve also untangled MailChimp and she has sent out a couple of newsletters, and they’ll be a more regular thing in 2013. I’ve also worked on similar things with two other people and I’m looking forward to extending this area of the business in the new Year.
What astounded me was how much knowledge I appear to have. Things that are second nature to me were new to my client and I’m now feeling rather proud of myself, because I obviously have a lot more expertise than I give myself credit for!
And it got me thinking – what is is that I really know and do? I normally say “I offer proofreading, copywriting and web design” but in fact my skills seem to go beyond those confines. And it’s the same for all of us; we all have specialist knowledge we take for granted that’s really valuable to other people.
So what is it you really do, and how can you use your knowledge to extend your business? It’s a question worth considering. Perhaps you should ask your clients what they think you really do, or know. And if you want to tell me what you think I do, feel free to do so in the comments!
