Whatever your industry, your prospective customers need to have confidence in you before they choose to invest in your product or service. Becoming an authority in your particular field helps you gain the trust and confidence of potential customers. But how do you become an authority in a niche topic? I too wondered how this was possible, without years of dedication to the topic and countless face-to-face meetings with prospective customers to gain their trust, until last year I stumbled across a book titled A Key Person of Influence: The Five Step Method to Become One of the Most Highly Valued and Highly Paid People In Your Industry.
Yes, it’s one heck of a title for a book, but it’s also one of the most insightful pieces of literature I have ever come across for anyone look to establish themselves as a key figure in their profession or field of expertise. According to Daniel Priestley, the author of A Key Person of Interest, there are five crucial steps one should follow to become a genuine authority in any industry, known as the five P’s:
-
- Pitch – How do you respond when someone asks you “what do you do?” Priestley stipulates that to be a KPI (Key Person of Influence), you must be able to answer this question succinctly and with clarity. Without a well-practiced pitch, regardless of how great your product or service is, you will always struggle.
- Publish – A concept that has really stuck with me ever since reading A Key Person of Influence, is that it’s not a coincidence that the word ‘authority’ has the word ‘author’ in it. In fact, Priestley boldly declares that by publishing a book you are effectively gaining the ‘title deed’ to your niche. Becoming a published author with global distribution is a surefire means to international authority in your industry.
- Productize – Until you turn your soft skills and talents into tangible products, you will always have to show up to earn a living. Turning your skill-set into an asset, such as information product or eBook, is an essential part of becoming a key person of influence and will open up a world of opportunities. Let’s not forget that information products can also be a high value, high margin products, ideal for growing a highly profitable stream of relatively passive income.
- Profile – Media (whether it be traditional channels such as TV or print, or online channels such as social media or blogs) is another crucial means of growing your profile. Put simply, those in the media are seen as experts. It’s an implied endorsement passed down from the media outlet to the guest or the person being quoted that he or she is an expert and credible.
- Partnerships – Finally, Priestley recommends that instead of networking for clients, you should try networking for joint ventures and partnerships. The real reason for networking is to find leverage through relationships that can really make things happen for both parties.
While the Five P’s formula for becoming a Key Person of Influence spans beyond Publishing a piece of literature (as per the second ‘P’ mentioned above), it’s important to remember that the by-product of publishing your eBook is a tremendous opportunity to grow your authority in a niche. Not only that, but by launching your eBook you are turning your soft skills into a tangible product, which is essentially the basis of the third ‘P’ in the KPI formula called Productization, which will uncover new opportunities for you in the long-run. In other words, you are inadvertently 40% of the way towards becoming a Key Person of Influence according to Daniel Priestley’s Five Ps formula, simply by writing an eBook!
Brian Clark of Copyblogger fame is a highly respected authority figure within the blogging industry. His success is largely attributed to the content he has published and productized, meaning that what began as a one-man blog is now a content marketing powerhouse valued at over $7M.
Brian’s approach to eBook distribution is smart. One can only access his free eBooks by signing up to his free membership portal, My.Copyblogger. By creating a registration gateway, Brian is then able to acquire a steady stream of leads for the revenue generating component of his business, advanced training courses in online marketing. Logged in members of the My.Copyblogger website are able to freely access 15 eBooks that cover many facets of the online marketing world including copy-writing, landing page design and content marketing strategy. The CopyBlogger eBooks offer are based on over a decade of online marketing experience and being such a rich source of free information, have established Brian Clark and his Copyblogger brand as a true authority in the content marketing space. Readers from all over the globe trust what Brian Clark and his team have to say, testament to the power of eBooks as a foundation for building authority.