Posted by Ben Kniffen in Entrepreneurship
A day-to-day question that drives a lot of entrpreneur’s short-term decision making is: What is the fastest way to get leads and turn them into clients?
Maybe you’ve asked yourself that.
But a question that drives me forward every year is: What’s the most direct way to increase the impact of our company and leave a legacy?
Look, there are many marketing tactics and one-off strategies out there, but there’s one longer-term approach that wins out every time:
Become an authority in the eye’s of your prospects.
Even if you’re an “unknown” business right now, you can quickly build the authority that attracts great clients and cements your place as a trusted expert and resource in your industry.
In this post, we’ll cover exactly what I did to build my authority which in turn has allowed us to serve over 11,000 business owners, and create a bigger impact for our clients and employees.
How to Elevate Your Positioning And Create A Bigger Impact On The World
Before I tell you how I went from an unknown to THE go-to lead generation and LinkedIn expert in my industry, let me give you some quick context…
If we don’t know each other yet, I’m Josh Turner.
Today, I’m a Wall Street Journal best-selling author, and founder of a rapidly growing business called LinkedSelling. We’ve been on the Inc. 500 the last three years in a row, and have recently been named to the Entrepreneur 360 list. I’m very fortunate to be doing work I love, making a good living, having the freedom to live life the way I want and working with great people. But things weren’t always so rosy for me.
Even though things are going great for me now, I know all about the constant uncertainty that haunts so many business owners and entrepreneurs.
The first time I learned that was with my dad.
You see, my dad owned a small remodeling company – and for the most part he was very successful during my childhood. Until new leads and business dried up and he had to close up shop. Marketing and lead generation weren’t near the top of my dad’s priority list.
Then, when I was working for a mid-size construction company, the same thing happened. Business dried up even though they were netting 7+ figures. The good times were good, but when the bad came around things got tough.
That’s when I promised myself then and there that I would take things into my own hands and that when I had my own business, I’d make sure, come hell or high water, that what happened to my dad’s business would NEVER happen to mine.
Remember this…
In moments of absolute peril, the determined find ways to move ahead and not only survive… but THRIVE.
When I started out on my own in 2010, I was working as an outsourced CFO. And I slowly built up my clientele, by reaching out to prospects and relying primarily on word of mouth. My focus was to deliver the best results possible in hopes that they would refer me to their associates.
As you can imagine… this was a slow process.
Waiting for referrals to come through took too long.
Doing what every guru said, being on all social media channels creating content, creating complex funnels, even cold calling…
It all seemed to backfire. I still hadn’t progressed in my business and I was reaching burnout.
You might know this feeling…
Referrals that aren’t reliable…
Other marketing techniques that too often miss the mark and can actually repel prospects…
That’s when I took a step back and asked myself what ONE thing really makes a difference in my business?
It was focusing on the BEST clients for me and building relationships with them. To do that, I needed to gain their trust first. And that’s how I learned firsthand the incredible power of authority and within 6 months I was making six figures.
Because if you want to get a solid flow of high-quality clients, building authority naturally will attract them to you.
What is Authority Leadership?
Put simply, it’s positioning and trust building, but the best way to explain this is to show you.
Let’s start with the end-goal in mind: sales. So let’s work backward and think of the best way to get them.
What makes people buy?
They buy when they have a problem they are trying to solve and when they trust you as the one who can deliver that solution.
So how do you build that trust? How do you position yourself above all the other noise out there?
THIS is where your authority leadership comes into play.
It’s tried and true.
A lot of this has to do with positioning. When we position our clients as leaders in their prospect’s space, and put them in front of those prospects over and over and over again… ….our clients become THE only solution. The one that the prospect has become familiar with and viewed as a resource. It’s about positioning yourself so you’re not just another bottom-feeding vendor.
If you take the old-fashioned approach of going after a sale with your prospects right away, many won’t give you the time of day.
But when we work them through a systematic relationship and trust-building process that begins with creating your Authority Leadership, our clients see 21% of their prospects happy to schedule a call within weeks of starting the relationship.
This just proves what Zig Ziglar says about trust and sales… “If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.”
Our own experience implementing LinkedIn marketing solutions for our clients proves it over and over again. That’s why we focus on building trust and relationship in our core process. It leads to better response rates and more sales.
[thrive_leads id=’14439′]4 Steps to Build The Authority That Will Attract Your Ideal Prospects
Some people might look at me today and say… well, he’s been doing this a long time. Or they’ll look at the top dog in their own industry and the thought of competing seems laughable.
Stop right there. Let’s reframe that… If you want to have the most impact for your clients and make a real difference in this life, you just need to focus on 4 things and any competition you have will take care of itself. Here they are:
- Know Your Prospect
- Optimize Your Online Presence to Specifically Attract Those Prospects
- Create An Authority Platform
- Amplify Your Authority with Appropriate Content
As you can see, it all starts with knowing the exact type of person you want to work with and using that information to position yourself in a way that will attract them.
Now, how exactly do you optimize your online presence, build an authority platform, and share content?
Well, I’m sure you immediately thought of several ways, and there is no one right answer… as long as you get in front of your prospects and that’s why I want to mention one of today’s online platforms that is perfect for this process…
Why LinkedIn is One of the BEST Platforms to Quickly Build Authority
While I certainly use a number of online tools and social media platforms, I continually turn to LinkedIn especially when I want to increase authority because it’s so easy to use and supports each of the four steps needed to quickly build authority.
Let me show you how I did used LinkedIn for each of those four steps:
- Know Your Prospect – Your prospects are on LinkedIn and easy to find.
- Optimize Your Online Presence to Specifically Attract Those Prospects – Optimize your LinkedIn profile.
- Create An Authority Platform using LinkedIn Groups.
- Amplify Your Authority with Appropriate Content – Curate and create content relevant to your prospects.
Start Building Authority Today
It’s pretty simple and it works every time. Authority will automatically attract your best prospects to you and will open the door to more opportunities. This is the exact reason why my company gets invited to speak at events across the country. This is why LinkedSelling is the go-to for lead generation and booking sales appointments. This is what pushed us to the INC 5000 three years in a row.
If you’d like to know exactly how I set up each step and the impact it had not only in my life but for my business and for my clients, preorder a copy of my book, Booked below. You’ll learn how to use this process to keep your calendar booked with sales appointments the whole year round.
[thrive_leads id=’14440′]