In today’s service and knowledge economies, it can be difficult to tell an expert from a newbie. If someone asks you to prove that you know what you’re talking about, can you?
I had an SEO “expert” contact me on skype to ask me if I had any work for them. While I give her credit for saying ‘hi’ and asking how I was first, I’m never comfortable working with anyone I don’t know. How often do you just purchase a product or service from someone without knowing anything about them? When I explained this, she proceeded to list off all the services she provides. So I asked her to prove that she was good at any of them. Her response? “I have 2 years of experience.” But as a consumer, that’s not proof. I don’t know if what you did during those 2 years was any good.
The same goes for any of our businesses, whether product or service. How do you prove that you’re any good? Probably by building a reputation for providing good service and knowledge. Also by building relationships with not only customers, but also with a larger support community. By getting to know who your customers are and how you can help them, you can provide much better products and services than if you just try to do your sales pitch.
Luckily, the Internet and social media make it much easier to build a larger network of good relationships. It’s also easier to have more transparency about what you do know. How do you prove what you know?
(photo by Faithful Chant @ Flickr CC)
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