I hate braggarts with a passion, even when the person doing the bragging truly IS world class in their field.
I consider myself open-minded enough to objectively acknowledge their greatness, while simultaneously hating the way they go about promoting themselves. Give me a humble leader over a braggart any day and twice on Sundays.
And yes, I know that to a certain extent it’s good to have confidence in yourself.
TO. A. CERTAIN. EXTENT.
But if you go too far with that confidence and slide over into boastful braggart territory, you’ll lose me. To me, in order to build trust in a relationship, it can’t be all about you.
The same goes for how you portray yourself in the marketing of your educational consulting business.
One of the biggest mistakes that consultants make in their marketing is to try too hard to sell their credibility to their audience.
- They talk about their degrees and certifications.
- They talk about their years of experience in education.
- They talk about their awards and the books they’ve published.
- They talk about all the places they’ve worked or provided PD.
- They talk about the conferences they’ve presented at.
- They talk about the results they’ve gotten for the school districts they’ve worked with.
- Etc., etc., blah blah blah
After a while, my eyes just glaze over. You know why? Because all of that, while important, isn’t what people are really interested in.
What ARE they interested in?
Two things…
- Do you understand, at an emotional level, the problems they’re dealing with and
- Can you help them solve those problems?
That’s it.
So, let’s explore how this fits in with the Know Like Trust Factor I’ve been talking about in my last couple of posts.
As a quick review, the Know Like Trust (or KLT) Factor is one of the most important elements involved in determining whether someone will buy from you / hire you or not.
In my past two posts, I talked about “Know” and “Like.” So today I’m focusing on “Trust.”
The question is, “How do you get your ideal prospects to trust you to deliver the solutions to their problems?”
Most consultants intuitively know that, to get people to hire them, they need those people to see them as credible. In other words, people want to know that you know your stuff.
And credibility IS one half of the Trust equation.
But the mistake most consultants make is that they lean far too heavily on the credibility side of the equation and pay almost no attention to the other half of the equation: empathy.
You may have heard the old saying,
“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
In other words, trust and empathy go hand in hand.
Most consultants take this saying to heart when they design their workshops. They build in connection exercises, let people share their stories, and allow people to ask their burning questions–all in an effort to show that they can relate to their attendees’ problems and that they feel empathy for them.
But then those very same consultants who show their empathy in so many ways when they’re training completely forget about it when they market their businesses. It’s astonishing to me.
The worst offenders? Websites–especially the About pages.
OMG, it’s a non-stop “brag fest.” It’s all about “Me, Me, Me” instead of about their target audience and how the consultant could help them solve their problems. Huge mistake!
Listen, I’m all for you posting some highlights of your accomplishments, but a little bit of credibility goes a long way. Share enough of that material to make sure your audience knows that you know your stuff…and then STOP and focus the rest of your marketing message on empathy.
Show that you understand what your target audience is dealing with, that you feel their pain, and that you want to help them solve their problems. Be empathetic. This will lead your audience to trust you more than any bloated resume ever could.
And by the way, there’s one fool-proof way to include tons of credibility in your messaging without bragging on yourself: let your previous clients do it FOR you.
The same statement about the quality of your work that, coming out of your mouth, sounds like bragging turns into powerful social proof about your work when stated by someone you’ve worked with before.
People trust third-party social proof such as testimonials and reviews far more than your own words about yourself. So, whenever possible, leverage this power in your marketing message.
That’s it for today.
I’d love to hear from you about which of the three elements–Know, Like, or Trust–you think is most important for building connections with your audience. Please share that with me in the comments, if you don’t mind.
To Your Success,
Willy
