The Three Essentials to Becoming an Authority

Before we build out your sales funnel — we need a foundation of The Essentials to Becoming an Authority. In this post and video — I’ll share the three essentials at a high—level.

We’ll dive deeper into each of the essentials and how they all fit into your sales funnel in the weeks to come during this series.

You can capture the full strategy in our Sell with Authority book (be sure to grab a FREE paperback copy here, no charge for shipping. Nothing. Just enter your mailing address and we’ll ship you a copy.

Okay — so who comes to mind when you think of an authority on any subject? What about them designates them as an authority? How do they earn and keep the title of authority? (and more importantly, how can we achieve this for ourselves?)

A few key traits stand out when you think of authorities in any industry:

• They have a focus area or subject—matter expertise.
• They don’t just repeat what everyone else is saying.
• They have a public presence where they share their expertise.
• They don’t stray from their area of expertise—think specialist versus a generalist.
• They have a strong point of view, which is the foundation of all of their content.

A true authority has something specific to teach us, and they want to be helpful or illuminating.

They’re eager to share what they know because they have a genuine passion for it, and they don’t fear giving away the recipe to their secret sauce (or so it’s perceived).

That confidence and generosity is contagious.

Let’s take a closer look at each of the three essentials:

Essential #1: Niche (don’t cringe)

Yes, we know — on the surface this may sound restrictive but hang with us! The way Drew & I define niche in the Sell With Authority book can help you step into long—term ABUNDANCE.

The narrower your audience, the better. It allows you to be quickly discovered and identified as someone your target audience needs to pay attention to, all because you’re speaking their language.

Essential #2: Point of View (POV)

Having a very clear (and sometimes provocative point of view). You need to have an opinion about the work you do on behalf of your clients. And — you need a strong point of view about your marketplace, your audience, or your service.

Essential #3: Be More Than a One Trick Pony

In other words, you can’t create content so narrow it only works on one channel. An expert doesn’t have just one book. Or — just a podcast.

The million—dollar question: Where do the Three Essentials to Becoming an Authority fit into your sales funnel?

If you’ve joined us for one of our weekly Q&A you may have heard us talk about the importance of your sales funnel & the different levels: Marco, Micro, Nano & Existing levels.

Very high—level, your niche & POV are the crucial coordinates to correctly positioning your cornerstone content — the primary channel through which you consistently deliver useful content that helps your audience do their jobs better.

Just remember it needs to be meaty enough that you can slice and dice it into multiple cobblestones. When we have our niche & POV aligned to position our cornerstone content, you have the initial pieces of your sales funnel intact (and holy bananas — it really works!!)

Over the next several weeks in this series, we will dive deeper into each of the Three Essentials — and — we’ll tie it all together so you can build out your sales funnel!

Again — if you haven’t ordered your free paperback copy of “Sell With Authority”, go here.

Honest — NO credit card for shipping. Nothing. Just enter your mailing address at the link and we’ll ship you a free copy.

Until next week — onward with gusto!