Tell me if this sounds familiar.
You’re really good at what you do. Maybe even the best. Or at least better than most of the people who seem to be killing it in your space.
The difference is that you have the track record to prove it.
You’ve been doing it longer. You’ve worked with larger clients. You’ve studied the subject since you were a fetus. And you’ve gotten amazing results.
Yet, you’re still struggling to reach more people.
So, what do you do?
You listen to some marketing “guru” who tells you to buy a bunch of Facebook ads, drop your prices, and get on MySpace because it’s making a comeback. And since he was standing next to a yellow Ferrari parked in front of a Chick-Fil-A, he clearly knows what he’s talking about.
But alas, it doesn’t work.
And why doesn’t it work? Because you’re trying to solve the wrong problem.
Allow me to explain.
How the World Sees You
Let’s imagine that this horizontal line represents your industry.
On the far left is someone completely unknown within your industry. On the far right is the first name that comes to mind when anyone thinks of your industry. And somewhere in between the two is where you belong.
Wait! Not so fast…
Where you belong on this line is based on how the rest of the world sees you. Not how you see yourself. In other words, it doesn’t matter how smart or talented you think you are. What matters is how smart or talented the rest of the world thinks you are.
For example, you may have a Harvard education, but if you are a complete unknown and the people you want to reach don’t value a Harvard education, you’re going to find yourself closer to the left side of the line.
On the other hand, you may have no formal education, but you have a community of hundreds of thousands of people hanging on your every word, in which case you would find yourself closer to the right side of the line.
See how that works?
Your Industry
Since I don’t know who you are or what you do, let’s pretend you are in the Personal Development space. But feel free to mentally replace this example with whatever it is that you actually do.
On the left side of the line is our complete unknown. Maybe he’s just starting out. Or maybe he’s transitioning over from a different job. Or maybe he’s just the best-kept secret within the industry.
And since we don’t know who this person is, let’s call him Bob.
Poor Bob.
Literally.
Now, on the opposite side of our line on the far right is the first person that comes to mind when you think of the Personal Development industry.
In this case, I would say that Tony Robbins is probably a good candidate. Is he the most successful individual in the space? Probably. If not, he’s pretty close to it. Or at least close enough for our example, so let’s run with it.
So, we have Bob on one side and Tony Robbins on the other.
Now, what about you?
Where You Belong
Next, let’s determine where you belong on this line.
But before we do, keep in mind that this is based on the perception of the rest of the world. You may be smarter than Tony Robbins, however, that doesn’t put you on the right side of the line unless the rest of us see you as smarter than Tony Robbins.
Make sense?
Now, based on everything we now know about this line, let’s assume that you are somewhere around the one-third mark.
It’s a pretty respectable position. You may not be as well off as Tony, but you certainly aren’t just starting out like Bob.
But let’s see what that means in terms of opportunities.
Your Available Opportunities
Underneath the line, let’s add the people who represent the potential customers in your industry.
While everyone under the line is a potential customer, only those to the left of where you are positioned represent a possible opportunity for you. Because these are the people who value the level of authority that you have.
For example, someone on the far right of the line is not going to be interested in hiring someone like Bob, who is perceived to have little or no authority. They are at the stage in their career where they need someone who has a higher level of authority like Tony Robbins or someone like him.
As a result, these are your available opportunities in dark gray.
And because you’re not just starting out, you likely have a few customers already, so let’s color those people red.
That leaves you with about 80% of your available opportunities left.
Not bad.
Solving the Wrong Problem
So, here’s where we find ourselves solving the wrong problem.
How do you grow your business?
If you’re like most people, you will invest more time, attention, and money into various sales and marketing tactics, thinking that you have a sales or marketing problem.
But here’s why that alone will not work.
Every time you add more clients, you’ve reduced the size of your available opportunities.
As a result, you make it more difficult to grow every time you sell something. Until eventually, you deplete your pool of opportunities.
Solving the Right Problem
But there’s another way to look at it.
Rather than working tirelessly to try and reach the opportunities that are available in your current pool, what if you simply expand your pool of opportunities?
By moving yourself further up the line, you not only become more valuable to those opportunities that were already available to you, but you open yourself up to a whole new group of people who didn’t see you as a potential solution before.
And here’s the best part.
You don’t need to challenge Tony Robbins for the throne to make an impact. You can move up as little as 10 or 20 percent, and you will increase your potential opportunities by as much as 30 or 40 percent!
All by simply improving your brand and how the rest of the world sees you.
But wait. There’s more.
How Does Branding Turn Into More Dollars?
As you move further up the line, you are not only increasing the number of your opportunities available to you, but you’re improving the quality of your pool and the amount of money they are willing to spend.
Because as you move up the line, you are also able to charge more.
Think about it.
Who charges more for their time? Our friend Bob who is on the far left-hand side of the line? Or Tony Robbins, who is on the far right-hand side of the line?
Regardless of who is smarter, Tony is further up the line, and as a result, he can charge a lot more money and, he’s flooded with a lot more opportunities.
Why?
Because he has a brand.
You could use the same sales tactics as him. Use the same marketing tactics as him. And offer the same service as him.
You could steal his funnel. Use his content. And copy his landing pages.
It doesn’t matter.
Because he has a stronger brand and is further up the line than you, he will always have more opportunities that are willing to spend more money and are easier to close.
So, how does your brand rate?
Take our free online assessment and we’ll not only tell you where you rank on the line, but we’ll give you some tips on what you can do to move up!!!
