This week’s question from our portal “Ask Us Anything” comes from Andrea.
I’m having a “push-and-pull” situation with my brand. I have a background in business consulting, I have an MBA, and I’m a certified coach. And I keep getting invited to teach people about the Kolbe test… which I love, but it’s not my brand. On one hand, it’s good to have a niche. On the other hand, I’m not the Kolbe girl — I’m me. My brand is me.
Hiring is what I really want to start teaching people more on. But what’s happening is… other consultants keep bringing me in to teach about Kolbe. And I’m like, “But there’s so much more I can do.” How can I leverage this? How can I get them to fully see everything else that I can do?
If it’s a great door opener, use it.
Anything that opens the door and gets your foot in the door, is wonderful… then you just have to figure out a way to sell what you offer as you’re teaching them the niche topic (Kolbe).
Here’s how you can do this.
First, do a bit of homework and find out what are the
main issues they’re dealing with?
Determine how you can help them solve those issues — either with Kolbe, or with whatever you have to offer them.
Once you get your foot in the door, then weave a path through the initial thing that you’re going to teach. Connect it to other problems that they have. Then set up a futuristic desire for them to work with you, based on what you’re teaching or what you have to offer.
It’s not difficult. You just have to find out what’s important to them, then connect those dots with the solutions you can provide.
For example, Kolbe does an amazing job at solving a particular problem. At the same time, it creates another problem. A person can realize what they’re best suited at… and an organization can realize they need to hire a totally different person that’s better suited for a particular role.
You could say, “Here’s the problem that Kolbe creates — this ongoing issue with your team — and that’s where I come in. I’m going to show you how to hire the right people over an extended period of time. I’ve created a program that allows you to do just that.”
Your clients will have a breakthrough in one area (realizing their strengths through the Kolbe test) — but then that creates another problem,
for which your offer is the solution.
The idea isn’t that your clients “see fully what you do.” The idea is that they see the problem that’s created as a result of them doing the Kolbe test.
You need to increase their desire to fix the problem, and then they’ll see you fully as the solution.
