Is top expertise enough to win new customers?

In any profession, expertise is a prerequisite for practising the profession at all. You can bring talent with you, which makes further learning easier. Ultimately, however, you have to acquire the necessary knowledge and learn the skills. In some professions, a weekend seminar can be enough, in others it takes years.

For many people, expertise equals competence and competence equals the prerequisite for trust. Both are wrong.

Competence alone is not enough to inspire trust. Other building blocks of trust such as good results, transparency, values, etc. are absolutely necessary. Only the right combination gives me the right feeling to be able to trust someone I have not yet met personally.

Competence is made up of a combination of expertise, process knowledge, experience, passion and capacity. Expertise alone is worthless!

I have seen it in countless companies and also with many freelance service providers. If you ask them what they stand for and why new clients should come to them, the answer is that they studied endlessly (especially doctors) until they were finally allowed to work independently, perhaps adding a Master of Law in America (lawyers) or a doctorate in Germany (popular with consultants). It can be similar with craftsmen. They have learned in the well-known company XY, that must be enough. Or the chef who did his training in a star restaurant. The evidence of all this is then often displayed on the walls of doctors' surgeries, workshops and in the entrance area of offices. Is that enough to convince new customers?

Many think that it is. But what use is the best knowledge if it has not been tested in practice for years? How can I trust if it is known that the craftsman repeatedly produces poor results despite his best knowledge?

A glance at the website is often enough. There is epic coverage of the company's own offerings instead of focusing on the importance of the service for the customer. And quite clearly, it doesn't work at all without specialist knowledge. In today's world, there is practically no one in business who does not have competitors. The products and services have to be technically perfect, otherwise the company has no chance. Therefore, this is usually accepted automatically by customers. Anyone who is not professionally fit doesn’t stand a chance. So he wouldn't be there at all if I were looking for a new provider. In consequence, this means that there are much more important things to communicate in the website text than one's own expertise.

But in an emergency, what about the best heart surgeon or the classic car specialist for exactly my model? Even in these cases, what was said before is true. Without passion for the profession, without integrity and without responsibility, you cannot build trustworthiness, even if you are the top graduate of your year.

I have always wondered what is worth communicating to highlight your expertise. My tip is to emphasize that you do everything you can to keep your expertise up to date. As the saying goes: "Life is like rowing against the current. If you stop rowing, you fall behind." Staying on the ball is also related to the necessary passion for a subject area. Those who permanently continue their education or (even better) promote new developments in their own company get a fat plus of trust from their customers. The stonemason who tells me that he has the latest stones with the super-special properties new in stock from the last trade fair no longer needs to tell me that he has a great deal of specialist knowledge. That goes without saying. Or the interior designer who not only visits the Milan Furniture Fair, but also travels to Cologne and Paris to study the worldwide novelties. Or the lawyer, who I know not only knows the latest laws, but also works on commissions to develop new legislation. Such examples, which are also implemented in content marketing, can be found in every profession.

So think about how you can show that you are continuously expanding your expertise. In this way, you not only advance yourself, but also ensure confidence in order to successfully win new customers. This will then lead to your own Content Strategy.