Why Solving Customer Problems Is More Important Than How Many Clients You Have

“I don’t know why my fungus won't go. I was here 2 months ago!”

When a client checks for your expertise, they aren't wrong for doing so.

If they're paying for a specific service, they need to be confident you have experience solving the problem they have.

But it's disingenuous to leverage 'how many clients you have' as expertise if you're not considering the relationship those projects have with each other.

The lack of rules and structure around what is considered expertise is what's wrong with the use of the word expertise in Trinidad and Tobago.

Some say expertise when they mean the client count, or the number of years they've been doing X. Others assert working like a horse when its really their justification for what's being paid. And for most people, it simply means knowledge.

It's become this arbitrarily used word.

You can't conflate years of randomly doing loosely related things with focusing on mastering one specific thing. And you certainly can't justify a bogus job title merged with the responsibilities of all the positions you wish to fill but can't afford to as expertise. More importantly, knowledge doesn't mean effective application so you can't use it interchanagebly with expertise.

ACCORDING TO FORBES, EXPERTISE IS DEFINED AS...

The vast knowledge you have on a subject over the average person, and what you're able to proficiently teach others.

But that's vague.

The caveat here is, what you're able to teach others because you work in a specific space solving specific problems.

This missing link forecasts perfectly (for a prospect), the evolution of expertise. That it isn't just about knowldge but also the application of what's known.

Here's an example of this ah-ha moment unfolding...

HELPING THE PROSPECT IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM THEY HAVE

One of the biggest problems with local prospects is their inability to recognize what they truly need help with.

What they’re particulary good at pointing out is what I call ‘decoy problems'. Which is fine when you know what to look for, but the disinformation is threatening to the project of a client...

• Who thinks a one-off pedicure is the answer, and not an intensive treatment plan

• Who thinks flashy design is the answer, and not a brand

• Who thinks content creation tips are the answer, and not a voice

They'll miss the help standing in front of them and, by extension, logically go down the wrong path.

Service providers dealing with decoy issues need to know where the disconnect is to connect the dots to their services to create the ah-ha moment for the prospect.

That was the value of my conversation with Kristen. Like many, she associated expertise with quantity.

“How many clients have you had similar to our company?" she asked.

My reply?

“You’ll be my first, but the final decision isn’t and shouldn’t be based on the number of insurance clients I’ve had, but the kind of projects I’ve done; I’ve successfully helped past clients find what they need to say to attract the type of people they want to work with.”

I then followed up with examples of clients with the specific problem she had, to validate what I previously stated.

Smiling, she said, “I understand, I understand! And, I like what I’m hearing!”

When the problem you solve is prioritized, then and only then, how many clients you have means something. Not because of popularity "everybody going here", but because of specificity: your body of work points in one direction.

Kristen became my first 15K project.

It wasn't the number of clients I had that earned her trust. It was that I knew how to solve a specific kind of problem she didn't know she had.

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I am the Founder and Visual Brand Strategist at The BrandTUB **Get online in one day with The One-Page™ **Schedule a call if you need help narrowing in on your real problem **Sign up to receive these weekly articles in your inbox if you’re not quite ready to work with me yet.

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