#ExpertPositioning

[nextbellltd]

You do NOT need more of the same. You need this 👊

Your new game plan:

1. Find your smartest expert. 2. Turn them into a B2B celebrity. 3. Make them the star of a show your buyers can't resist. Why this works:

1. Your SME becomes the go-to voice in your industry. 2. You're not fighting for attention. You're commanding it. 3. Your content isn't ignored. It's binge-worthy.

Remember:

Your buyers don't want another sales pitch. They want insights they can't get anywhere else.

Give them that, and you'll never struggle for attention again. Tag us your B2B problems in the comments or shoot us a DM ❤️

[otaviogilbert]

How to Write An Expert Positioning Story

In this video, learn how to craft a compelling expert positioning story that establishes you as an authority in your field. Discover the essential steps to create a narrative that engages your audience and provides value.

[picturemorebusiness]

Alex Acker and Nathan Crandall of Adventure House joined me for the latest Legal Marketing Studio to discuss the importance of simplifying content from a user experience perspective. The easier it is for a potential client to find the information that he or she needs, the more likely you are to earn that client’s business. Simplifying content in order to clarify the core message is often a challenge for law firms. This is a great follow up to our February mini-series on webdesign for law firms.

[topicprinter]

Hey there /r/entrepreneur! JCP here. I’m reading 52 business books in 52 weeks, and this week’s book was Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff. Here are my biggest takeaways -- 241 pages packed down into a 420 second read.I'm giving away 3 copies of our next book, Never Eat Alone, and you're eligible if you read this summary. Comment on this post to enter.Now, onto the summary!PITCH ANYTHING by Oren Klaff We can use the acronym STRONG to provide us a method of pitching.Setting the frameTelling the storyRevealing the intrigueOffering the prizeNailing the hookpointGetting a decisionAll About FrameYour frame is the aura about you, and your methods and modes of processing information and acting upon it.Your frame tells everyone else in the room about your power, status, and authority.Everyone has a frame, strong or weak.All social encounters bring people together, and therefore frames together. Every social interaction includes a clash of frames. This clash can be violent, or very smooth.When you waltz into the office as CEO, everyone knows you're the boss. They accept your boss frame without a hitch. If you have a cofounder, your frames may violently clash and do battle when you two disagree.Frames cannot coexist for very long, one will eventually take precedence over the other. Only one frame survives a clash. Stronger frames will always take precedence over weaker frames.The winning frame writes the script of the social interaction. A strong frame is the director and star of a movie in which other weaker frames are mere actors.When you are not the one directing the conversation or social interaction, you are falling into someone else's frame.A powerful frame is accepted without revolt if its authority, leverage, and power is far stronger than the other frames around. A powerful frame needs not explain itself.There are several styles of frame.The Power Frame: Keywords here are defiant and light humor. Chasing a deal and need approval from the boss of a big firm? He's at his mahogany desk, you're sitting in a low chair beside him (you face him, he doesn't face you). What are you going to do to get his attention and let him know you mean business ? -- i.e. let him know your frame is stronger than his. Challenge him and flirt with the boundaries; but use humor and a charming smile to make it all OK.For example. You enter the CEO's office to pitch him on your company's service. Sitting down would put you in a low, submissive position. You shake hands, he smiles and says "please take a seat." You ignore him and take a stroll over to the windows and take a gander at the view. This creates tension, which is the prelude to a dopamine response; so - you spike his interest. Besides, you just interrupted his boring workday with something entertaining and exciting.You end the silence with a chuckle, "You know, that's exactly what my dad said before I ran away from home. He told me if I left there'd be no coming back. I wanted to run away to the other side of the country." Turn to the CEO, "it was the nuns, they beat me up in Catholic school. Ever since then, when someone tells me to sit down, I start to boil." Leave a moment of awkward silence, then smile with warm eyes and laugh.What you've done here is challenged his frame. He told you to sit down. You instead ignored his command and walked over to the window. You created tension by disobeying him, which peaked his interest. Then, you started telling a story. Storytelling is crucial, and a key part of this book. Finally, you didn't finish the story. You stopped the tale at a very critical part. Everyone wants to know what happens next, but you don't tell them. You offer a very challenging and threatening response to his command, and let the silence sit for a bit. Finally, you top it all off with a warm, charming smile. You've just taken the CEO on a rollercoaster ride of frame revolution. If he smiles with you, he's given into your frame.The ultimate challenge to his frame is to invite him to stand up and enjoy the view with you. If he does this, you know he's given into your frame. The safer bet is to sit down after your half-finished story and smile. This lets him know you're not to be pushed around, but you're not looking for a fight either. After sitting down, expect more frame battles as there's no clear winner yet.The Time Frame: Use time and previous commitments as ammo to fight your frame battles. The classic example of this one is showing up for a meeting and being told by the secretary that Mr. Bigshot is very busy today and can they can only fit you in for 10 minutes. The wrong, and most common thing to do is say "no problem, I'll make this quick!" and then race through your presentation in a very ineffective way. The right approach is to very calmly, but strongly asset, "Look, I understand the CEO is busy. But if we're going to even explore the idea of working together, I need to know your team can stick to a schedule, and honor appointments. We agreed to 30 minutes last week. If you can't honor that, there's no point in having this meeting." This shows your professional, serious, and not to be pushed around.The Intrigue Frame: The brain works by paying attention to new information, and ignoring what is already knows. Your audience works the same way. When you start a presentation, you have the full attention of the audience. They don't know if you're going to say something new yet, and they're eager to find out. Once they begin to get the idea they've already heard a similar pitch, they'll start to check out and stop listening. Why waste brain power and something we've already seen before? We'll apply the same solution to the same old challenge and it'll all be fine.Keep them intrigued with hook points, story telling, and tension. Remember, tension is a good thing! Also, don't drill into the technical details. Technicalities are boring. Keep it big picture, packed with tension, ups, downs, and hook points. Think about some of your favorite movies. Movies have to keep people interested for 2 hours straight. They do that by skipping over the minutia of life and focusing on big picture events and happenings.Leveraging Story Telling: Stories must be brief, and the subject must be relevant to your pitch (you can come up with a creative bridge to just about anything, but there needs to be a bridge). You should be at the center of the story. There should be risk, tension, and uncertainty. There should be time pressure. There should be serious consequences should you fail your mission in the story.Situational StatusSituational Status is your current status and authority in a situation. For example, the President of the United States is said to be the most powerful man in the world. Yet, when the doctor tells the President to open his mouth and say "ahh," he does it. At the airport, that same doctor would listen to the TSA agent who tells him to stand in the fourth line for customs.We can increase our situational status by doing the following:Charmingly ignore power rituals and beta trapsIgnore the status of the challengerLook for opportunities to make small defiances to show your frame's powerAfter taking power, move the discussion into an area where you are the primary, unquestionable expertPosition yourself as the reward, alwaysConfirm your alpha status by making your challenger, who's now in the beta position, make a statement that declares your higher frameMaking the Pitch, and Winning the DealBatter up! Here's how to make a pitch:Introduce yourself and the idea (5 minutes) Keep it quick. Only talk about your greatest achievements (people come away with an average of how you present yourself, so tell them about your 3 home runs and not your 3 homeruns, 2 doubles and 5 singles). Show movement and new forces at work.Explain the budget and the secret sauce (10 minutes) Desire + Tension = Attention. You'll need both in your pitch. Offer a reward, then take something away. Your ideas need to be novel, exciting, fresh, and smell like new opportunity. Novelty in the form of an unexpected gain gives a blast of dopamine. On the other hand, if an expected reward fails to come about, then dopamine dries up, and negative feelings start to emerge. Give unexpected gains, and don't disappoint on promises. The amount of dopamine has to be just right. Not enough, and there is no interest; too much, and there is fear or anxiety. Use Push/Pull to play with desire and tension. Talk about your "unfair advantage" in the marketplace, and show your competence in the finances without getting bogged down in minutia.Offer the deal (2 minutes) What's your audience going to receive? What are they going to need to put into the pot?Frame domination and hot cognition (3 minutes) Hot cognition is deciding you want something before you fully understand it. Most decision are made with our gut. Studies have found we make decisions 7 seconds before we consciously decide on an option. Use tricks from your frame arsenal to trigger hot cognition.Finally, eradicate all neediness. Neediness = lack of abundance, something no one wants to be around.The brain is wired to do things to achieve status, not money.Click here for Actionable Steps  Did you enjoy the read? We're giving away $20,000 over the next 12 months to those who read along with us. Join us at /r/ThePaineCollective or @JamesCharlesPaine. Otherwise, I'll see you next Sunday with a recap of Never Eat Alone. $20,000 52 Books in 52 Weeks Reading List