Question: Do you want to make more money? If your answer is “yes,” then our story this week is a ‘must-read.’ Author and speaker Ford Saeks gives his advice on 3 Tips for Turning Your Expertise Into Revenue. Ford describes how to set yourself apart from the competition and turn your passion into profit. If you only read one article this week, make it this one.
What is Expertise?
What does it mean to truly be an expert? Is it about knowing everything or just knowing more than most? Expertise often stems from dedication, experience, and—yes—mistakes. It’s not about perfection. It’s a mix of trial, error, and persistence. Sometimes, it’s simply your willingness to keep learning that sets you apart.
What is Revenue?
Revenue is the lifeblood of your business, but are you tracking it closely enough? Often called the “top line,” it’s the starting point on your income statement. Subtract expenses, and you get your bottom line—profit. Want more profit? Focus on growing revenue. It’s not just numbers; it’s insight. And when you understand disc personality types compatibility, you can tailor your sales, communication, and decision-making strategies to boost that revenue even further. Are you leveraging it to its full potential?
3 Tips for Turning Your Expertise Into Revenue
In today’s overstimulated world, your prospects and clients are bombarded with marketing messages, influenced by social proof, and impacted by industry and economic conditions. That means it is more important than ever to position yourself as an expert, understand your value propositions and revenue model, and improve your product offerings…to get more bookings, sell more products, attract new clients, and make money.
Position Yourself as an Expert
As a professional speaker, author, or consultant, you no doubt think of yourself and refer to yourself as exactly that – a professional speaker, author, or consultant. But you could not be more wrong when communicating this to your target market! Thinking of your expertise in terms of how you do what you do means you are focused more on the features and not the benefit solutions you provide.
Your expertise in a topic area or your ability to speak, write, or consult is a feature. The benefit is the value your clients get from your products and services. Ask yourself, “What problems do I solve, or what solutions do I provide that other people will pay to make those problems go away?”
The key is to position yourself and your company as an expert in a specific area and focus on the benefits you offer first. Always lead with benefits and substantiate your claims with features and social proof. Benefits are what stand out from the competition and cause people to pay attention.
Whatever your unique expertise, you must keep that focus at the forefront and position yourself accordingly. After all, with today’s information over-loaded society, high competition and fast changing economy, it is more critical than ever that you are positioned as the ultimate resource and solutions provider in your niche.
So, just remember: speakers, authors, and trainers do not get paid to speak, write, and train; they get paid to deliver value, entertain, educate, and inspire performance improvement.
Understand Your Value Proposition and Revenue Model
Have you ever wondered what marketing really means? Quite simply, it is giving people enough information so they can make an informed buying decision; it is connecting the right message to the right market with the right marketing methods. In order to do so, you must understand your value propositions and revenue model.
Understanding your value propositions, also known as Unique Selling Propositions (UPSs), means figuring out the unique benefits you offer and communicating them to your marketplace in your promotional and sales efforts. In other words, why should people do business with you instead of someone else? What value and benefits do you offer that makes you unique in the delivery and results of your products and services?
What about your revenue model?
A revenue model includes the avenues or categories you use to deliver value and generate sales. For example, in my company, Prime Concepts Group Inc., we have a revenue model that consists of five streams of income:
- Speaking / Training (keynotes, workshops and public seminars)
- Coaching / Consulting (one-on-one, small groups, and inner circle masterminds)
- Products (physical and digital)
- Professional Services (Internet marketing, website design, and website development)
- Joint Ventures (strategic partnerships)
These streams represent the “how” we deliver our value propositions, not the “why.” For me, it is about being “lifestyle friendly.”
We know professional speakers who make the majority of their income from keynote speaking with some back-of-room sales, while others speak for free and upsell their audience members into mid-tier and high-tier consulting deals or product packages. You have to define what is best for you and where you are in your career.
In other words, is your revenue model congruent with your current lifestyle or the lifestyle you desire? For example, if 75% of your revenue is from presenting keynotes all over the country, but you only want to travel a few weeks out of the year, your revenue model needs to shift to accommodate your desired lifestyle.
On the other side of the coin, if you’re spending 80% of your time consulting, but 80% of your revenue is actually derived from your speaking, it would only make sense to increase the amount of time you are speaking and decrease the amount of time you are consulting, or figure out ways to leverage your efforts.
3. Improve Your Product Pyramid
Whether you have a plethora of products and services or you just focus on a few main services, it is important to have a variety of price points from low to high; otherwise, you may be leaving money on the table.
Let me explain what I mean by using some pricing examples. The following is not meant to be an absolute, as every market, industry, and business is unique.
Most information marketers, which is what you are when you are a thought leader or expert, create a product pipeline that resembles a pyramid.
At the bottom are introductory products or services that are free or at lower price points. These may be $10-$20 books or $20-$100 special reports, individual audios or videos.
From there, products or services gradually go up to the midrange. These could be $150-$5,000 physical products, digital products, public seminars, or coaching programs. Finally, you have the higher-end products or services. These may be multi-media information products, coaching, or consulting packages for $5,000-$100,000 (or even higher).
Does this mean that you need to cover every single price point? No—the point is to have at least one product or service for each of the main price ranges that fit your specific target market’s needs. This way, you are allowing your prospects to engage with you at the level that they are comfortable with. Additionally, the higher price points help position all of your other price points.
What is the Best Way to Transform Expertise into Revenue?
Monetizing your expertise as an entrepreneur – where do you even start? Should you focus on content or connections, or both? There isn’t a one-size-fits-all roadmap. Instead, making your skills profitable is about finding what works for your strengths and your audience’s needs. Trial and error play a role. Perfection isn’t necessary; progress is. Each step teaches you more, refining your approach along the way.
FAQs
What are the 4 methods to increase revenue?
Bestselling author Josh highlights four ways to grow revenue. Simple, right? But how often do we overlook the basics?
- Bring in more customers.
- Boost the average transaction size.
- Get customers to come back more often.
- Adjust your pricing.
How do you attract more revenue?
Attracting more revenue starts with understanding your audience. Are you solving their problems effectively? Think about your offerings—are they aligned with their needs or desires? It’s not always about working harder. Sometimes, it’s about working smarter, refining your strategies. Have you explored partnerships, optimized pricing, or enhanced customer experience? Small, intentional changes can yield surprising results.
Author of 31 books translated into over 50 languages, including best-sellers "The NEW Art of Managing People" and "The Platinum Rule," Dr. Alessandra helps organizations build stronger relationships with prospects, customers, and co-workers.
When not developing new assessment tools, Tony explores cutting-edge business communication trends. Connect with Dr. Alessandra on LinkedIn to learn how his innovative approaches can boost your team's performance.
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