YOU are the Killer App3 min read
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This article is the second in an eight-article series on the Seven Laws of Marketing.
Law #1 – You must be very good at what you do.
Once there was a consultant who was the top expert in his field. And he traveled around the country giving talks at management conferences. He also brought an assistant to each of his talks who helped him with logistics, set up his slide projector, made his hotel arrangements, and sold his books at the back of the room at the end of the talk.
One day the assistant remarked to the consultant, “You know I’ve been in the back of the room for dozens of your talks and since you give the same talk every time, I’ll bet I could deliver it verbatim.”
The consultant, being the adventuresome type, took up his assistant’s bet and told him, “Since nobody knows me at this talk I’m giving next week, why don’t you give the talk and I’ll sit in the back of the room?”
They agreed and the assistant gave the next talk. And he was right; he did a great job. He not only gave the talk verbatim, he used the consultant’s same tone of voice and gestures and got a standing ovation at the end.
Then he opened it up for questions. He was asked a very complex question and this is how he answered: “Ha, that is such a simple question. Anybody knows the answer to that question. In fact, it’s such a simple question, even my assistant could answer it for you!” And then gesturing to the consultant at the back of the room he said, “Go ahead and give us the answer to this simple question!”
Being good at what you do is not just being in command of a certain set of facts. It’s understanding all the things beyond those facts. Someone once taught me that a consultant or speaker should know thirty times more than what he consulted or spoke about.
Is your expertise beyond your knowledge and do you have the ability to effectively apply that knowledge? Can you walk your talk? Can you answer the difficult questions and then demonstrate how to apply your ideas in a wide variety of circumstances?
Of course, you will never know everything, even if your expertise is rather narrow. Are you consistently expanding your expertise through reading, workshops, seminars, and conferences? And are you refining your expertise through writing and speaking?
More than any other factor, being genuinely knowledgeable and being very good at what you do will determine your success in attracting more of your ideal clients.
A final note about the title of this article.
I’ve talked to hundreds of people about their business and marketing. And many of them believe there’s a hidden secret to attracting clients and growing a business.
If only they had the perfect message, a bigger list, more connections or a “killer app” that generated a non-stop flow of qualified leads.
But there’s really only one killer app. And that’s YOU.
Sure, there are some great tools and resources out there today. A past client of mine recently discovered some online tools that are helping her generate more qualified leads than ever before.
But it’s her hard work, dedication, and trial-and-error efforts that have enabled her to get such great results from using these tools. It’s her commitment to making them work that’s made all the difference.
Want to be great at what you do? Realize that ultimately YOU are the killer app.
Cheers, Robert
P.S. After writing this article the thought occurred to me. I wonder if anyone else has written an article with this title? I looked on Google and someone had. In fact, Jonathan Fields wrote a great article that says essentially the same thing. I recommend you read it here.
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