“You can’t buy it and you can’t sell it,” he said.
“It’s more valuable than gold; invisible, intangible, and seemingly unattainable unless you’re born with it – it’s something that all successful salespeople have known about and have used for ages.”
“Now that’s what I’m talking about, I thought, where do I get me some?”
The lecturer continued, “This coin has two sides of equal importance. One side is credibility and the other is expertise. The sides are interdependent and must be used in combination with one another to be effective. Further, each side must be honestly earned for this coin to have any value.”
This simplicity and wisdom of his words started to penetrate even my numb and dulled awareness that morning. This was making sense!
He went on to explain how it works.
CREDIBILITY:
Credibility is generally defined as whether or not the observer accepts what you say as true or believable. If you have the ability to inspire belief and trust, you are perceived as credible and you have credibility.
The root word itself even traces back to its Latin origins: ”to believe or trust.” It’s recognizable to anyone when it’s present and uncomfortably obvious when it’s not.
Fundamentally, it’s a perception, formulated by what someone thinks, feels and observes about you. It’s detectable yet untouchable, abstract but obvious at the same time, in short, you’ll know it when you see it.
When you’re selling a service, something intangible where there is no concrete proof that it exists, customers rely on impressions formed about you to establish a level of trust and confidence they’re comfortable with. This takes as long as it takes. You can’t force someone to trust you any more than you can force another to be self-determined. They have to do it for themselves. Trust is given freely or not at all. You’ll have it when they’re ready to give it – not before; it can’t be forced.
EXPERTISE:
An expert is an individual who is very knowledgeable, skilled, experienced and able to demonstrate effortless competence in a certain field.
Like credibility, expertise is a subjective perception based on opinions and feelings rather than on objective facts or evidence. Frequently, it is just the collective agreement of others that you know what you’re talking about. And what you’re saying is often less important than how you’re saying it.
If you can express yourself with clarity, simplicity and humanity, relating to people in a language they can understand and use, you’re an expert, at least to them. Curiously, when everyone agrees that you’re an expert . . . you are an expert and you therefore gain credibility.
As you know, value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
a. As you strengthen your expertise, you increase your credibility.
b. As you increase credibility, you become perceived as an expert.
Being seen as a credible expert is an unbeatable combination and increases your value exponentially. It is worth working for!
The secret of this coin of credibility and expertise is now revealed – the intrinsic value is infinite and can take you to heights only limited by your imagination.
Coincidently, it is exactly what every salesperson needs and what every customer wants.
daniel w.jacobs
(c) 2007-2010, all rights reserved
