The world of accounting can be a harsh environment. With so many firms offering similar services in a highly competitive marketplace, achieving significant, measurable success can be a daunting challenge. So how do you stand out in a crowded field? By becoming a Visible Expert.
What is a Visible Expert?
A Visible Expert is a professional with significant marketplace recognition and a reputation for specific expertise. VEs are the thought leaders and industry experts sought after for keynote addresses, media interviews and high-level conference presentations. They’re the individuals who shape their professions and fuel their firms’ growth and profitability. They’re the high-profile professionals every client wants to work with.
The Hinge Research Institute recently concluded a comprehensive new study that builds upon and expands its landmark 2014 Visible Expert study. The professional services marketplace has changed substantially during the past six years. This year’s pandemic, political upheavals and rapidly changing economy have all changed people’s lives and how businesses operate. Virtually every industry developed new approaches and processes to handle the dramatic changes affecting them, and VEs became even more valued for their expertise and insight into new, evolving problems.
There are many levels of VE expertise, ranging from those known within a firm all the way up to top international experts recognized across industries. The recent study revealed five distinct styles, or “personas”:
- The Bridge Builder, who specializes in two different areas of expertise, making them unique and highly valuable to a specific audience.
- The Laser, who is focused on a very specific topic, with a deep knowledge of it that makes them the preferred choice in certain situations.
- The Curator, an expert who is skilled at aggregating valuable information from a number of other experts, enabling them to become a single source of the best information available.
- The First Mover is a pioneer in a particular area of expertise. They’re viewed as innovators and fresh-idea generators.
- The Contrarian is an expert with a counter-approach to conventional thinking, encouraging clients to do the unconventional and try something new.
Roughly 41 percent of the study’s Visible Experts are bridge builders whose expertise helps clients close the gap between two previously unrelated spheres of knowledge. The Laser is the second most common person at 18.4 percent.
Becoming a VE requires strategy, commitment and concerted effort — but the results are well worth it. Clients generally expect to pay a premium for working with a recognized expert. The earning potential of a VE can be significantly higher than that of a similar, non-expert professional — often several hundred percentage points higher.
Having a VE in your firm offers other benefits as well. Because working with a well-known VE can help boost clients’ visibility and credibility, VEs attract new business from prospects who see how well the relationship works for current clients. VEs create a win/win situation for their own firms and their clients.
How to become a Visible Expert
Achieving visibility as an industry or subject matter expert doesn’t occur by happenstance. You don’t become a Visible Expert simply by calling yourself one. It takes authenticity, focus, persistence — and, of course, knowledge.
The average expert typically utilizes 6.5 different marketing channels to create visibility. You’ll need to choose your channels based on where your prospects look for insights and information. According to our research, 80.6 percent of VEs gain visibility through referrals and recommendations and 75.8 percent through speaking engagements. What’s striking is that 77.7 percent use social media as a marketing technique.
You might need to use some channels simply because that’s where prospects expect to find experts. Others are good choices because they’re where prospects look and where you can “listen” for issues and topics that matter the most to potential clients. You can then engage with prospects and open a meaningful dialogue based on what they’re looking for in an accounting firm. Good examples of this are social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook.
A more passive but highly effective tool is search engine optimization. Creating content seeded with keywords used by prospects and posting it on social media enables you to achieve higher organic ranking so your expertise and your firm gain visibility. Our research shows that online search is the second most popular technique used by buyers, but SEO is often overlooked by VEs. That provides you with a great opportunity to gain a visible advantage in a highly competitive marketplace.
Visible Experts are the new rainmakers in the accounting industry. Yes, it takes a little effort to achieve visibility but becoming a VE will enable you and your firm to break away from the competitive pack to attain greater success and profitability.
