Sell with Authority: Own and Monetize Your Agency's Authority Position

make them say, “Thank you. Every time I turn around, I see something helpful from you. Now that we’ve had a chance to interact, you’re just what I expected you to be.”

After several rounds of why, you will get to some facts or insights that will require some diagnosis on your part. If all of these things are true, what does it suggest or tell you? What can you conclude, learn, or change to break this pattern? Where is the faulty logic or assumption that puts you and your clients into this spot?

Just to be clear, your point of view is the truth you overlay onto your niche or industry-specific expertise. It’s an insight that influences the work you do.

A strong point of view can absolutely be a specific belief about some aspect of your niche. It can absolutely be a belief about the clients or the industry you serve.

Your authority position has to be channel-agnostic to survive the test of time.

A narrow niche, a strong point of view, and being findable in multiple places are the hallmarks of an authority position.

Being the teacher who is not only smart, but also willing to share those smarts, is a hard-to-beat strategic position.

Cornerstone content is: • meaty enough to produce lots of smaller pieces of content. • significant enough to serve as the epicenter of your promotion, activity, and eventual fame—in your circle of influence, of course; we aren’t suggesting you’ll become the next Beyoncé! • consistent in how often you create content and how much you stay focused on

an opinion or interpretation of those facts. What do the facts mean? What truth is underlying the industry, audience, or problem-solving knowledge?

It helps to collect what I call your agency’s “legendary stories”—those stories of glory you love to tell when you want to illustrate a point, demonstrate your value, or celebrate a victory on behalf of a client.