Do you want to know how to position yourself as an authority figure in your industry and use this to convince investors that they should invest with you? I explain it all in this episode of Ask Swenk.

Question #1 – How to steer clear from commodity pricing

Shirley asks, “How do I position myself as a brand strategist and help small to medium-sized business owners create the branding strategy, the foundational pieces, and maybe even the brand identity, all while getting good fees for it? I don’t want to get caught up in the “I just need a logo/website” dance. How do I blend being a high-end solopreneur agency in a box without getting caught up in commodity pricing?

Answer #1 – Have a laser focus for the clients that you want.

The best thing that you can do it start getting very laser-focused on who you actually want to serve. In your email, you said, “small to medium-sized business owners,” and that is a huge audience. You have to break it down a couple of notches.

In my case, I could help out just about any service-based business, but I broke it down for to just agencies, then broke it down even more to focus on agencies under $20m. I went through their struggles and talked to them about those.

So how do you get out of being just a commodity? Start putting out valuable information for that specific, laser-focused audience. This way you’re becoming an authority, educating the market, and reaching more people.

Question #2 – How to get your prospect to see the potential of investing in project?

Hugh writes, “My biggest struggle is making people understand how important it is to invest in something in order to get what they want. How do you get them so they see the potential of investing time, money, and effort into making something work?

Answer #2 – Focus on the 3I’s.

One of my biggest tips for finding and showing value is to use the Three I’s:

• Issue – what is their biggest struggle?
• Impact – how does it affect their business?
• Importance – what would it mean to them to have it fixed?

When you identify these, you can put a number to it. Then you can follow-up and say, “I understand that you may not want to invest now, but did you find a solution to that $500,000 issue you were having?”

Using the 3I’s to help you really understand their problem, will help you convince them of the value in your solution.

What’s Next After You Achieve Authority?

If you have more questions, I can help. Whether you have been an agency owner for some time or have just taken the leap and started a new agency, I have covered topics including bringing in big clients for your agency to creating and sharing a virtual story of your agency brand.

Check out all my tips, tricks and everything you need to know in my blogs. I have covered a wide variety of topics as well as answering your questions in more from my Ask Swenk series.

Are videos more your thing?  You can check out my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel for advice from myself and other agency experts.