How creating content builds authority

Imagine you are a business owner shopping for employee benefits between two agents. The first agent has a contact page on their company website, and the other agent has produced blog posts, white papers, and conducted webinars demonstrating authority on the topic.

Which one do you choose?

The answer is obvious. However, for many sales professionals, creating establishing themselves as an authority by providing content still seems like a crazy idea. Educational content attracts new prospects and opportunities for your business. Sure, up front it takes hard work and creativity, but it also makes the sales process easier in the long-term.

As a sales professional, you understand the needs, wants, frustrations, and desires of your prospects and clients better than anyone else. It’s up to you to share this knowledge so you can serve more people.

In six book, Duct Tape Selling, he describes six things that creating valuable content will do for your business.

Content is an expectation
Content creates awareness
Content builds trust
Content provides proof
Content serves
Content is a referral tool

All of these are 100 percent accurate and in my five years of a creating content, I can provide a specific examples of how this works.

As an insurance agent in 2013, I focused a great deal of my time and energy into helping business owners with cyber liability coverage to protect their company from data breaches and other cyber losses. This type of insurance and information was still very new and confusing to most business owners.

Those business owners who wanted to learn more expected to find content that could be utilized as a resource on this subject. To help educate and provide insight, I published series of blog posts on various aspects of cyber liability issues. In a few months, my content began to create awareness.

While this topic is not always the most exciting or uplifting information, the content I provided built a huge amount of trust with prospects and current customers that were curious about this specific insurance coverage. Trust is never given; trust is always earned; and purposeful content earns trust.

The bottom line

The decision to step up to the plate and create content to serve your audience and build your authority is 100 percent up to you. The bad news is that most of you won’t do it. The good news is that those who do can take advantage of the fact that most won’t.