How to Profit by Giving Your Knowledge Away

No matter what industry you are in, whether you have a plumbing service or an accountancy or a café, you have specialised knowledge -- expertise -- that allows you to do your job.

Share it freely. In fact, give away as much as you can.

"But I can't give my expertise away!" you may cry. "That's what I get paid for!"

Wrong.

You get paid, first and foremost, to satisfy and gratify your customers.

Selling a product or service, and taking money in return, is an objective, tangible act. Satisfaction and gratification, on the other hand, are entirely subjective feelings.

Selling is about you, but gratifying is about your customer. It is about taking the focus away from the product you offer and shifting it towards the experience of doing business with you.

Two rewards
When you share your expertise, two things happen:

• Your clients and potential clients feel smarter, because they've just gained expert knowledge that not everyone has. That's a good feeling -- one that they'll come back for.
• They also gain a first-hand understanding of your expertise, and why it's worth paying for. If you do this often and well enough, your independent reputation as an expert will grow and people will seek you out. Then you can charge whatever you want.

Two myths
Offering information in exchange for nothing may seem counterintuitive, even foolish. But many of our fears around it are ungrounded. Here are two myths about giving away our secret recipes:

Myth 1: People will take the knowledge I give them and do the work themselves. Certainly there are many DIY types out there. If I write a blog post about press releases, somebody will use it as a guide to handle their own media relations. But who cares? I don't want them. I want worthwhile clients.

Worthwhile clients are focused on their own business and don't waste time trying to do your job. They recognise that they can read a dozen blog posts and they won't begin to scratch the surface of what you know. They take the knowledge you give them and use it to better understand how your services can help them or their companies.

Myth 2: If I give my knowledge away, then everyone else will have the same expertise I do. Here's a wake-up call: everyone else already has access to your expertise. All they have to do is jump on the Internet, and millions of websites and blogs are falling all over themselves to offer information. There is simply no way to keep expertise secret.

Your only hope is to become its source.

When you are the source of expert information, you invoke the principle of reciprocity, a powerful influencer of human behaviour. Rather than taking your information and running away with it, people feel an obligation to offer something of value in exchange for value received.

The ultra-prestigious American university MIT makes all of their lectures, papers, and course materials available for free online, to anyone who wants to download them. If they can do it, so can you.

Two techniques
So how do you go about getting your expert knowledge into your customers' hands? You take advantage of the cheapest, easiest, and farthest reaching channel available to you: the Internet. Write articles about your industry and post them on your website. Create a blog and discuss issues of relevance to your customers and their companies. Write an e-newsletter that delivers timely and useful information before the recipient has to spend a dime.

Once you've got your own channel covered, look outwards. Offer free seminars on your topic area. Offer to speak at any venue you can find. Offer your expert opinion to print, television, and radio. Offer to write guest pieces for anyone who asks.

You will never be diminished by giving your knowledge away. On the contrary: you will increase your ability to deliver satisfying and gratifying experiences to your customers.

And isn't that what you're in business to do?