What makes an expert?

Anyone can claim to know all that there is to know about their chosen field – but just because you say you’re an expert doesn’t mean that you are

It’s an indisputable truth that if you want to be ‘found’ – whether that’s getting your or your company’s content noticed, or your CV discovered when looking for a job – the path to doing so is the internet. It’s a simple fact of the world we live in.

But consider this. Whereas in 1991 there was just a single website (the World Wide Web project), last year there were 863 million of the things. That crowded marketplace may help explain why we’re living in an age when every man and his dog calls themselves ‘thought leader’, ‘best-selling author’ or, more cringeworthy, ‘guru’ to get noticed. It also explains how everyone seems to be writing articles, posting blogs, running their own podcasts, and myriad other things in order to make themselves stand out from the pack.

It’s very easy to claim you’re an expert or leader in your field, but a lot harder to be seen as one by the people who matter – your peers and potential clients. So how do you go about becoming a recognised expert rather than a self-appointed one?  

Gaining visibility

One man who knows a thing or two about helping people become experts is Lee Frederiksen, CEO of brand and marketing agency Hinge and author of The Visible Expert. Hinge recently worked with a consultant who places board members and CEOs within private equity firms, but who had struggled for years to get in front of certain decision-makers.
 
After Hinge helped him understand how best to enhance his ‘visibility’, the consultant spoke at a private equity conference, where he presented rigorously researched findings to the delegates about executive compensation. He was almost knocked over at the end by the number of clamouring managing partners who wanted a copy of his study and to make appointments to talk further.  

According to Frederiksen, Hinge found that the top selection criteria for most professional services prospects was expertise. And it’s identified a formula, if not a ‘science’, behind this.

The agency’s research discovered big differences between what it calls ‘Industry Rock Stars’ (nationally recognised names within a specialist niche), ‘Superstars’ (whose names alone have decision-makers reaching for their cheque books, regardless of what they talk about) and ‘Resident Experts’ who are known within their business but not outside.

The ‘Star’ experts had earned a reputation for deeply researched insights in a narrowly focused area of expertise, as opposed to simply spouting opinion. They were skilled at making complicated topics simple for laypeople, their approach was more about teaching than selling, and they cast a wide net by using white papers, articles, live conference presentations, webinars and especially books to communicate their message. They were the ones for whom buyers would pay firms seven to 13 times more for their services.
Hinge’s most recent study found that being a visible expert ‘plays the single most significant role in driving referrals’ leading to new business.

“When we looked deeper at the research, we saw these weren’t referrals from previous clients or people known to these experts, but from individuals in the marketplace who’d heard of their reputation,” Frederiksen explains. “This level of visibility and credibility shows the value of spending time in business development and marketing.”

Given this research, wouldn’t it make sense that a company could raise its profile by raising the visibility of key individuals? Well, maybe not.

Rachel Ainsworth has found that few firms are willing to allow their experts to be personally recognised and promoted this way, fearing they will be poached by the competition or go out on their own. Ainsworth is Head of Thought Leadership Strategies and Solutions at Source Global Research, a London-based firm that analyses thousands of pieces of content put out by consulting firms every year in order to identify what works (and what doesn’t).

“I strongly believe this is less of a risk than it appears,” she says. “It’s actually quite difficult for good people who know their stuff to find a firm that will allow them to be visible, which is why they’re more likely to stay.”

She recently interviewed William Eggers, Director of Public Sector Research at Deloitte, who pointed to the 13-year investment made between him and his employer. He could take all his institutional knowledge and client connections with him if he left the firm, but then he’d have to leave behind all the IP collateral developed while working there. This led Ainsworth to conclude that if there’s sufficient support from a firm in helping their experts build influence, they’re less likely to go elsewhere.

Recruiting and retaining
 
Developing experts who are publicly visible isn’t just a retention tool, adds Shelley Kendrick, Managing Director of Jersey executive recruitment consultancy Kendrick Rose, it’s invaluable for recruiting good people. “Having well respected and trusted advisers associated with your brand doesn’t just enhance the reputation of the business and, through that, increase revenue,” she says. “It shows it’s a great place to work for professional development. All businesses should promote their good people, in the sense of allowing them to put their names on key pieces of content.”

University of Toronto researchers Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia asked the question ‘Who is an expert?’ in their book Surpassing Ourselves: An inquiry into the nature and implications of expertise. They offered this answer: the difference between experts and ‘experienced non-experts’ is that experts ‘turn a predicament into a problem, which they then help solve’ by rising to the upper limits of their ability. However, experienced non-experts ‘merely carry out practised routines’ or offer standard courses of action.  

In the case of Abakar Saidov, CEO of recruitment software firm Beamery, however, it also seems to be that ‘expertise’, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Saidov is a former Goldman Sachs analyst and private equity fund associate, who left financial services to build an innovative platform for recruiters. His idea was that Beamery would target and attract the right people and provide an inbound recruitment platform so that clients could convert passive candidates into active job applicants.

This apparently left the Silicon Valley venture capitalists he’d targeted for funding puzzled. It seems they couldn’t get their heads around how someone who wasn’t a software engineer from Stanford and didn’t have a background in HR management systems could claim to be an expert on recruitment.

But like Bereiter and Scardamalia, Saidov believes: “You don’t become an expert just by accomplishing a task, you become one by constantly questioning whether you could be better at that task in order to improve it.”

And it’s for that reason – not least saying something different to the usual ‘yada yada’ and producing real results on their behalf – that Beamery’s clients consider Saidov and his team to be experts, he says.

Bottom line? While it may no longer require 10,000 hours, a wall full of certificates or even formal qualifications to be considered an expert in some fields, for clients and prospects to take that accolade seriously enough to throw money your way, you need to be visible and valuable enough so that third parties are continually talking you up.

Dr Liz Alexander is an author, educator and business strategist, and Founder of business consultancy Leading Thought