One of the most efficient ways to convince anybody that you know what you’re talking about, no matter what the situation, is to provide physical proof of expertise. Sure, you can tell everybody under the sun that you play hockey like Wayne Gretzky, but it’s unlikely you’ll get much credibility on that front until you take the National Hockey League by storm. Once you have physical proof of your excellence regarding anything, people are much more willing to accept that you’re a master at whatever it is. This applies to anything from hockey to knitting to offline consulting.
If you want your clients to take you seriously, whether they’re online or offline, the best thing to do is to show them your own success. Consulting for many people is a career path chosen after finding success in a field. The reasoning behind this is obvious – being a consultant is essentially offering your advice on a particular subject to others who are interested in that advice. For the customer to want your advice, they have to believe that the advice dispensed is worth the time and money they’d need to invest to get that information.
The best way to prove that you’re the Internet marketing expert for your offline clients is to actually have a track record of success. We’re assuming that you have your own online business if you’re interested in helping others with theirs. In the event that you don’t have your own successful online business – why don’t you? If you can’t point to your own success as a business owner to bolster your consulting endeavors, then why should people trust that you’re the right consultant for them?
This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to go out and start your own business. In fact, having a track record of helping others with online marketing can also cement your place as a consultant, as it shows that not only do you know how to make yourself successful, but also others.
In short, if you really want to make it in offline consulting, you’ll need to be able to put your money where your mouth is. If you don’t have experience working with online businesses, then it might help you to assist with some local projects or even spend some time bolstering your own online business before really heading out to try and recruit the offline clients. When you can come in the door with guns blazing and a track record of success, you’re already halfway toward getting those hard to impress offline customers. Being able to show those who don’t have an Internet footprint a track record of success is one of the most important things you can do in this business. In fact, some might say it’s the first vital step toward getting any business as a consultant at all!
