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Here’s what I’m calling the Selling Authority Spectrum: imagine a line going from left to right.
On the far left, is the highest touch sale: you discover and pitch every buyer, have multiple pre-sales conversations and eventually (over weeks, months or years) they buy.
On the far right, your highly qualified prospects come to you: they read, listen to or watch your stuff. Then one day they press a button to buy your thing or initiate a sales conversation where they’ve already decided they want YOU.
Sales on the left side are hard. Sales on the right side are easy.
Most of us start out on the far-left side—we spend the first year or two telling everyone we know that we’re solo and available to work on X. We pitch whoever bites.
Then we gradually figure out which kinds of clients and which sorts of work tap into our genius zone and we start niching down.
We start moving to the right. We get a few referrals and we don’t have to scrounge for every lead. That feels good.
So we decide to invest in our market authority. We pick a lane: writing, speaking, podcasting—and we keep iterating and niching down.
We move more and more to the right.
If we’re really dialed in to our audience, our genius zone and the value of the transformations we’re making—we’ll move all the way to the right.
But here’s the thing: knowing where you are now vs. where you want to ultimately land on the spectrum will save you a lot of wasted time, frustration and money.
Because getting all the way to the right takes a deep, consistent, very public investment in carving out a niche, in building an engaged audience who cares.
It’s not insignificant.
And there’s a dirty little secret no one seems to talk about: until you hit the tipping point with your sales funnel, you’re building authority AND doing 1-1 outreach at the same time.
And somehow that feels like you’re failing at the authority game. Like things should be happening faster and you Shouldn’t. Have. To. Keep. Making. Calls.
Do it anyway. Because continuing to engage your ideal targets one-to-one actually accelerates your path to the right.
Sure, some will buy from you, but that’s not even the point. These new people you’re engaging in a pointed discussion about their challenges will keep you sharp—they’ll pass on ideas and perspectives on what’s happening beyond your client/buyer base.
Which makes you all the more irresistible as you pour this knowledge into your authority marketing.
So go ahead: put your two dots on this spectrum. One where you are right now and another where you want to be. And let that spread tell you what needs to happen next…
Related: Another Way To Think Before Saying Yes to a New Client