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Douglas Kruger

Douglas Kruger

The labourer at the construction site puts in 11 hours and takes home R100. The neurosurgeon puts in similar hours but when the sun sets, he’s 20 grand up. Why such a marked difference in remuneration?

It’s because of perceived levels of expertise. The value of each person’s labour is viewed differently and it has nothing to do with how hard they work.

Being seen as a person of high-expertise (an expert) is worth exponentially more.

Of course, not everyone qualifies for neurosurgery, but here’s the dirty little secret: expertise is not the exclusive domain of those with academic qualifications. In fact, you don’t need a university degree to be seen as an expert.

Generating attractive income in your own business is by no means linked to anything academic.

As an entrepreneur, you get to determine your market positioning, at your own discretion, according to your own design. By doing so, you create your own perceived level of expertise, and consequently, your own pay scale.

In simple terms: where you position yourself determines how much you’re paid. How you’re seen is what you’re worth. The only tricky bit is: you have to do the positioning on purpose.

So, you have made the decision to position yourself at the high end of your market? It all begins with understanding the value of what you offer.

My younger sister won an award for best art pupil in her senior year at high school. I requisitioned her to draw some illustrations for one of my books, and the conversation precisely captured the principle of expert positioning.

I said that I would like five drawings, but that I was not able to pay a large amount. I offered her R1 000 in total. She was blown away, and replied that we had vastly differing notions of what was “not a large amount”.

Original illustrations should be valued at thousands of rand per item, certainly not five for a grand. But as an 18-year-old, her only context for income was the odd jobs she did as a cameraman’s assistant at weddings. She had come to understand that four hours of carrying cameras is worth R200. Her mistake was in extrapolating that to her area of expertise, art, and assuming that four hours worth of drawing should be worth the same.

When you buy someone’s art, you are not purchasing the hours of work. You are purchasing the value of the talent used to create it.

Business is the same. As an entrepreneur, you should not rate yourself according to hours of slog. You should rate yourself according to the value of the solution you provide.

So, step one is to take these ideas to heart:

l You can position yourself at the high end of the market.

l You should, because high-end positioning will cause you to earn more. If you don’t create and manage the perception that you are high-end, no one else will do it for you.

Step two is to begin identifying the practical ways in which to go about positioning yourself at the high end. For instance:

l Identify the current market leaders and ask yourself why they are noted.

l Ask yourself what you might do to make your offering as good as, or better than, theirs.

l Check that your prices are not too low. Perception of value is often linked to price.

l Find channels through which to offer thought-leadership, in the form of articles, guides, interviews and commentary; all of which is designed to show you that you are an expert in your field.

l Be seen everywhere. Get on to TV. Speak at public events. The more often you are seen speaking, the more you will become a known entity and a high-end practitioner.

l Constantly think of yourself as a high-end professional and evaluate your standards, your approach and your entire offering to ensure that it reflects the level you desire.

Positioning yourself as an expert is an art form and there are many ways to do it. The most important thing is to begin going about it on purpose. Your disciplined approach to keeping your name in the public eye, and your small, sustained efforts to be seen as a quality industry voice, will add up over time. Instead of the labourer, you will become the neurosurgeon. Your bank balance will testify to the difference.

l Douglas Kruger is a professional speaker, trainer and author. Visit the website www.douglaskruger.co.za, e-mail kruger@compute.co.za or follow him on LinkedIn or Twitter @DouglasKruger.