Episode 419: Confusing Your Customers? Your Expertise Should Be the Guide, Not the Goal

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Hey, everybody. Welcome to this week’s podcast. I am thrilled that you’re here. Hey, in this episode, I wanna talk about what it’s like to be an expert. And so what one of the things is, and, and if you’re listening, you are probably an expert or learning to be an expert, whatever that looks like for you, and one of the things is just naturally, as an expert, you know more about your topic and expertise than anyone else out there, right? Just because that is your thing, you’re passionate about it, you’re deep in the weeds of your expertise. And what happens is when we go out to help other people with our expertise, we get into a little bit of trouble because we’re so comfortable with all of the terminology, all of the details, all of the things around our expertise, that we sometimes forget that when [00:01:00] somebody is trying to learn something or, or gain something based on what we’re helping them with as an expert, they’re not in the same place we are, right? They are not at the same level of expertise.

So I always think about it on a continuum, right? Like, so, um, put like… imagine a horizontal line, and you have zero on one end and 10 on the other end. As an expert, you’re probably in the 8 to 10 range, right? Like, you are immersed in your discipline. You’re immersed in your expertise. However, your customers are usually at, like, a one or a two, right? Because they’re like, “I don’t know how to get from where I am today to where I want to go, and so I’m gonna hire somebody who has that experience.” That’s what they’re thinking, right? They’re, “I’m not an expert at this. I need to hire an expert to help me.”

Now, the disconnect happens when you as an expert sort of forget to look at [00:02:00] where your customer, your potential customer is right now, right? If they’re at a one or a two, they don’t even understand the words that you are saying, right? Like, they’re not there at all. And so what has to happen is you as an expert is when you start working with other people, you need to start to become a guide. You need to look at where somebody is and then start there. You can’t start with your expertise because that person’s like, “I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” right?

So I’m working with, a couple of different experts right now. One group I’m working with, they are in charge of pre-qualifying, um, different partners for projects that they have in their company. And so they have a deep knowledge, that is their thing, is their job is to pre-qualify these partners so that they are ready and prepared and qualified to be able to do these large projects. [00:03:00] Because if not, then there’s all sorts of consequences if that partner is not prepared, or can’t support the work that they’ve been hired to do, right? So this group is in charge of making all that happen. However, they need to be able to communicate to their end users how to initiate all of the different parts and pieces that go with this, right? So there’s a communication sort of chain that’s going on, right? That the person who is, it- wants to hire a partner has to go to this group and, and there’s a back and forth to make sure that this partner is appropriately qualified to do the work. Okay? Seems simple, right?

But here’s the problem, is that the group that’s in charge of doing this pre-qualification only knows how to speak about all of the things that, that play into [00:04:00] pre-qualifying a partner. And the end user, the person that they actually are dependent on to make sure that all the parts and pieces are happening to make this whole thing successful, are not experts at this, right? And they’re not even thinking about it, right? They’re thinking about all the things that they need to do. This is just one small piece of what they need to do. So when this group, this pre-qualification group, has been tasked to train the end user, the challenge that they have is that they are trying to create training that is just about this pre-qualification process and the rules and the, the structure and the this and the that and the other thing, and they’re speaking from their expertise. They’re not speaking from that end user who needs to make all these things happen in order for this whole thing to be successful.

And it’s very, very common as an expert, so you probably can put yourself [00:05:00] in that position of like, “Wait, where am I talking about my thing so specifically that I’ve just lost my audience?” Right? I’ve lost the, th- the… even focusing on them because you’re so stuck in what it is that you want to talk about and explain and show and all of the things. And, and so the first step is really just to recognize that your end user, your customer, whoever it is you’re helping, is not at the same level that you are.

They’re hiring you because they want to go from where they are today to where they want to go, and honestly, most of the time that’s, like, at a level four, right? Again, you’re at a level 10, they’re a level one or two. Maybe they just wanna go to a level four. They don’t really want to be a level 10. They don’t really want to be an expert like you. They literally just want you to help them solve their problem so that they are successful, so that they can move on and do their thing.

And, and so that’s the rub that we always have [00:06:00] as experts is how do we really just look at our end user and what they need, and look at it from their perspective and through their eyes so that we can paint the picture of how they can go from point A to point B?

And most of the time, again, it’s not to help them become experts like we are, right? It’s to help them solve that particular problem. So in this group, um, you know, we were able to really look at it from that end user’s perspective, fill in the blanks in terms of what they needed and how they needed to engage this group, and that shifted what they needed to focus on in terms of the training, made it much more simple, took out all of the jargon, all of the, the complication, and just really focused on how do you make this into plain language.

Honestly, I would say this is one of the best ways that you can leverage AI at this point, if that is something that you’re interested in, is, [00:07:00] um, how do I make my expertise relatable or understandable for somebody who’s not an expert, right? Like, break it down in a fifth grade language. Once I did that, when I was working with this p- pre-qualification group, and I s- like break this down and, like, get rid of all the jargon and break this down into something that’s focused on this audience and is something that I can understand from a non-technical perspective.

And all of a sudden it was like, oh, well, that’s m- much more simple, right? And so we were able to build something that bridged the gap from where they were to where they needed them to be without over-engineering something, without over-complicating it with a lot of expertise and a lot of jargon. So AI can really help with that, especially if your gift is not to put yourself in your, your customer’s shoes. Use AI for that and really get that perspective that helps you sort [00:08:00] of, just meet your, your customer where they are on their journey.

A couple other examples. One, um, I’m also working with a group on driving more safely, right? And so the ask was, we really need to work on how to reduce accidents and, and various things that could happen when people are driving with company vehicles. And so the original training is more… is somewhere like, “Don’t drink and drive. Don’t drive when you’re tired. If you see an animal, you know, don’t swerve. Don’t pick up your cell phone.” All the things, right?

And it’s like, all of that’s great and those are great rules to remember, but the question is like, okay, yeah, we all know all of those things. Why are people not doing them, right? What is the problem that we’re trying to solve? And how do we go from where we were to where we are, like, where we want them to go? And it’s really about, the steps [00:09:00] that they need to prepare to take action while they’re in the situation, and then what to do after, right? It was less around the sound bites of remember all these details, and more around what we wanted them to do. So again, that shifts from being like, “Here are all the technical details. Here’s like the, the policy and all the things,” to “Here’s how this could help you change your behavior, your, what’s happening while you are out on the road.” So, so it’s just a shift in how you’re taking your expertise and relating it back to your customer.

So hopefully that helps you as you’re thinking about your expertise and how you can really shape the experience for your customers a little bit differently than maybe you are today. Because it’s less about you going into all the jargon and the details and making them become a level 10, it’s more about how do you [00:10:00] shift your expertise to be able to help them not make the same mistakes, not have the same obstacles and hurdles that you had as, as you were going through this process, or somebody who was going through this process trying to do it themselves or whatever else, right? How do you fast-track their process by getting to where they are today to where they want to go?

All right, so hopefully this helped you as a small tip that you can use to shift how you’re thinking about your expertise so that you really put yourself at that same spot where your customers are. If they’re all level 10s like you, awesome. But then that’s a different conversation, a different path that you’re taking them on than, typically where your customers are gonna be coming in when they know that you have the authority to solve that problem for them. All right, if you love this episode, give it a rating and share it with your friends. We will see you on the next episode.