I was recently interviewed about our development of a process to create Visible Experts℠. (To learn more about this process, download a copy of our Visible Expert book). The video interview was conducted by a gentleman named Ago Cluytens from Geneva, Switzerland.

Here is how Ago describes his background and expertise:

Ago Cluytens is an experienced management consultant, coach and speaker who helps organisations and individuals grow top line revenue through optimising their sales and marketing. As a former management consultant with “Big 4″ professional services firms Ernst & Young and Arthur Andersen, Ago Cluytens has years of first-hand experience selling to the C-suite.

As you can probably tell from his bio, Ago is a seasoned and sophisticated professional services executive. He is also a smart marketer.

He has found a simple way to leverage video technology to grow his personal brand and develop new business. I’d like to share some of the insights from this experience to help illustrate how you might use online video to boost your status as a Visible Expert and grow your firm in the process.

Here are my five key  take aways:

  1. Inexpensive, high-quality video technology is changing everything. You can now conduct a live interview with just about anyone from just about anywhere. While this is probably not news to you, it gives you very valuable national and international reach. No longer do your clients (or interview subjects) have to be in the same room with you.
  2. Video allows you to attract clients from almost anywhere. As long as your geographic area of practice is not restricted by licensing requirements, you can “export” your professional services around the globe.
  3. You can also use video to develop and promote your expertise. Look at what Ago was doing. He has developed a video series in which he interviews experts on topics of intense interest to his target audience. By doing this, he not only develops valuable personal relationships with people who can help him, he establishes himself as an expert in his own right.
  4. At the same time he is building his visibility and perceived expertise, he is also attracting and nurturing potential clients. Potential clients follow his series of interviews because they find them useful. In this way, he builds trusting relationships with a host of potential clients.
  5. Video is also a relatively easy way to generate valuable new content. While scheduling, prepping for, editing and posting a video is not without its hassles, it is far easier than interviewing an expert and then writing, editing and posting a written interview. You could also repurpose the video and turn it into a series of blog posts or tweets, for example. This gives you time-saving leverage.

While these benefits are great for many businesses, they are especially useful for professional services providers. Becoming a Visible Expert is not only helpful for your own career, it positively affects your whole firm through a mechanism called the “halo effect”.

Check out our book on becoming a Visible Expert and Ago’s video interview on the same topic.

Lee