Lectures from Expert Dig

There are ten things experts must know before they meet with customers or prospects. If you don‘t get these things right, nothing else matters. Start here, or don’t meet with clients--ever!

SMEs must establish themselves as experts. If people don’t trust your mastery of a subject, they will not follow your advice. Some researchers say there are eight ways people will judge your expertise. Other investigators say there are five measurements. In reality, non-experts use one flawed approach for judging experts. SMEs must earn the distinction over and over again. Learn the essential steps for quickly demonstrating your expertise in a convincing way and maintaining that distinction.

If not for risk, SMEs would not exist. Companies must accept risk in order to progress, and they overcome risk on the shoulders and backs of their SMEs. An SME’s work constantly pivots on risk. For companies and clients, the expert is the counterbalance to risk. An SME must be efficient and effective at identifying, measuring, eliminating and mitigating risk. This webinar explains the essential connection of the SMEs and the risks before them. What are the risks? What risk is acceptable? What risk is not?

Sale representatives and subject matter experts often see the world through completely different lenses. That fact is evident in the language they use to describe their work. For decades, the sales funnel has been the metaphor of choice for marketing and sales professionals when describing a customer journey. SMEs, on the other hand, rarely operate with a funnel mentality. SMEs build ramps, not funnels. Funnels and ramps are contradictory and complementary at the same time. In this session, we outline the art and science of the ramps and the funnels. The two engineering tools that can and should complement one another.

It is hard to be an effective Subject Matter Expert or Solution Engineer, and it’s getting harder. Culture and technology are just a few of the many factors eroding the influence of our experts. Many companies, unfortunately, are contributing to the erosion by minimizing the importance of their experts. SMEs, on the other hand, are quick to criticize the very companies who employ them. So, why are the two groups, companies and experts, frequently at odds? Why do they ignore one another, or worse sabotage each other? How do we get experts and companies working together and harmonizing their complementary values? This session explains how companies get the most out of their SMEs and how SMEs get the most out of their companies.

How do SMEs maximize their influence? Peer reviewed literature suggests seven types of social power in the world. Experts, it turns out, possess the unique ability to influence the behavior of individuals and organizations when they wield their influence effectively. Changing a person’s mind is not easy, but most SMEs can do it, and they can do it quickly.

In this lecture we explore the types of problems SMEs are expected to fix and why they are important. When disaster occurs, it is the experts who put out the flames, sort the debris, and rebuild. Effective disaster management separates the truly expert from the merely competent. Emergencies fall into ten categories and SMEs should be prepared for all of them: product failure, security breach, scope, schedule, resources, budget, perception, contract, force majeure, and leadership.

It is surprising how quickly experts can stray out of their lane and into the wrong side of the law. Experts have legal obligations and heightened accountability. Sadly, few SMEs and SEs are trained on the legal cords that bind their actions and utterances. In this session, we review the statutes and case laws that SMEs must understand and abide.