The Expert Trap with Bruce La Fetra

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:42 — 26.3MB)

In this episode, Alay and Bruce discuss:

Working with clients who are the best fit for you.
The difference between cogs, experts, and advisors.
The value of different roles.
Why nothing is your biggest competitor.
Building trust and backing that with knowledge.

Key Takeaways:

Shedding the clients that drain your energy will increase your ability to do work with those who give you energy and your business will improve.
As an advisor, it is not what you do. It is what your client can do because of you.
If your client doesn’t know what the criteria is, you’re only competing on price.
The expert that takes no risk is focusing on themself. They are trying to eliminate the chance that something will go wrong and come back on them.

Tweetable Moments:

“There’s nothing wrong with being an expert, but there are things that experts do that cause the trap.” — Bruce La Fetra
“When people are overwhelmed, they have a tendency to shut down and do nothing.” — Alay Yajnik
“Advisors are usually also experts, but instead of answering questions, they’re helping to shape the questions.” — Bruce La Fetra
“The ultimate goal should be improving the client’s business. The ultimate goal should not be eliminating risk.” — Bruce La Fetra
“Expertise does not make you an advisor. Trust makes you an advisor.” — Bruce La Fetra

About Bruce La Fetra:

Bruce La Fetra works with attorneys and law firms to fundamentally change how and who generates business. Focusing on their Best Clients creates a virtuous cycle where it gets easier to grow revenue, improve profitability, and shorten the sales cycle as the firm attracts more of its Best Clients.

Clients call Bruce “The Client Whisperer” because his Think Like Your Best Clients concept for positioning hands his clients a hard-to-match advantage. The Think Like Your Best Clients concept evolved from developing marketing strategy for dozens of firms and interviewing hundreds of their Best Clients over the past 20 years.

Bruce earned his BA in Economics from Claremont McKenna College and his MBA from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He is also a trained facilitator. Bruce isn’t an attorney, but he is married to one.