How to Position Yourself as the Go-To Ergonomic Expert

Imagine a tremendous market opportunity that is begging for your expertise. Imagine being a sought after expert that is the true authority within your community. And now, imagine how great your life would be if you had a steady stream of new clients who paid you expert-level prices.

This can be YOU, this can be YOUR reality, and YOU can feel this great everyday at work. When you become the Go-To Ergonomic Expert you lead your community with authority. And as an expert you can charge expert-level fees.

Experts always get chosen first.

Developing your expertise in ergonomics makes sense and will multiply your current work efforts. You are already seeing patients on a daily basis, wouldn’t it be great to have a steady stream of new clients and to have more and more opportunities of increasing your income?

3 Reasons to Position Yourself as the Go-To Ergonomic Expert in Your Community

1. Practice Growth: When you are an expert, you will grow your practice by focusing on ergonomic results. You don’t have to try and “sell” or “trick” your clients. When you get expert-level results, you will have more and more happy patients that will want to refer to you. You will be a sought after authority by local businesses and corporations.
2. Fulfill a Need that Already Exists: The research shows that ergonomics in the workplace is effective and beneficial for preventing musculoskeletal injuries, decreasing absenteeism, and simultaneously increasing the level of productivity among employees. The need is there; this is a market that makes sense! However, there are very few Ergonomic Experts. This provides YOU with the perfect market opportunity to become the Go-To Ergonomic Expert in your community.
3. Your Ticket in with Corporations: As an Ergonomic Expert you have a golden ticket in with local businesses and corporations! When you provide value to local businesses this exponentially grows your exposure and the level of reciprocity will be very high. They will want to become your client. Getting in with corporations is a predictable and prestigious career-building strategy!

 The Economic Impact of Proper Ergonomics

Understanding ergonomics and how to perform ergonomic assessments in your community is a Win-Win. It is a great win for you because you can position yourself as the Go-To Expert, gain professional relationships locally, and get more new patients into your practice.

Plus, the implementation of ergonomic interventions is a huge win for the organization! There is no “sales gimmick” with ergonomics. Research has shown time after time that ergonomic equipment and ergonomic programs are a good investment for companies.

In fact, there is a quick return on investment for the investment of corporate ergonomic programs. Researchers have shown the effectiveness of ergonomic interventions by explaining the cost benefit analysis of implementation.

The reported payback period of the initial investment for an ergonomic program was less than one year. Contributing factors to a quick payback period for ergonomic programs are increased productivity, decreased absenteeism, and less reported injuries (Goggins, 2008).

 Meaning, that businesses and corporations make an investment into the health of their employees and are paid back within one year. Plus, the employees are producing more work more efficiently with decreased absenteeism. After being “paid back” within one year of the initial investment, the employees will continue to produce at a high level to further increase the return on investment.

 How productive is more productive? Garrett et al. (2016) compared levels of productivity among workers with stand-capable desks and workers who were seated. Employees with standing desks were shown to be 45% more productive on a daily basis compared to their seated counterparts.

Further, productivity of the stand-capable desk users significantly increased over time, from 23% in the first month to 53% over the next six months. Finally, this productivity increase was similar for employees across different job categories. The findings of this study suggest important benefits of utilizing ergonomic equipment in the work place to increase productivity (Garrett et al., 2016).

Ergonomic design is a serious win for corporations and businesses. Here’s the problem… many of them don’t realize it. 88% of managers surveyed had not heard of human factor engineering and 94% of managers have not studied the consequences of improper ergonomics (Shahraki and Bakar, 2004).

This is a huge market opportunity for Ergonomic Experts! In fact, corporate ergonomics is a blue ocean strategy. You can position yourself as the Go-To Ergonomic expert in your community to fulfill this great need.

How to Position Yourself as the Go-To Ergonomic Expert

You know WHY to develop your expertise in ergonomics, you know that it is a blue ocean opportunity, now discover the exact steps of how to position yourself as the expert in your community with authority marketing.

1. Become the Expert: The first step in positioning yourself as the Go-To Expert is to truly become the expert. It’s not enough to say you are an expert; you need to have the credentials, experience, and knowledge to back up your expertise. Many people want to skip this step. They want to position themselves as an expert, yet they lack the training and know-how of actually being an Ergonomic Expert.If you want to be a true expert who has community authority, you must first raise your knowledge to expert level. This is honest work and will pay you back in the long run. When you are a true expert your community will seek you out and will be return customers.

   Experts always get chosen first.

2. Amplify Your Expertise on Social Media: Modern marketing takes place online, that’s the bottom line. Don’t be intimidated by the digital age, embrace it and capitalize on it. You can demonstrate your expertise to your target market directly through social media.There are many forms of social media, it is recommended to create great content and share that one piece of content among multiple social media platforms. For example, you can write a great blog post that you share on Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In. From that blog post you can make multiple social media memes to post, do a Facebook Live session, and record a couple of YouTube videos.

   It’s a huge win. You make one piece of content on one platform, and amplify your exposure as an expert across all platforms. Plus, with Facebook advertisements you can choose the demographic and the geographic location to demonstrate your expertise directly to your target market.

3. Engage in Community Outreach: You have the credentials, you are amplifying your expertise on social media, now is the time to reach out to your community. You want to do this by adding value, not come off as though you are “marketing” or trying to “sell” local corporations.A great community outreach strategy is the utilization of “Niche Packets.” Niche packets are industry specific packets that you create and distribute to local businesses. These are added value to build a relationship.

   A Niche Packet will have information about you, your expertise, and your practice. Plus, it will contain useful “gifts” specific to their industry. For example, if you are sending the niche packet to dentists you would include information of 4 Posture Exercises that dentists can do while at work to prevent forward head posture (because they are always looking down), a Theraband to perform the exercises, and posture reminders to remember to do the exercises. You can then include an ergonomic checklist specific for how dentists can efficiently set up their workspace.

   The last page of the Niche Packet will be an invitation for a free ergonomic assessment. You will have your team follow up with the dentist offices a few days after they receive the Niche Packet to arrange the ergonomic assessment. You then continue doing this among all industries, start with dentists, then hairdressers, then accountants etc.

   Niche Packets are a great added value strategy for community outreach. You will look like an expert when you approach outreach in this manner.

4. Host an Ergonomic Workshop for Your Current Patients: Organize a free workshop at your practice on ergonomics. For example, the theme could be “Design Your Workspace.” This is another way to add value to your potential new clients, while keeping your current patients and clients happy.Workshops are interactive and fun. It is a safe referral strategy for your current patients to bring their friends and family to the workshop. Now your current patients and their friends will learn about your ergonomic expertise.

   Prepare an interactive workshop for your guests to provide them with high value for free. Once they see, feel, and experience the value of ergonomics they will want to refer you to their company for an ergonomic assessment, purchase your ergonomic kits, and become patients in your practice if they aren’t already.

   Always end the workshop with a deal that your guests can’t pass up. They took the time to be there and be present for the workshop, reward them for taking action by giving them an incentive to become an ergonomic client.

   Plus, you should always film you workshops and take pictures. By speaking on the topic of ergonomics and sharing those photos on social media, you are positioning yourself as the Go-To Ergonomic Expert with a high level of credibility.

5. Turn Your Workshop into a Webinar: After you host the interactive workshop why not re-purpose the workshop content and share it on social media as a webinar!Nice! You take the same information that you provided for the live experience and expand your audience by doing a webinar over the same material. Although not everyone can join you for an Ergonomic Workshop, they are likely able to find the time to join you online for a 30-minute webinar. You can even make it a Virtual Lunch and Learn experience.

   They can tune in, meet you and hear you speak, learn more about your ergonomic programs, and walk away with valuable tips that they can implement into their workspaces right away.

   You can really amplify your exposure with webinars. Not to mention, the work is already done because you took the time to prepare and plan for the live workshop. Why not get twice the benefit and do a webinar too?

   Just like with the live workshop and your social media posts, the more you position yourself as the authority with speaking and valuable content, you become the Go-To Expert that is highly sought after for your expertise.

That’s all you have to do! In 5 steps you have positioned yourself as the Go-To Ergonomic Expert in your community.

The formula is simple: 1) Raise your knowledge to expert level 2) Position yourself as the expert through social media and community outreach 3) Grow your practice, get into local corporations and businesses, and increase your income.

When the WHY is strong enough, the HOW becomes formulaic. Implement these steps to position yourself as the Go-To Ergonomic Expert and enjoy success that was earned through hard work and intelligent, proven strategies for success.

Experts always get chosen first.

YES, I WANT MORE EXPERT TIPS!

References:
Garrett, G., Benden, M., Mehta, R., Pickens, A., Peres, S. C., & Zhao, H. (2016). Call center productivity over 6 months following a standing desk intervention. IIE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors, 4(2-3), 188-195.

Goggins, R. (2008) Cost Benefit measurement of Ergonomic Programs. Journal of Safety Research, 39: 339-344.

Shahraki S, Bakar N. THE ROLE OF ERGONOMICS IN WORKFORCE PRODUCTIVITY IN SERVICES COMPANIES. International Journal Of Academic Research [serial online]. September 2011;3(5):204-210. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed August 25, 2014.