If you’d lke to see a little more of my thinking on this, I’ve recently formalized some of my thoughts, related to this discussion, in an article on my web site, aimed at my clients (rather than at other contract writers like myself), entitled “Why Are You Paying for the Same Knowledge 2 or 3 Times?” Freelancers may be able to use that article to prepare their own arguments when faced with overemphasis on specialized knowledge and experience.

Might be of interest, you can find it at:

http://www.besttrainingpractices.com/tp/overpaying.htm

I’ve also written an article targeted at writers on selling skill, rather than knowledge — and that helps to prevent the whole hiring discussion from just becoming a bidding war on expert knowledge. You can find that at:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Freelance-Business-Writing—Are-You-Selling-Your-Skills-or-Your-Knowledge?&id=604301

Hope these are helpful!

Will

Well, like anything in our business, sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.

BUT, I find that making the appeal to money helps. That is, I’ve had better luck asking them why they are trying to buy the same expertise externally that they are already paying for internally, than I have convincing them that someone with skill, but limited knowledge of their domain, can be effective.

I actually promote my ignorance! I tell them they need someone who won’t just go along with their assumptions and ways of doing things, someone who will be more like their prospects (or employees, for training). I’ll ask those “why” questions they’ve been ignoring, because they only talk to people who share the same body of knowledge.

(I’ve actually written an article or two on this “you need an ignoramus” notion, in my e-zine, at ezinearticles.com, etc.)

Will

Great points.

Do you find that they work?

Mike

One of the points I make to the client is that they have already paid for in-house expertise of the highest quality. Paying for another expert on the content details, rather than for the skills this outside specialist brings, is wasteful. It is not only a duplication of knowledge, at perhaps a significant cost, it is, as mentioned, hard to find good writers who are also content experts, so it lengthens the search, which also costs time and money.

I try to help clients see that the greatest impact derives from a marriage of knowledge and skills. They already have the knowledge, we bring the skills. Clients are susceptible to going for two helpings of knowledge, and about half a helping of skill.

That’s partly because they are more comfortable talking about product/topic/service details with someone who knows the same details, than they are talking about writing, which they’re not good at. But often clients can be educated to see that they are talking to you in the first place because they recognized a gap in their abilities, and that retreating to the more comfortable “specifications” discussion will lead them to fall short of their original goals.

I think you are dead on. If they can’t write well, they should not write at all.

Also, do they have the extra time to write if they work in house?

Mike

I will add this additional point to the arguments: writing good white papers involves not only writing well about a product, concept or service. It is a mixture of writing skills involving journalism and marketing and copywriting done artfully by specialists.

While a person who has worked in health care EDI may be skilled in that industry, I doubt they have much experience or skills writing or selling. It’s why you don’t have automotive engineers selling the cars at the dealership.

Just my opinion, of course, and I could be wrong…

I like your point about having a good process.

This is a great way to add credibility.

Mike